Friday Five : \'frī-(,)dā,-dē 'fīv\ : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes, then share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we'll have a guest, but most of the time it's just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments. The Five: "Every Day I Have the Blues" by [...]
Buckle up, and thank you for flying Pan Am.
If you could only pick one Christmas CD this season, Tony Bennett's The Classic Christmas Album should be it.
The Chairman meets the Count The twenty tracks collected here pull together the original line-ups of 1962's Sinatra-Basie: An Historical Musical First and 1964's It Might as Well Be Swing . Both albums found Sinatra in superb voice, complete command of his material and leading Basie's band from the singer's seat. Unlike his early days as a big band boy singer, Sinatra doesn't have to dodge and weave around the instrumentalists; Neil Hefti and Quincy Jones penned the arrangements in consultation with the [...]
A splendid-sounding reissue combining the two collaborative albums by Sinatra and Basie.
Here's a beautiful collection of Jazz songs stolen from Best Of Collections, songs I heard in Ken Burns' Jazz, and jazz standards that I've always had in my head whether or not I knew it. It's an excellent mix of beautiful vocal songs and compelling instrumentals. Enjoy. 01 Ella Fitzgerald - A Tisket, A Tasket 02 Count Basie & His Orchestra - Oh, Lady Be Good 03 Billie Holiday - My Solitude 04 Noble Sissle and His Orchestra featuring Sidney Bechet - Dear Old Southland 05 Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald - They Can't [...]
I've recently found myself completely and utterly engaged with all of Ken Burns ' documentary work, moving through his 2000 documentary on the American institution of Jazz. Besides being indelibly compelling and thoughtful and well researched, I've had my ears opened to lots of really excellent jazz. It's made me realize that I love Harlem Renaissance-era Jazz, swing, and all that - but white person, Kenny G jazz is bullshit. I have been listening to multiple version of They Can't Take That Away From Me , but this live version with Billie Holiday on vocals backed [...]
The month was overshadowed by the death of Amy Winehouse . But the Grim Reaper took some people on whom greater attention would not have been wasted. For example, Chic's keyboard man Raymond Jones died at the age of 53 of pneumonia; the same illness that took fellow Chic member Bernie Edwards 15 years ago. Also departing on the soul train this month was Fonce Mizell, who with his brother Larry produced acts such as L.T.D., Taste of Honey, The Blackbyrds, Brenda Lee Eager and The Rance Allen Group, and on his own produced that golden run of Jackson [...]
Filed under: News , R.I.P. David Redfern, Redferns Frank Foster, a multi-talented jazz music, died on Tuesday, July 26 from kidney failure. The saxophonist, flautist, arranger, composer and educator was a frequent collaborator with Count Basie . He was 82 years old when he passed away at his Chesapeake, Va., home, as the Village Voice reports. The tenor and soprano and began his early jazz career at Wilberforce University in Ohio. After [...]
Historical survey of jazz on two CD set
Elvis Costello has announced a slew of tour dates. The run will include stops at Atlantic City's Borgata on Friday, July 22nd, Red Bank's Count Basie Theatre
The ol' GMC is five years old, and anyone who has spent some time here has probably noticed that I enjoy shining a spotlight on some of the less-remembered musical stars of the past. Of course, I've devoted plenty of space to the big names too, but I especially like to dig into artists who were tremendously respected in their day but might be a little forgotten now - guys like Lester Young, who was also known as 'Prez'. He's generally considered to be one of the top three tenor saxophonists of all time (along with Coleman Hawkins and John [...]
This series has noted a couple of hundred musicians' deaths. Not many have caused me so much sadness as that of Gil Scott-Heron. Never mind that the man was a drug addict, and that he once wrote a homophobic song. He was a poet, and he set his poetry to glorious music. He was the Bob Dylan of the ghetto. I hope that with his dying breath, Scott-Heron appreciated the fact that astronauts were just then making a final journey and the US president has introcuded health care reform he was demanding in Whitey On The Moon). As [...]
Peter Frampton will be heading out on a slew of tour dates this Summer in celebration of the 35 year anniversary of Frampton Comes Alive. The legendary rocker will be performing the
With all the posts about film music for David Lynch Week , we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the passing on Jan. 30 of John Barry , an Oscar-winning film composer best known for his work on the 007 franchise. I'll make this post short and sweet - my three favorite John Barry themes: Count Basie Orchestra, "From Russia With Love" [ Buy ] As recorded by the Count Basie Orchestra for its 1965 album Basie Meets Bond . A very Basie interpretation [...]
Those that know me, should know that I have a great love of jazz; especially percussion driven works from the 1940's through to the late-60's. Its driving precision often held a sort of manic fluidity in check; like sheer madness surrounding a column of calm. As one of my favourite musicians of all time, Chico Hamilton was that calm. Hamilton was born in Los Angeles of 1921 and although his
Fourteen classics and not a dud in the bunch, plus you get Ol' Blue Eyes' give and take with the audience—the wisecracks, the jokes. The man knew how to work a crowd.
The Chairman Of The Board was at his best in Vegas.
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