Posted in Jazz Notes on Jul 8th, 2008
A few items of interest from around the online jazz world over the long holiday weekend:
*More on the Rene Marie national anthem controversy:
NPR story (includes an interview with Marie)
Marie’s website statement.
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Posted in Shows on Jun 9th, 2008
The Birth of the Cool was a milestone in modern jazz—a handful of arrangements, compositions, recording sessions, and performances that, as historian Ted Gioia notes, “turned the jazz idiom on its head.” It extended the idea of what a jazz combo could sound like, and it provided an aesthetic head of steam for several of its creators. Recorded at the end of the 1940s by a group led by Miles Davis, these sides were obscure at first…
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Posted in Shows on Apr 28th, 2007
In the mid-to-late 1940s, as the sound of swing gave way to the rise of bebop, popular bandleaders found themselves trying to incorporate the new music’s more complex rhythms and harmonies into their dance-orchestra styles. Bebop was just one of several challenges the big bands faced after the end of World War II, but it inspired…
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Posted in Shows on Dec 18th, 2004
The first-ever Night Lights Christmas program features music from Booker Ervin (”White Christmas” from his 1966 album Solid Structure), Ahmad Jamal (”Snowfall,” written by Terre Haute, Indiana native Claude Thornhill), Sonny Rollins (”Winter Wonderland”), Babs Gonzalez (”Bebop Santa Claus”), Bill Evans (a rare and amusing vocal take…
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