Illness notwithstanding, I ventured out into the bitter cold of Saturday night for the second half of the Easthampton Jazz Festival’s nighttime lineup with the […]
Rex Stewart, Django, and Louis Armstrong
Parisian Encounters in 1939 and 1947
“Finesse” earned Stewart the French Grand Prix for the best composition of 1939, and Gunther Schuller considers it “the most remarkable in its effect…Four simple guitar chords…
Barbara Carroll, R.I.P.
Alas, the Worcester-born pianist Barbara Carroll has died at age 92. My Worcester-born mother told me about her the first time I mentioned jazz, for […]
Wardell Gray
As for fame, Wardell Gray, who composed “Twisted” and was depicted as an iconic jazzman in Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, was a brilliant, in-demand saxophonist, influenced by Lester Young and the new direction that jazz was taking in the mid-forties. He worked for a Who’s Who of bandleaders including Earl Hines, Benny Carter, Billy Eckstine, Benny Goodman, and Count Basie, and with such trailblazing colleagues as Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon.
Stan Getz Compendium
For His 90th, Previous Posts and YouTube Discoveries
Stan Getz died twenty-six years ago on June 6, 1991. Jazz à la Mode was a ninety-minute show back then, and I spent several nights […]
Jimmy Forrest
The
Count Basie introduces Jimmy Forrest as “my man” in this rare footage of the saxophonist from a 1974 concert filmed in Poland.