Posted in Jazz Notes on Jun 5th, 2008
On the heels of this past weekend’s Great Day in Indy photo homage to Indiana jazz musicians, here’s an article I wrote several years ago about some of the Hoosier state’s lesser-known but interesting artists:
If you walk the streets of Indianapolis today, you’re bound to find scattered glimpses of the city’s past preserved amid the present. The architectural majesty of…
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Posted in Jazz Notes on May 14th, 2008
Inspired by Art Kane’s legendary 1958 Great Day in Harlem photo of jazz musicians, jazz photographer Mark Sheldon is planning an Indianapolis version, A Great Day in Indy, that will offer visual homage to the city’s jazz legacy. Details follow in the press release that Mark’s sent out…
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Oct 6th, 2007
Following up on recent posts about the rise and fall of the Indiana Avenue jazz scene in Indianapolis, I’ve started a new category on the links page for websites devoted to significant jazz cities or regions and their histories…
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Oct 2nd, 2007
(This is a continuation of a previous post, Along the Avenue: the Legacy of Indianapolis Jazz.)
To understand the enormity of what transpired, one would have to have been there, somewhere in the beginning, during that time when hope boogalooed, time-stepped and literally “ran wild” down the Avenue and throughout the flurry of neighborhoods that comprised the city’s black community.–Mari Evans, “Ethos and Creativity”
Indianapolis in those days was sharing in the euphoric glow of the post-World War II economy. Lockefield Gardens, the expansive and beautiful housing complex built during the Depression to provide…
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Sep 18th, 2007
Organist Melvin Rhyne, who first made his reputation playing with Wes Montgomery during the halcyon days of Indianapolis’ Indiana Avenue, performed in Bloomington this past Sunday at Tutto Bene as part of a benefit for local collective Jazz From Bloomington. His tenor saxophonist was a longtime favorite of mine, David Young, who played in the legendary George Russell-David Baker sextet. Indiana Avenue archivist David Williams also brought along a wealth of memorabilia, celebrating the era when Rhyne, Montgomery, Freddie Hubbard, Larry Ridley, and many other future jazz stars could be seen and heard jamming regularly along Indianapolis’ main stem…
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Posted in Shows on Aug 12th, 2006
In the summer of 1959 a 27-year-old David Baker and several bandmates from Indianapolis attended the Lenox School of Music…
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