The year 1962 represented the beginnings of a break-through in the career of the Swedish pianist Jan Johansson. Encouraged by the positive reception to his album 8 Bitar Johansson the year before, and in particular the response to his jazz treatment of a Swedish folk melody ‘De Sålde Sina Hemman’, he entered the studios on […]
Read MoreIn 1949, author Joseph Campbell published The Hero with a Thousand Faces that traced the history of storytelling down the ages. It seems that even before humans had learned to write, they had been telling a variation of the same story over and over, a universal myth that reaches back thousands of years. In it, […]
Read MoreFor all we know, jazz’s centennial may have come and gone without anybody noticing. After all, Brian Rust’s pioneering discography Jazz Records 1897—1930 suggests we might have missed it by a good 19 years! Nobody knows. But it had to begin sometime, so the start date usually used is when the Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded “Livery […]
Read MoreHannah Arendt was a philosopher who preferred to be called a political theorist. She was a remarkable woman; a German Jew who escaped the clutches of the Nazis (she had been imprisoned by the Gestapo in 1933), she finally settled in the USA where her work found increasing definition through the 1950s and 1960s. In […]
Read MoreIt says something when the Daily Telegraph, once dubbed “the voice of the Tory Party at prayer,” takes issue with the cause it was put on earth to champion. But there it is, a bold headline proclaiming “Music In State Schools Facing An Existential Crisis” with Conservative peer Lord Black, chair of the Royal College of […]
Read MoreAhmad Jamal ‘Stuart Nicholson’s in-depth analysis of the original Ahmad Jamal Trio, as released on Argo LPs and, more completely, on our Mosaic box set..echoed subliminally through the modern jazz innovators of the fifties and into the mainstream modern language’. MICHAEL CUSCUNA, Jazz Record Producer and Reissue Director of Blue Note Records, Leading Discographer of Blue Note […]
Read More‘This is wonderful and needed’, RAN BLAKE, Pianist, Composer, Recording Artist, Educator and Recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, former chair of the Contemporary Improvisation Department, New England Conservatory and currently faculty member at NEC. Horace Silver helped define hard bop, but was in turn defined by it. It all began with a series of trio […]
Read MoreIn January and April 1949 and March 1950, a nonet under the leadership of Miles Davis recorded 12 sides for the Capitol label. Initially issued as 78 rpm discs, in 1955, eight sides were collected on a 10-inch LP as part of Capitol’s “Classics In Jazz” series. Three years later, with the addition of a […]
Read MoreFrom time to time over the last two decades years, pianist Ahmad Jamal has been on the receiving end of an overdue ovation he richly deserves. Among the prestigious awards that have come his way have been a Jazz Masters Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), America’s highest honour for a jazz […]
Read MoreNina Simone is a legendary singer because she had a voice of such intensity and emotion it seemed touched by genius. Today, singers as diverse as Erykah Badu, Cassandra Wilson and Alicia Keys are among many who have listened and learnt to what Time magazine described as, “a swinging, soulful and infectious blend” of jazz, […]
Read MoreBack in the 1950s and 1960s, Alfred Lion’s and Francis Wolff’s Blue Note records was widely recognised as one of jazz’s premier labels. Fans bought their records unheard because the label stood for something tangible. The main thrust of the label was simple, singing themes and direct storytelling solos. Today, collectors eagerly seek out original […]
Read MorePianist and composer Andrew Hill, an intriguing jazz innovator from the Sixties who made it seem as if he had plucked a new jazz language from his imagination, lived to see history smile on his achievements. Part avant gardist, part iconoclast and part rugged individualist, his music was full of dense chords, asymmetrical melodies, unexpected […]
Read MoreA Reflection with Enrico Pieranunzi. The movie business, which seems to float on a cushion of hyperbole, long ago rendered terms like ‘the greatest’ or ‘the best’ meaningless. It’s a shame, because when it’s necessary to reach for such superlatives, they seem little more than showbiz tinsel. Not so when ‘the greatest’ is associated with […]
Read More‘Thank you for posting your Sept. 23, 1981 interview with Tal Farlow, which I recently found online and shared with his widow, Michelle Hyk Farlow, now living in Philadelphia. We both enjoyed your piece a lot. Really wonderful in-depth talk you had with “The Man”. I found out much I never knew, and I thought […]
Read MoreOn the 16th September 2018, saxophonist Big Jay McNeely died peacefully in Moreno Valley, California. There were few obituaries to note his passing; in death, as in life, true recognition of his very real contribution to the birth of rock n’roll had again eluded him. Most rock history books credit the first rock n’roll record […]
