JAZZ
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Randy Weston (born April 6, 1926 in Brooklyn , New York ), is an American jazz pianist and composer , of Jamaican parentage. [ 1 ] Randy Weston's piano style owes much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk (he has paid direct tribute to both on the "portraits" albums), but it is highly distinctive in its qualities: percussive, highly rhythmic, capable of producing a wide variety of moods. [ 2 ] [ edit ] Biography [ edit ] Early life Weston was raised in Brooklyn, where his father owned a restaurant.
Randy Weston
~ JORGE SYLVESTER ACE COLLECTIVE New Double CD Set ~ SPIRIT DRIVEN ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~ NOW AVAILABLE!! O N foUR ~ friends of UNSEEN RAIN Records ~~~~~~~~~~ Contact : Booking.acemusic@gmail.com "The silent stars, prevailing winds, and powerful surface currents that have together pointed the way to the Caribbean for untold generations have set in to motion a uniquely layered and nuanced human adventure, admixing myriad populations, languages, and cultures. From this crossroads and crucible of identity and diversity that so profoundly invalidates crude notions of nationalistic "Exceptionalism", emerges the core inspiration for this music and the evolving DNA of its connectedness".
NEW DOUBLE CD SET ~ SPIRIT DRIVEN ~ NOW AVAILABLE!!
To escape the cold that makes me feel old this week I took another trip up to Trumpet Mountain.I walked into the main hall and heard Clifford Brown practicing in a room inside.I stood outside his door and listened.The stuff he was playing was way,way past running down chord changes. "Brownie's been hanging out with Don Cherry and Don Ayler" I was shocked to hear these words come from none other than Gil Evans standing in front of me.Gil said he was on Trumpet mountain to talk to Miles about a new symphonic work but that nobody had seen him. "I'm glad I ran into you Matt Lavelle.I have some thoughts about you and that lady Alto Clarinet.You have been friends now a long time,isn't that your third Alto?
The Coda
Looking Back II: Jeanne Lee and Gunter Hampel
Gunter Hampel New York Orchestra New York, NY This is the second in a series of posts that will look back at a number of important periods/events in my development as an artist.The post-War decades were golden times for the torch-y, late-night jazz vocal. Swing-style jazz retained some of its earlier mainstream popularity but, by the late ’40s and ’50s, big bands were shrinking, their relevancy plateauing. Out of practical necessity, and certainly in terms of its cultural currency, smaller-group jazz, especially bop, was ascendant. The modern, jazz-inflected vocal ballad would achieve some sort of apotheosis in this time.
The frayed edges | Office Naps
Stride Magazine. <!--- add article and author details --->
Subtitled, 'Essays On Modern Jazz', you may expect these pieces to be 'academic '. However, they are anything but. And that's refreshing.
Recently, I was listening to a reissue of Sounds of Liberation's self-titled 1972 LP, due out on Feb. 16; I have an advance copy for purposes of review (set for print in Signal to Noise , #57). Porter Records has unearthed what was long the province of only the most dedicated collectors. The septet included Dwight James (drums), Khan Jamal (vibraphone), Byard Lancaster (alto sax), Rashid Salim (conga), Monnette Sudler (electric guitar), Omar Hill (percussion), and Billy Mills (electric bass). It occurred to me while writing that not only was I unfamiliar with all of these musicians, but I was completely ignorant of the fact that Philadelphia had its own fertile jazz scene in the 1970s. What appealed to me in Sounds of Liberation was the combination of funk and Ayler-like mysticism, so I took the time to find out if its contributors had any other recording history; to my surprise, many of them were quite accomplished players who had led numerous sessions from the seventies on.
Free jazz funk from Philly: Sounds of Liberation and Byard Lancaster
These photos are of Bud Powell’s funeral procession on August 8, 1966. I’ve added a few more photos since I first put these on the site. These come from an unknown photographer’s collection – see my other pages of photos from the Apollo Theater and of Moondog, Jimmy Nottingham and street musicians in Harlem, Greenwich Village and Central Park. Dan Morgenstern reported on the funeral for Down Beat’s September 22, 1966 issue: In the lead was Harlem’s own Jazzmobile, appropriately draped for the occasion, and carrying a jazz band … the members were Benny Green, trombone; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone; Barry Harris, piano; Don Moore, bass; Billy Higgins, drums, and at the last moment, Lee Morgan, trumpet. First came “Now’s the Time” and then, perhaps more appropriately, “‘Round Midnight”, followed by two Powell tunes, “Bud’s Bubble” and “Dance of the Infidels”.
