Jazz pianist Bud Powell died on July 31, 1966, in New York City of tuberculosis, malnutrition, and alcoholism. He was just 41 years old.
Powell was one of the great bebop musicians and is often known as "the Charlie Parker of the piano." The great jazz pianist Bill Evans said of Powell, "If I had to choose one single musician for his artistic integrity, for the incomparable originality of his creation and the grandeur of his work, it would be Bud Powell. He was in a class by himself."
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume 1, which is available on CD from Amazon.com.
The Bud Powell Trio plays "There Will Never Be Another You" here:
Don Redman, the first great arranger in jazz history, was born on July 29, 1900, in Piedmont, West Virginia.
Redman joined joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in 1923, playing clarinet and saxophone, but he soon began writing arrangements and did much to formulate the sound that was to become big band swing.
Redman formed his own band in 1931, which he led until 1940.
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra's album Developing an American Orchestra 1923-1927 (Smithsonian Collection). Unfortunately, that album is only available in vinyl. Jim Determan, who has updated the Lyons list, recommends as an alternative A Study in Frustration: The Fletcher Henderson Story (Columbia), which is available from Amazon.com.
The Fletcher Henderson Orchestra plays one of Redman's arrangements, "Rocky Mountain Blues," here:
Jazz guitarist Charlie Christian was born on July 29, 1916, in Bonham, Texas.
Christian was a key figure in the history of the electric guitar, and his technique helped establish the guitar as a legitimate solo instrument. He gained national exposure as a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra from August 1939 to June 1941 and was a major influence in the development of bebop and cool jazz. As Jazz critic Scott Yanow put it, "It can be said without exaggeration that virtually every jazz guitarist that emerged during 1940-65 sounded like a relative of Charlie Christian."
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends Christian's album, Solo Flight (Columbia CG 30779), but this has not been issued on CD or MP3. Instead, Jim Determan recommends the three alternatives listed below. As he notes, the box set "is the definitive reissue [but for] those wanting a single Charlie Christian CD, the first Columbia single CD makes a good choice." The third CD, according to Determan, "has good sextet material, but Christian's role is less prominent."
Charlie Christian: Genius of the Electric Guitar, Box Set (Sony) (Available at Amazon.com.)
Charlie Christian: Genius of the Electric Guitar (Columbia/Sony) (Available at Amazon.com.)
Charlie Christian: The Benny Goodman Sextet Featuring Charlie Christian (Columbia/Sony) (Available at Amazon.com.)
Christian plays "Airmail Special" with the Benny Goodman Sextet here:
John Coltrane: According to JazzTimes, Concord Music Group will reissue a remastered and expanded edition of John Coltrane's album, Afro Blue Impressions, in August. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Miles Davis: All About Jazz shares an artist's rendering of the Miles Davis statue being unveiled in Alton, Illinois.
Sun Ra: Northern Spy shares a clip of Sun Ra and the Intergalactic Arkestra performing in 1990.
Sun Ra: At Northern Spy, Mr. Beatnick disusses Sun Ra's essential albums, starting with The Singles. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Sarah Vaughan: According to JazzTimes, Concord Music Group will reissue the two-CD Sarah Vaughan set, Sophisticated Lady: The Duke Ellington Songbook Collection, in August. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Jazz pianist and composer George Russell died from complications from Alzheimer's disease in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 27, 2009. He was 86 years old.
Russell was a MacArthur Foundation Award winner, a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, and a Distinguished Artist-in-Residence Emeritus at the New England Conservatory, where he taught for 35 years. Russell is best known as a jazz theorist, and his musical ideas, published in his book The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, led to the modal music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
Hankus Netsky, Chair of the New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation Department, said that "In George's mind, the Lydian Chromatic Concept was not so much a theoretical system as it was an approach to life. ‘It comes from Pythagoras,’ he liked to say. ‘It's a reflection of nature.’ It wasn't in any way a ‘jazz’ thing, but a way to appreciate the laws of tension and release, a way of understanding Bach, Ravel, and Stravinsky - and seeing Coltrane, Monk, and Miles Davis as musicians who were part of the same continuum."
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends Russell's album, Outer Thoughts (Milestone), which he calls "a uniformly excellent performance." The album is not available on CD, but Jim Determan recommends the following alternatives:
George Russell: Ezz-thetics (Riverside). Available from Amazon.com.
George Russell: The Outer View (Riverside). Available from Amazon.com.
