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Random Jottings (5): Reflecting on Esbjörn Svensson from 2018

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 […]

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Random Jottings (4): Jazz Solos and the Storytelling Privilege from 2017

In 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, […]

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Random Jottings (3): Relativism Parks Its Tanks on Jazz’s Front Lawn from 2016

For 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 […]

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Random Jottings (2): Is Pop Music Killing Culture? from 2016

Hannah 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 […]

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Random Jottings (1): Thoughts on Music Education from 2018

It 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 […]

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The Ahmad Jamal Live Performances With Israel Crosby and Vernel Fournier 1958-62 – Forgotten Jazz Classics

Ahmad 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 […]

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The 1952-3 Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker – Forgotten Jazz Classics

In 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 […]

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Nina Simone: Still Speaking To Us Today

Nina 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, […]

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Ennio Morricone: The Jazz Connection

A 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 […]

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New European Ruling on Copyright Infringement of Photographic Material on the Internet

According 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 […]

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McCoy Tyner “Enlightenment” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

When 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 […]

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Michael Brecker “Michael Brecker” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

  When 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 […]

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David Murray “Ming’s Samba” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

By 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 […]

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Lee Ritenour “Stolen Moments” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

Fusion-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 […]

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Why We Celebrated Ella’s 100th Birthday Anniversary in April 2017

‘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 […]

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Loose Tubes “Delightful Precipice” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

It 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 […]

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Arthur Blythe, Cutting-Edge Saxophonist, Dies at 76

Arthur 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 […]

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The Dirty Dozen Brass Band “My Feet Can’t Fail Me Now” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

The 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 […]

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Larry Coryell, Jazz-Rock Pioneer Dies at 73

After playing two shows on the 17th and 18th February at New York’s Iridium jazz club, guitarist Larry Coryell died peacefully in his hotel room on Sunday 19th February. Among the first to experiment with combining the rhythms and electronic tone colours of rock with jazz improvisation in bands such as the Free Spirits, he joined Gary Burton’s […]

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Gil Evans “The British Orchestra” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

In March 1983, Gil Evans embarked on a short tour of the UK. It would mark the first time he had played his music with an orchestra other than his own, a British band assembled at his request by saxophonist John Surman with a little help from Don Weller.  The tour opened at The Roundhouse […]

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Steps Ahead  “Steps Ahead” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

By 1983 Steps Ahead — a cooperative quintet with Mike Mainieri on vibes, Michael Brecker on tenor sax, Eliane Elias on piano, Eddie Gomez bass and Peter Erskine on drums — had developed a collective identity quite different to any group in jazz. That year, their first U.S.  album was released in the States  (they had […]

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Betty Carter “The Audience With Betty Carter” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

Was Betty Carter the greatest jazz singer of them all? After all, one of the most sophisticated jazz vocalists of them all, Carmen McRae, once said, ‘There’s really only one jazz singer  — only one. Betty Carter.’  You only have to hear The Audience With Betty Carter once to see what she means. To call it […]

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Charlie Haden “The Ballad of the Fallen” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

Charlie Haden’s 1983 album The Ballad of the Fallen was described by The Independent newspaper as “One of the greatest jazz albums ever.”  Arranged by Carla Bley, who performed the same task for the album’s predecessor,  Liberation Music Orchestra, from 1970,  both were blatant protest albums, the former against America’s meddling in the affairs of South America, the […]

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Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers “Keystone 3” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

    Art Blakey (drums) — in background Charles Fambrough (bass).   Hard Bop legend Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers made any number of albums after his career defining period as a Blue Note recording artist in the 1950s and early 1960s. But perhaps the most important album of all his subsequent output, and […]

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Quest “Midpoint” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

In 1985, Downbeat magazine described Quest as a “Must for anyone interested in the possibilities and beauties of small group improvisation.”  With Dave Liebman on soprano saxophone, Richie Beirach on piano, Ron McClure on bass and Billy Hart on drums, Quest had evolved from Liebman’s short lived Lookout Farm band that debuted at the Village Vanguard jazz club […]

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Pat Metheny Group “The Way Up” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

Was The Way Up  the Pat Metheny Group’s parting shot? Released in 2005, we’ve heard nothing on record from them since. If it was their last album, then they certainly left on a creative high. In scale, ambition and execution, it remains Metheny’s magnum opus — or greatest work. In many ways it was a […]

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Miles Davis “Legendary Concerts” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

When Miles Davis died on 28 September 1991 he still had a long career ahead of him as a cultural icon. Yet while his obituaries were effusive in their praise about a career that began as a member of the Charlie Parker Quintet back in the 1940s, they grew noticeably vague about his final period […]

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Kenny Baron Trio “Live At Bradley’s II: The Perfect Set” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

When pianist Kenny Barron recorded this album with Ray Drummond on bass and Ben Riley on drums in April 1996, the term “underrated” was often used to describe him. Not any more. The recipient of a Jazz Master Award from the National Endowment of the Arts in 2010, he consistently wins jazz critics and readers […]

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Last Exit  “The Noise of Trouble” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

Formed in 1986 by bassist, producer and conceptualist Bill Laswell, Last Exit was a free jazz supergroup that took the Freedom Principal to undreamt of highs. Taking their name from the Hubert Selby novel Last Exit to Brooklyn, Laswell’s pet concept at the time was “collision music,” bringing together strong musical personalities and letting the sparks fly.  […]

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George Adams Don Pullen Quartet “All That Funk” — Forgotten Jazz Classics

Recorded live in 1979 at CIAK in Milan, All That Funk  is the first of a two of albums the George Adams Don Pullen Quartet recorded for the Italian Palcoscenico label — the second volume was called More Funk. The band had been formed earlier in 1979 and were in their first flush of creativity […]

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