Found photos - Bud Powell's funeral procession | garage hangover
Ric Colbeck: 'a player of exceptional power and complexity'
Next to nothing is known of this enigmatic trumpeter. He was from Liverpool and became known on the London jazz scene in the early 60s, but spent most of the decade in New York. There he recorded a pair of albums with Noah Howard and hung out with John Coltrane, Sonny Sharrock, Jaki Byard and many others at the cutting edge of jazz. At the end of 1969 he returned to the UK and formed a short-lived quartet with Mike Osborne (alto sax), Frenchman J.F. 'Jenny' Clark (bass) and South African Selwyn Lissack (drums).
JAZZ CLUBS
Paul Motian trio- live in Bremen 13/9 /1977
Some one emailed me months ago asking if i had any unofficial material by Motian's trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano.. i don't. Paul Motian ,one of the great modern jazz drummers was perhaps as instrumental in emancipating the drums from the rigid role Of mere time keeping, and developing the concept of free time as Sunny Murray and Andrew Cyrille.. you hear freedoms on The Bill Evans village vanguard records from 1961 that were unparallelled in their day,a fact that's due more to the fluid and spontaneous role of the rhythm section than to anything Evan's plays. This concert feature my favourite Motian group of all time..they only made one album 'Dance' for ECM, one of the enduring classics of the late 70's. There's so little Charles Brackeen on record.. that one wonders how some one with such prodigious gifts has been so neglected by the 'industry',Brackeen is prominently featured on both tenor and soprano saxes.
The floating world: Goodbye, Paul Motian
Paul Motian passed away yesterday at the age of 80. I wrote a brief remembrance for the TONY blog. In looking back over my writings on Motian—and there were quite a few, especially from the last year or so, during which time I'd grown particularly obsessed with his work, and, fortunately, had the chance to see him live a few times—it occurred to me that verbalizing my feelings about his playing presented a particularly constructive challenge.Travellin' Light
Travellin’ Light Steve Swell Answers 20 Questions About Life on the Road Steve Swell Courtesy of Steve Swell A mainstay of the NYC jazz scene since the late 1970s, trombonist Steve Swell has performed with everyone from Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich to Anthony Braxton and Bill Dixon. Swell is a well-documented artist, having led over two dozen recordings and performing on approximately 100 others. Swell’s ongoing concerns include Planet Dream, River of Sound Ensemble and Slammin’ the Infinite; his co-op quartet with Gebhard Ullmann will tour the US in April.The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University
The Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program at Columbia University The Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program in the Music Department at Columbia University, supported in part by a grant from the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, offers jazz performance instruction and experience to both undergraduate and graduate students. This strong and growing program now comprises fifteen student performance ensembles, eleven music associates who provide private lessons, and a visiting Master Artist program.Jazz performance lessons, courses in jazz improvisation and composition, and ensemble courses are offered through this program, in conjunction with Columbia...Jason Moran and the Black Stars session with Sam Rivers | The Jazzcat
LeRoy Downs is a person deeply entrenched in the music and driven by passion! Currently he is a jazz broadcaster in Los Angeles on KJazz 88.1 FM. He has also broadcasted on KPFK 90.7 FM, KXLU 88.9 FM, 1410 AM KRML in Carmel and KRML 94.7 FM in the Monterey area. He has been the host of the Monterey Jazz Festival for over a decade as well as The Jazz Cruise, The Playboy Jazz Cruise, KPFK’s Hero Awards Tribute to Billy Higgins, The Angel City Jazz Festival, Terranea Resorts Jazz Through the Generations, The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz West Coast competitions, Curator for Jazz for the Holidays series with Arts Brooksfield, Jazz Curator of the Steven James Buchanan Jazz Collection at the Mayme Clayton Jazz Library and Museum, producer of the made for television pilot “Hangin’ with the Jazzcats” and owner and journalist for the website TheJazzcat.net. This entry was posted in Main Page ."Edgar Varèse and the Jazzmen" (MP3s
Today's post is something I stumbled upon in the dark and dusty corners of the Internet, a tape recording of composer Edgar Varèse conducting a workshop of Jazz musicians in the year 1957. Here is the original announcement of the MP3 release of these tapes. Edgard Varèse conducts a workshop with jazzmen Art Farmer (trumpet), Hal McKusik (clarinet, alto sax), Teo Macero (tenor sax), Eddie Bert (trombone), Frank Rehak (trombone), Don Butterfield (tuba), Hall Overton (piano), Charlie Mingus (bass), Ed Shaughnessy (drums), probably John La Porta (alto sax)...jazz