George Russell: The Stratus Seekers (Riverside). Available from Amazon.com.
The George Russell Sextet plays "Round Midnight" (from the 1961 album Ezz-thetics) here:
Jazz singer Annie Ross was born on July 25, 1930, in London, England. Jazz critic John Bush referred to her as a "canary female" with "dexterous vocals."
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends the Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross album, The Best of Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross (Columbia C-32911 or JCS-8198). Unfortunately, the album is only available in vinyl from Amazon.com. Jim Determan, who has updated Lyons's list of albums for CD, recommends instead the following title:
Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross: Everybody's Boppin' (Columbia Jazz Masterpieces) (Buy at Amazon.com)
George Benson: According to Elements of Jazz, George Benson's album, Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole, is the top jazz album of the week of 22 July 2013. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Thelonious Monk: C. Michael Bailey reviews the album, Mulligan Meets Monk, by Gerry Mulligan and Thelonious Monk at All About Jazz. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Wes Montgomery: Marc Myers discusses the Wes Montgomery album, So Much Guitar!, at JazzWax. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie: Open Culture shares photos of Louis Armstrong playing trumpet at the Great Sphinx and Dizzy Gillespie charming a snake in Pakistan, all part of various goodwill tours.
Flecther Henderson, Don Redman: Jazznotes Blog discusses the big band of Fletcher Henderson and Don Redman's introduction of call and response between the reed and brass sections.
Billie Holiday: On the anniversary of Billie Holiday’s death, Darryl Pinckney remembers Elizabeth Hardwick’s portrait of the singer, which first appeared in the March 4, 1976 issue of The New York Review and later as a chapter in her book of autobiographical fiction, Sleepless Nights.
George Benson: George Benson's album, Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole, was the top jazz album for the week of 15 July 2013, according to Elements of Jazz. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Jazz saxophonist John Coltrane died from liver cancer on July 17, 1967, in Huntington, New York. He was just 40 years old. His funeral was held at St. Peters Lutheran Church in New York City, and he was buried at Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale, N.Y.
Len Lyons says that Coltrane "challenged himself artistically to a greater extent than any saxophonist in jazz's history," and critic William Ruhlmann calls him "among the most important, and most controversial, figures in jazz." Coltrane played bebop and hard bop early in his career, then helped pioneer modal jazz and later free jazz.
Coltrane plays "Giant Steps" (with animated sheet music) here, a good example of what critic Ira Gitler referred to as the "sheets of sound" that Coltrane produced.
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends four albums by Coltrane, all of which are available in CD:
Jazz singer Billie Holiday died from pulmonary edema and heart failure caused by cirrhosis of the liver on July 17, 1959, in New York City. Her funeral mass was held at Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City, and she was buried in Saint Raymonds Cemetery in the Bronx.
According to critic John Bush, Holiday was the "first popular jazz singer to move audiences with the intense, personal feeling of classic blues, [and she] changed the art of American pop vocals forever." Len Lyons said that Holiday "could transform the most banal pop ballad into a painfully intense, subtle work of art." In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Lyons recommends the album, The Billie Holiday Story, Vol. 2 (Columbia). Unfortunately, this album is not available in CD or MP3 format.
Instead, Jim Determan recommends several alternatives, including the 10-CD set and the 2-CD set listed below:
Billie Holiday: Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia, 1933-1944 (Sony, 10 CDs)
Billie Holiday: Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday (Sony, 2 CDs)
John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner: Ben Gray discusses John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" and several covers of that song, including one by McCoy Tyner, at Nextbop. (The song is available on the album, Giant Steps, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
Miles Davis: At McSweeney's, David Hart writes an open letter to Miles Davis's album, Butches Brew. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Charles Mingus: Bassist and composer Doan Brian Roessler selects five underappreciated Charles Mingus tunes at Destination Out.
Keith Jarrett: At JazzTimes, Thomas Conrad reviews the Keith Jarrett Trio's July 2013 concert in Perugia, Italy.
Louis Armstrong, "The Star-Spangled Banner." (The song is available on the album, Happy Birthday Louis: Live at Newport Festival, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
Billie Holiday, "Yankee Doodle Never Went to Town." (The song is available on the album, Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia (1933-1944), which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
The Oscar Peterson Trio, "John Brown's Body." (The song is available on the album, Very Tall, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
George Benson: At NPR's Listen Now, Walter Ray Watson discusses George Benson's album, "Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole." (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Dizzy Gillespie: At JazzTimes, Paquito D’Rivera reminisces about the friendship between Dizzy Gillespie and pianist Bebo Valdés.
