16/01: Let's call this....
Category: A Rationale
Posted by: Admin
This area deals with my life long love of music, in particular jazz. My father had a phenomenal reach and depth to his knowledge of jazz and brought me up on the stuff too. What follows is part of the journey....
Category: Biographical
Posted by: Admin
Even people who know little of jazz or the Swing Era have probably heard trumpeter, singer, bandleader, and mythic figure Bunny Berigan (1908-42) in some context.
His Victor recording of I CAN'T GET STARTED is used in film soundtracks and elsewhere as a quick way of summoning up days gone by. Other touchstones are Berigan's solo on MARIE with Tommy Dorsey and on 1936 Billie Holiday sessions.
Those of us who know that music well have heard Berigan on his own, with Goodman, the Boswell Sisters, Mildred, in jam sessions and airshots. Like Bix Beiderbecke, he became a mythic figure quickly, and people regard him with a mixture of love, admiration, and pity.
His Victor recording of I CAN'T GET STARTED is used in film soundtracks and elsewhere as a quick way of summoning up days gone by. Other touchstones are Berigan's solo on MARIE with Tommy Dorsey and on 1936 Billie Holiday sessions.
Those of us who know that music well have heard Berigan on his own, with Goodman, the Boswell Sisters, Mildred, in jam sessions and airshots. Like Bix Beiderbecke, he became a mythic figure quickly, and people regard him with a mixture of love, admiration, and pity.
06/01: Life in the key of songs
This piece from the editor of on line newsletter "Harmony Central" while oriented to practicing musicians is of broader interest as well...
Music is all around us—whether we like it or not. Even when you take the buds out of your ears, you still hear music from the loudspeakers at the mall, in the elevators of office buildings, and at the gas tank when you fill up (usually underscoring a pitch to sell you something else). But as musicians, we can learn from "uninvited music," even when it's not to our taste, and we can always keep our critical ear perked for inspiration and ideas. Even being able to identify the musical components of the ordinairy, non-musical sounds we hear in everyday life can be revealing.
Music is all around us—whether we like it or not. Even when you take the buds out of your ears, you still hear music from the loudspeakers at the mall, in the elevators of office buildings, and at the gas tank when you fill up (usually underscoring a pitch to sell you something else). But as musicians, we can learn from "uninvited music," even when it's not to our taste, and we can always keep our critical ear perked for inspiration and ideas. Even being able to identify the musical components of the ordinairy, non-musical sounds we hear in everyday life can be revealing.
Category: Sonny Rollins
Posted by: Admin
Sonny Rollins: A jazz mind in pursuit of improvisational heaven
By Chris Richards, Friday, December 2, 7:41 AM
Sonny Rollins remembers the weather. Sunshine. He remembers the band, too. Erskine Hawkins and Dud Bascomb each on trumpet, Paul Bascomb and Julian Dash both blowing tenor sax. But the other details come back blurry, rosy or deleted.
"It's a fantasy land for me now," says Rollins. "It's in my dreams, in my mind."
It's 1942. Probably.
By Chris Richards, Friday, December 2, 7:41 AM
Sonny Rollins remembers the weather. Sunshine. He remembers the band, too. Erskine Hawkins and Dud Bascomb each on trumpet, Paul Bascomb and Julian Dash both blowing tenor sax. But the other details come back blurry, rosy or deleted.
"It's a fantasy land for me now," says Rollins. "It's in my dreams, in my mind."
It's 1942. Probably.
20/11: Robert Glasper
Category: Robert Glasper
Posted by: Admin
A great take on what seems to me a healthy interpretation of jazz in a modern context - much as it has always been but with today's musical colours. The biographical material can be found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Glasper and on his site www.robertglasper.com there is a useful little video interview. The music of course is excellent.
16/10: More of what Sonny is about
Category: Sonny Rollins
Posted by: Admin
Sonny Rollins remains a tenor giant
The Sonnymoon Still Isn't Over
by Ron Wynn (HT Duaneiac at the sonnyrollinstenorcolossus)
At 81, jazz legend Sonny Rollins has consistently earned lavish critical praise while winning countless accolades — including becoming the first jazz musician honored as an Edward MacDowell Medalist (2010), not to mention a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and the National Medal of Arts. Still, Rollins is fairly dismissive of his prodigious talent, despite forging one of the greatest musical legacies in history as a bandleader, composer and player dating back to the late '40s.
