Posted in Shows on Oct 6th, 2008
Duke Pearson was a pianist, composer, and arranger who helped craft the sound of many of the Blue Note label’s classic mid-1960s releases. He had a gift for writing quickly and coming up with memorable melodies that could be bright, poignant, or Sidewinder-style funky; several of his compositions, such as “Jeannine” and “Cristo Redentor,” have become jazz standards…
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Posted in Shows on Sep 22nd, 2008
“Jackie and Lee: a Hardbop Dynamic Duo” features the mid-1960s Blue Note recordings of alto saxophonist Jackie McLean and trumpeter Lee Morgan. Both veterans of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, McLean and Morgan joined in the studio on several occasions to produce some of the most searing hardbop records Blue Note ever put out.
Posted in Shows on Sep 8th, 2008
The Connection was a groundbreaking 1959 off-Broadway play from New York City’s Living Theater group, written by Jack Gelber, that cast jazz musicians as heroin addicts waiting for a score. Artists that passed through the play included pianist Freddie Redd (who composed the original score), alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks, and pianist Cecil Taylor. The Connection was made into a 1961 movie directed by Shirley Clarke, who would go on to…
Posted in Shows on Aug 25th, 2008
Jazz pianist Horace Silver, a founding father of hardbop and soul jazz and one of the most renowned figures of the post-World War II jazz scene, turns 80 on September 2, 2008. Many of his compositions, such as “Opus de Funk,” “The Preacher,” “Nica’s Dream,” and “Peace” have become jazz standards heard frequently today.
Posted in Shows on Aug 18th, 2008
Wayne Shorter, one of the great tenor saxophonists and composers of the modern jazz era, turns 75 on August 25. An enigmatic and searching musician and personality, Shorter was once labeled by jazz critic Larry Kart as “one of the most dangerous players to ever pick up a horn–a man whose solos were described by various critics as ‘quietly maniacal’ and ‘clinically precise,’ full of ‘abrupt changes of mood’ and ‘wild satanic humor.’”
Posted in Shows on Aug 11th, 2008
Tenor saxophonist John Gilmore, who influenced John Coltrane and helped to pioneer the challenging techniques of 1960s avant-garde saxophone, spent most of his career with Sun Ra and his Arkestra, recording outside of Sun Ra’s band on only a handful of occasions.
Posted in Jazz Notes on Jul 26th, 2008
News came this Friday morning via several sources that tenor saxophonist and hardbop great Johnny Griffin has passed away from a heart attack at the age of 80. Ben Ratliff has an obituary online for the New York Times, and Doug Ramsey has posted a tribute that includes a link to a retrospective he wrote earlier this year over at Rifftides. Griffin, nicknamed “the Little Giant” because he was five feet five but produced a contrasting sound of immense strength and individualism, had a long and successful career that touches on several facets of modern jazz history…
Posted in Jazz Notes on Jun 28th, 2008
Jazz pianist Ronnie Mathews has passed away at the age of 72 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Matthews had been the subject of an all-star benefit and tribute just last week at Sweet Rhythm in New York City. If you’ve spent any time listening to 1960s, 70s and 80s hardbop, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard Ronnie Matthews on the keyboards at some point–Dexter Gordon’s live 1976 opus Homecoming, for example, or…
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