Anthony Braxton, Max Roach: New Jazz United shares a clip of Anthony Braxton and Max Roach playing "Birth." (The song is available on the album, Birth and Rebirth, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
Duke Ellington: Mick Carlon reviews the book, The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington, at JazzTimes. (Purchase the book from Amazon.com.)
Jelly Roll Morton: According to JazzTimes, ASCAP will induct Jelly Roll Morton into the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame in June.
Art Tatum: New Jazz United shares a clip of Art Tatum playing "A Foggy Day" with the Buddy de Franco Quartet. (The song is available on the album, Art Tatum — Buddy de Franco Quartet, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
Bill Evans: At The Wall Street Journal, author Megan Marshall discusses Bill Evans's recording of "Some Other Time." (The song is available on the album,
The Tony Bennett / Bill Evans Album, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
Art Tatum: New Jazz United shares a clip of Art Tatum and Roy Eldridge playing "Night and Day." (The song is available on the album, Art Tatum-Roy Eldridge Quartet, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
Ella Fitzgerald, The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Song Books. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Billie Holiday, Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia - 1933-1944. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Carmen McRae, Eight Classic Albums. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Thelonious Monk: New Jazz United shares a video of Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan playing "Straight No Chaser." (The song is available on the album, Mulligan Meets Monk, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
Eubie Blake: On his birthday, February 7, Eubie Blake was the Jazz Musician of the Day at All About Jazz.
Chick Corea: As reported in JazzTimes, the Grammy Awards for jazz were announced on February 8. Winners included Chick Corea for Best Improvised Jazz Solo, "Fingerprints," and Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Trilogy. (The song is available on the album, Trilogy, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
Chick Corea: Curt's Jazz Cafe previews the 2015 Grammy nominees for Best Improvised Jazz Solo, including Chick Corea's "Fingerprints." Curt's Jazz Cafe also previews the 2015 Grammy nominees for Best Instrumental Jazz Album, including Chick Corea's Trilogy.
Bill Evans: At JazzWax, Marc Myers shares a 1976 radio interview with Bill Evans.
Duke Ellington: At Air & Space, Richard Jurek writes about Duke Ellington’s 10-minute vocal ode to the first moon landing and provides a video of Ellington's performance.
Bill Evans: Marc Myers shares the first draft of Bill Evans's liner notes for the Miles Davis album, Kind of Blue, at JazzWax.
Billie Holiday: According to All About Jazz, Legacy Recordings will celebrate Billie Holiday's 100th birthday by releasing The Centennial Collection, 20 Essential Lady Day Recordings, on March 31, 2015. JazzTimes shares the track list from the album.
Carmen McRae: At JazzWax, Marc Myers discusses Carmen McRae's 1957 album, Carmen for Cool Ones. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Wayne Shorter: At Nextbop, Sebastien Helary provides a full concert video of Wayne Shorter's performance at the 2014 Stockholm Jazz Festival. (Note that the video expires on February 18, 2015.)
Anthony Braxton: New Jazz United shares a video of Anthony Braxton's 1970 piece, "To Pianist Cecil Taylor." (The song is available on the album, For Alto, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
John Coltrane: At Blu Notes, Larry Blumenfeld lists his 10 favorite jazz albums of the year. Among them is John Coltrane's Offering: Live at Temple University. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Miles Davis: New Jazz United shares a video of Miles Davis's "Seven Steps to Heaven." (The song is available on the album, Seven Steps to Heaven, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
Keith Jarrett: At All About Jazz, John Kelman reviews the album, Hamburg '72, by Keith Jarrett, Charlie Haden, and Paul Motian. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
John McLaughlin: At All About Jazz, Ian Patterson reviews the November 2014 concert by John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension at London's Royal Festival Hall.
Sun Ra: New Jazz United shares a video of Sun Ra's version of "My Favorite Things" from 1978. (The song is available on the album, New Steps, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
Art Tatum: New Jazz United shares a video of Art Tatum's "The Man I Love." (The song is available on the album, Piano Starts Here, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
Cecil Taylor: New Jazz United shares a video of Ceil Taylor's "Just Friends" from 1958. (The song is available on the album, Hard Driving Jazz, which can be purchased from Amazon.com.)