The Sonnymoon Still Isn't Over
by Ron Wynn (HT Duaneiac at the sonnyrollinstenorcolossus)
At 81, jazz legend Sonny Rollins has consistently earned lavish critical praise while winning countless accolades — including becoming the first jazz musician honored as an Edward MacDowell Medalist (2010), not to mention a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and the National Medal of Arts. Still, Rollins is fairly dismissive of his prodigious talent, despite forging one of the greatest musical legacies in history as a bandleader, composer and player dating back to the late '40s.
Category: Sonny Rollins
Posted by: Admin
By Scott Timberg, Special to the Los Angeles Times
About two weeks ago, he turned 81. That same day, he became just the fifth jazz musician in the last decade to win a Kennedy Center Honor. And this week, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins travels from his home in upstate New York to perform at UCLA's Royce Hall and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
Makes you wonder: Doesn't he ever just say, I'm Sonny Rollins — I don't need to do this anymore?
About two weeks ago, he turned 81. That same day, he became just the fifth jazz musician in the last decade to win a Kennedy Center Honor. And this week, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins travels from his home in upstate New York to perform at UCLA's Royce Hall and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
Makes you wonder: Doesn't he ever just say, I'm Sonny Rollins — I don't need to do this anymore?
11/07: Peter King on Bud Powell
Category: Bud Powell
Posted by: Admin
The following is an extract from Peter King's autobiography. It tells how he came to play with Bud Powell. The piece comes from the on-line music journal "Point of Departure" (www.pointofdeparture.org/), which is usually worth checking out.
Back in the late-1950s, when I was a young jazz enthusiast, Bud was the pianist who made the biggest impact on me. His reputation among modern jazz cognoscenti was massive and I listened to every recording I could get hold of. I also avidly read about him and was deeply moved by the stories of his tragic life. He seemed to my young mind to be the archetypal tortured genius. Such artists have always fascinated me, probably to my disadvantage at times. I marvelled at his medium and up-tempo playing, but what really grabbed me was his interpretation of ballads. They seemed to be filled with enormous depth and sadness and he extracted a unique timbre from the keyboard when he played them. It was not so much the chord progressions and inversions he used, but rather the strange haunting quality with which he invested them. This effect is to do with his very personal handling of dynamics and the subtle placing of the chords in time....
Thanks to John Goodchild
Back in the late-1950s, when I was a young jazz enthusiast, Bud was the pianist who made the biggest impact on me. His reputation among modern jazz cognoscenti was massive and I listened to every recording I could get hold of. I also avidly read about him and was deeply moved by the stories of his tragic life. He seemed to my young mind to be the archetypal tortured genius. Such artists have always fascinated me, probably to my disadvantage at times. I marvelled at his medium and up-tempo playing, but what really grabbed me was his interpretation of ballads. They seemed to be filled with enormous depth and sadness and he extracted a unique timbre from the keyboard when he played them. It was not so much the chord progressions and inversions he used, but rather the strange haunting quality with which he invested them. This effect is to do with his very personal handling of dynamics and the subtle placing of the chords in time....
Category: Miles Davis
Posted by: Admin
Everett Collection Miles Davis in the 1980s (Courtesy Tom King - see foot for source).
Miles Davis, who would’ve turned 85 today, was, without dispute, a giant of late 20th century music, fronting two of America’s great quintets and developing several streams of modern jazz.
He was also my first major assignment for The Wall Street Journal.
Miles Davis, who would’ve turned 85 today, was, without dispute, a giant of late 20th century music, fronting two of America’s great quintets and developing several streams of modern jazz.
He was also my first major assignment for The Wall Street Journal.
Reprinted from JAZZ TIMES, May 2011:
05/04/11 • By Mick Carlon (with thanks to Roger Strong who passed this along)
Ruby Braff: The Beauty in Music
It’s 1999 and I’m watching a PBS special on Mark Twain. The phone rings.
It’s Ruby Braff. “Are you watching the show about Twain?” he asks. “It’s superb. The man was one of our nation’s greatest geniuses.”
I agree. “Too bad Twain didn’t live to be one hundred,” I say.
“Why?” asks Ruby.
05/04/11 • By Mick Carlon (with thanks to Roger Strong who passed this along)
Ruby Braff: The Beauty in Music
It’s 1999 and I’m watching a PBS special on Mark Twain. The phone rings.
It’s Ruby Braff. “Are you watching the show about Twain?” he asks. “It’s superb. The man was one of our nation’s greatest geniuses.”
I agree. “Too bad Twain didn’t live to be one hundred,” I say.
“Why?” asks Ruby.