Read More‘What a delight to receive your fine interview. It’s great to get more of a feeling for Mal’s personality, and I’m sure that various features of the portrait he paints of the jazz scene at the time (some, a sobering reminder…) will be useful in contextualizing [jazz history]’. PAUL BERLINER, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Music […]
Read MoreAccording to the Politico website, with effect from August 7, 2018, internet users must ask for a photographer’s permission before publishing their images, even if the photos were already freely accessible elsewhere online, the European Court of Justice ruled. Please note the implications of this ruling relating to copyrighted material on this website. “The posting on a website […]
Read MoreWhen McCoy Tyner recorded Enlightenment” at the Montreux Jazz Festival on Saturday, 7th July 1973, it preserved on disc what he would later refer to was “One of my best performances anywhere.” It was without a doubt a memorable performance, producer Orrin Keepnews noting that, “The artist recognised this, and so did the musicians on […]
Read More‘Stuart Nicholson recently resurrected a 2001 interview with Chick Corea that is fascinating because Stuart walks him through his various albums and ensembles chronologically eliciting remembrances and comments on the music by the indefatigable Chick’. MICHAEL CUSCUNA, Jazz Record Producer, Special Consultant, Producer, and Reissue Director of Blue Note Records, Leading Discographer of Blue Note […]
Read MoreSaxophonist Wayne Shorter first recorded for the Blue Note label in 1959 as a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. It effectively brought the 26 year-old to attention of the jazz world. Although he had previously played in the ensembles of Horace Silver and Maynard Ferguson and recorded for the Vee-Jay label, alongside Blakey’s […]
Read MorePianist Horace Parlan, who died on 23 February, 2017, aged 86, made his debut on the Blue Note label in 1960 with Movin’ & Groovin,’ going on to make a further six albums for the label including Us Three, Speakin’ My Piece, Headin’ South, On the Spur of the Moment, Up and Down and Happy Frame of […]
Read MoreWhen he recorded Michael Brecker in 1987, it was unusual that such a major talent in jazz should have eluded making an album under his own name until he was 38 years of age, especially since he was already widely recognised as the most influential saxophonist since John Coltrane. The preeminent studio saxophonist of […]
Read MoreFrom whichever perspective you care to view Miss Nancy Wilson, she is a true legend of the music business. As the American magazine Essence once put it, ‘She is a jazz singer. A balladeer. She does cabaret, sophisticated pop, rhythm and blues. To say she is any one of these, or even all of these, […]
Read MoreBy the time saxophonist David Murray made his major record label debut with Ming’s Samba in 1989, he had already released thirty-eight albums for small independent labels. Although he was still only 34, a red label stuck to front sleeve proclaimed ‘Five New Pieces From Jazz Legend David Murray!’ At the time it didn’t seem a […]
Read MoreFusion-meister Lee Ritenour creating a forgotten jazz classic? Well, Stolen Moments is exactly that. On it he draws on the formative jazz influences of his teenage years when his father took him to see Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and Kenny Burrell at the Lighthouse on Hermosa Beach Pier and Freddie Hubbard, George Benson and many others […]
Read More‘Stuart Nicholson’s Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography of the First Lady of Jazz…included so much documented factual material…that the book currently stands as the most authoritative biography about her. Nicholson’s book is, for the most part, used as a criterion for accuracy and virtually everything written about Ella before it appeared must be revised.’ LESLIE GOURSE, THE ELLA FITZGERALD […]
Read MoreIt was about halfway through 1984, no-one can seem to remember the precise date, when a rehearsal band of 20 or so young, like-minded British jazz musicians under the direction of educator Graham Collier declared independence from their mentor and went their own way. Calling themselves Loose Tubes and preferring a collective identity with no […]
Read MoreArthur Blythe, one of the most admired alto saxophonists on the 1970s and 1980s, died on Monday 27th March 2017 at the age of 76 through complications arising from Parkinson’s disease. The father of three had been fighting the illness since 2005 and several benefits had been held for him in his home town of […]
Read MoreThe Dirty Dozen Brass Band was the first of the post-traditional New Orleans brass marching bands to reach an international audience in the early 1980s. Key to their early success was My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now, their galvanising debut album from 1984. What took everyone by surprise was the fresh, new spin they gave to […]
Read MoreIn 2004, Alice Coltrane released her first new recording in 26 years, Translinear Light. Produced by her son Ravi, she succeeded in conjuring up the mystical spirits that evoked a series of compelling and hypnotic albums she made for the Impulse! label following the death of her husband John Coltrane in July 1967 such as […]
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