Jazz pianist Art Tatum died on November 5, 1956, at Queen of Angels Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, from complications resulting from kidney failure. He was just 47 years old. Tatum is interred in the Great Mausoleum of Glendale's Forest Lawn Cemetery, next to his wife Geraldine.
Tatum was nearly blind and yet was probably the greatest piano virtuoso that jazz has ever seen. Charlie Parker himself once said, "I wish I could play like Tatum’s right hand!" Pianist Teddy Wilson once observed, "If you put a piano in a room [and then] get all the finest jazz pianists in the world and let them play in the presence of Art Tatum. Then let Art Tatum play ... everyone there will sound like an amateur."
Jazz critic Leonard Feather called Tatum "the greatest soloist in jazz history, regardless of instrument."
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends Tatum's album, Art Tatum: The Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 3 (Pablo). (Purchase at Amazon.com.)
Jazz pianist Art Tatum was born on October 13, 1909, in Toledo, Ohio. Tatum was nearly blind and yet was probably the greatest piano virtuoso that jazz has ever seen. In fact, jazz critic Leonard Feather called Tatum "the greatest soloist in jazz history, regardless of instrument."
Stories about Tatum's talents abound. Perhaps the best known is the night that Tatum walked into a club where Fats Waller was playing. Waller — who never underestimated his own talents — stepped away from the piano bench to make way for Tatum and said, "I only play the piano, but tonight God is in the house."
Tatum's dazzling virtuosic runs can be heard on "Tiger Rag" here:
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends Tatum's album, Art Tatum: The Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 3 (Pablo). (Purchase at Amazon.com.)
John Coltrane: In the Groove looks at the September 23 birthday shared by John Coltrane and Ray Charles.
Chick Corea: USA Today has an article about Chick Corea's use of electronic gadgets while on the road.
Coleman Hawkins, Willie Smith: At JazzWax, Marc Myers shares an amazing video of Coleman Hawkins and Willie "The Lion" Smith from a 1958 television show.
Bud Powell: On September 27, his birthday, Bud Powell was the Jazz Musician Of The Day at All About Jazz.
John Coltrane: At The Daily Beast, Ted Gioia speculates on what John Coltrane might have achieved had he not died at age 40.
Duke Ellington: According to BillboardBiz, New York's highest court will hear arguments by Duke Ellington's heirs, who are attempting to reinstate their lawsuit against publisher EMI and are seeking half the royalties from the foreign sales of Ellington's music.
Bill Evans: At JazzWax, Marc Myers shares some videos of Bill Evans playing piano from 1965 and 1966.
Keith Jarrett: Peter Hum lists his favorite jazz albums of 2014 (so far) at The Ottawa Citizen. His list includes Last Dance by Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
John Coltrane: At Jazz Chronicles, James Hale discusses the music of John Coltrane and how his album, A Love Supreme, "is usually the dividing line for Coltrane listeners." (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Miles Davis: According to JazzTimes, New York City officially re-named 77th Street "Miles Davis Way" on May 26 (which would have been Miles’s 88th birthday).
Miles Davis: At Revive-Music.com, Matthew Allen discusses the 10 Miles Davis albums that every jazz fan should own.
Jazz pianist Art Tatum died on November 5, 1956, at Queen of Angels Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, from complications resulting from kidney failure. He was just 47 years old. Tatum is interred in the Great Mausoleum of Glendale's Forest Lawn Cemetery, next to his wife Geraldine.
Tatum was nearly blind and yet was probably the greatest piano virtuoso that jazz has ever seen. Charlie Parker himself once said, "I wish I could play like Tatum’s right hand!" Pianist Teddy Wilson once observed, "If you put a piano in a room [and then] get all the finest jazz pianists in the world and let them play in the presence of Art Tatum. Then let Art Tatum play ... everyone there will sound like an amateur."
Jazz critic Leonard Feather called Tatum "the greatest soloist in jazz history, regardless of instrument."
