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.""
