Posted in Shows on May 26th, 2008
John Coltrane and pianist Red Garland, who both worked in Eddie Cleanhead Vinson’s late-1940s group, began playing together again in 1955 as part of Miles Davis’ quintet. Davis sought Garland out for his relaxed, block-chord style and his ability to impart an Ahmad Jamal-like sound; Coltrane, nearly 30 years old, was at a troubled juncture in his personal and professional life, still dogged by a drug addiction that would force Davis…
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Posted in Shows on May 12th, 2008
Spirituals were African-American religious folksongs that grew out of the slavery experience and the introduction of Christianity into slaves’ lives. Rooted in African musical tradition as well, they reflected life in a strange and terribly oppressive new world. They were often improvisations upon older hymns that became entirely new songs, and in some ways they foreshadow…
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Posted in Shows on Apr 21st, 2008
Trumpeter Cal Massey was an African-American jazz composer, little-known now and in his lifetime, but whose work was recorded by musicians such as John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Charlie Parker, Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, McCoy Tyner, and Archie Shepp. In the 1960s Massey made his Brooklyn home into a kind of community center for jazz artists and produced…
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Mar 23rd, 2008
The Saint John Coltrane Church in San Francisco has always been a source of curiosity for Trane fans and jazz lovers who’ve heard of it, not to mention less-jazz-and-Trane-inclined skeptics sure to offer a cynical “what’s that all about” smile. (Crazy jazzheads! A friend who lived in San Francisco for a few years told me that he once attended the Sunday-afternoon service and noted many congregants experiencing…
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Jan 31st, 2008
In Part 2 of our interview with alto saxophonist John Handy, he discusses a unique aspect of his sound, the origins of Charles Mingus’ Lester Young tribute “Goodbye Porkpie Hat,” the night Mingus made a scene listening to him play, the Mingus gig that resulted in the live album Jazz Portraits, and the frustrations he faced…
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Sep 17th, 2007
Ignore the terrrible headline (boy, that’s dignity for ya, after playing certain parts of your southern anatomy off for the past 60 years): Sonny Rollins is back in trio form tomorrow night at Carnegie Hall. The performance will be coupled on CD with Rollins’ debut at Carnegie 50 years ago for a Voice of America concert. In the meantime, a previously…
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Posted in Shows on Sep 17th, 2007
In the liner notes to his 1964 masterpiece A Love Supreme, John Coltrane wrote, “During the year of 1957 I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life.” 1957 has become Year Zero in the Coltrane legend, a key turning point for the tenor saxophonist, then 30 and still in the throes of a debilitating drug addiction that had led Miles Davis to twice boot Coltrane out of his group. Throughout the course of this year Coltrane would…
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Posted in Jazz Notes on Aug 6th, 2007
Reports have been circulating on the Internet for the past several days that bassist Art Davis had passed away–confirmation now from the Los Angeles Times. Some good discussion ongoing over at Organissimo about Davis’ work with Max Roach, John Coltrane…
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