Joe Zawinul: On his birthday, July 7, Joe Zawinul was the Jazz Musician of the Day at All About Jazz.
Jelly Roll Morton, the first major arranger of jazz, died of heart failure and asthma on July 10, 1941, in Los Angeles, California. He is buried in the Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Morton claimed that he invented jazz, and while that claim is a stretch, he was certainly an important transitional figure between the stiff approach of ragtime and the flexibility and freedom of jazz. Critic Scott Janow points out that "Morton's accomplishments as an early innovator are so vast that he did not really need to stretch the truth."
Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers play "Blackbottom Stomp" here:
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends two albums by Jelly Roll Morton: Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers, 1926-1927, Volume 3 (RCA France 731 059); and Jelly Roll Morton, 1923-1924 (Milestone M-47018, 2 LPs). These are available in vinyl only. There is a CD version of the latter album, but it omits the cuts from side 4 of the vinyl LP.
Jim Determan, who has updated Lyons's list of albums for CD, recommends instead the following titles:
Jelly Roll Morton: The Jelly Roll Morton Centennial (Purchase at Amazon.com.)
Jelly Roll Morton: 1926-1930 (Purchase at Amazon.com.)
Jelly Roll Morton: Birth of the Hot (Purchase at Amazon.com.)
Jelly Roll Morton: Rare Recordings of Piano Solos, 1923-1926 (Purchase at Amazon.com.)
Jazz keyboardist and composer Joe Zawinul was born on July 7, 1932, in Vienna, Austria. As critic Richard S. Ginell notes, Zawinul's "curiosity and openness to all kinds of sounds made him one of the driving forces behind the electronic jazz-rock revolution of the late '60s and '70s — and later, he would be almost alone in exploring fusions between jazz-rock and ethnic music from all over the globe."
Zawinul first played with Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis before co-founding the groups Weather Report and the world fusion group Zawinul Syndicate. He was also a pioneer in the use of the electric piano and synthesizers in jazz and was named "Best Electric Keyboardist" 28 times by the readers of Down Beat magazine.
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends the Weather Report album, 8:30 (Columbia), which is available from Amazon.com.
Weather Report plays "In a Silent Way," one of the more lyrical pieces from the 8:30 album, here:
The great jazz trumpeter and singer, Louis Armstrong, died in his sleep of a heart attack on July 6, 1971, in Queens, New York. He was 69 years old.
Armstrong's funeral attracted 25,000 individuals, including honorary pallbearers Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Pearl Bailey, Count Basie, Harry James, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan, Earl Wilson, Alan King, Johnny Carson, and David Frost. Armstrong is buried in the Flushing Cemetery, Flushing, New York.
As critic William Ruhlman has said, "Louis Armstrong was the first important soloist to emerge in jazz, and he became the most influential musician in the music's history." Armstrong shifted the focus of jazz from the collective music of the traditional New Orleans ensemble to a music that valued solo performance and virtuosity.
A good example of Armstrong's improvisational genius is "Weather Bird," in which he and pianist Earl Hines turn a traditional ragtime piece into a brilliant interchange of call and response and broken rhythms.
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends two records of Louis Armstrong:
Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines: The Genius of Louis Armstrong, Vol. 1 1923-1933 (Columbia CG 30416, 2 LPs)
Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines: Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines, 1928 (Smithsonian Collection R-002, 2 LPs)
Unfortunately, these are only available in vinyl. Jim Determan, who has updated Lyons's list of albums for CD, recommends instead the following Columbia titles:
Louis Armstrong: The Complete Hot Fives and Hot Sevens (Buy at Amazon.com)
Anthony Braxton, Keith Jarrett: According to Jeff Tamarkin at JazzTimes, Anthony Braxton and Keith Jarrett have been named among the four 2014 Jazz Masters by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Ella Fitzgerald: According to JazzTimes, Universal Music Enterprises will release a number of previously unreleased Ella Fitzgerald recordings that were made between 1965 and 1977 by the BBC.
Dizzy Gillespie: At Rifftides, Doug Ramsey discusses bassist Red Mitchell's 1970 collaboration with Dizzy Gillespie’s quintet for a European tour.
Oscar Peterson: At JazzWax, Marc Myers shares a 2004 documentary of Oscar Peterson, entitled "Music in the Key of Oscar.""