Tatum plays "Yesterdays" here:
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends Tatum's album, Art Tatum: The Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 3 (Pablo). (Purchase at Barnes & Noble.)
Jazz pianist Art Tatum was born on October 13, 1909, in Toledo, Ohio. Tatum was nearly blind and yet was probably the greatest piano virtuoso that jazz has ever seen. In fact, jazz critic Leonard Feather called Tatum "the greatest soloist in jazz history, regardless of instrument."
Stories about Tatum's talents abound. Perhaps the best known is the night that Tatum walked into a club where Fats Waller was playing. Waller — who never underestimated his own talents — stepped away from the piano bench to make way for Tatum and said, "I only play the piano, but tonight God is in the house."
Tatum's dazzling virtuosic runs can be heard on "Tiger Rag" here:
In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends Tatum's album, Art Tatum: The Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 3 (Pablo). (Purchase at Barnes & Noble.)
Art Tatum: At All About Jazz, C. Michael Bailey reviews the remastered Art Tatum album, Art Tatum: Solo Masterpieces, Volume One. (Purchase the album from Amazon.com.)
Yesterday, the DJ on the Sirius XM jazz station played three versions of "Over the Rainbow." I'm posting the three versions so that you can decide which one you prefer.
First, a couple of notes about the song itself, which was written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Hardburg for the 1939 film, "The Wizard of Oz." The tune was sung in the film by Judy Garland, of course, and in 2004, the American Film Institute listed it as the greatest movie song of all time, beating out "As Time Goes By," "Singin' in the Rain," and "Moon River," among others. As Ted Gioia notes in his book, The Jazz Standards, however, the song was almost cut from the film, because studio head Louis B. Mayer felt that it slowed down the film and because he didn't like the fact that Garland sang it in a barn yard. Luckily, Arlen and others were able to convince Mayer to keep the song in the film.
The tune has long been a favorite of jazz musicians, and among the many versions are the three featured here.
First up is Art Tatum. Tatum made this 1939 recording just days after the debut of the film, and its interesting to listen to Tatum play what was for him a new song. As usual with Tatum, his virtuosic playing takes center stage. As Scott DeVeaux and Gary Giddins argue in their book, Jazz, "when it comes to Tatum, there is a temptation to call him a virtuoso and the retire the word." In his version of "Over the Rainbow," much of his virtuosic playing takes the form of incredible ascending and descending runs.
Second, we have Bud Powell. This version is from the 1951 recording, "The Amazing Bud Powell," and shows Powell mixing elements of stride with the same kind of runs that Tatum displayed. Powell is more willing than Tatum to change the song's tempo, going slow at some points and faster at others.
Third, we finish with Oscar Peterson, whose version is more romantic, more lyrical, more delicate, and less exploratory than those of Tatum and Powell. Interestingly, according to Len Lyons in his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Peterson was intimidated by Art Tatum for a long time and would sometimes end his sets abruptly when he heard that Tatum had walked into the room. Tatum finally took Peterson aside and told him, "I don't care if you have to hate me when I walk into the room. I want you to play." That broke the spell.
"Over the Rainbow" is a marvelous song, and the three jazz giants featured here all provide beautiful and very individual versions.
Tatum's version can be found on "Standard Transcriptions: '35-'43," available at Amazon.com.
Powell's version can be found on "The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume 1," available at Amazon.com.
Peterson's version can be found on "Oscar Peterson for Lovers," available at Amazon.com.
John McLaughlin, Charles Mingus, Weather Report: According to JazzTimes, Legacy Recordings will release five new jazz titles in its “Essential” series, all being made available exclusively as digital downloads. The featured artists in the initial digital run include Charles Mingus, Weather Report, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin.
Duke Ellington & His Orchestra: The Ellington Suites
Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass, Ray Brown, Mickey Roker: Dizzy’s Big 4
Oscar Peterson & Stephane Grappelli: Skol
Art Tatum: The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces, Vol. 1.
Herbie Hancock: According to JazzTimes, Columbia/Legacy Recordings will release Herbie Hancock: The Complete Columbia Album Collection 1972-1988, a 34-disc box set, on November 12.
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.
