Steve Newman's Jazz Groove

Fifty years ago, on the 9th April 1959, the fifty year old Ben Webster, and a bunch of old chums, went into the Nola Recording Studios on 111w,57th Street, New York City, to record (for the Verve label) Ben Webster And Associates, an album that has become over the years a bench-mark of jazz perfection played by some of the very best in the business. The producer was the legendary Norman Granz, who, in this gorgeous recording, created a beautifully crisp, open and expansive sound that shows everybody off to their best, not least Ben himself, whose tenor work on that April day was ... Read Full Story

Getting the turntable back in action meant going through all my LPs again, which is a pleasure because you always come across something that you've forgotten, or at least put to the back of your mind. This was certainly true of Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert recordings: one on RCA Victor from 1966 called Duke Ellington's Concert of Sacred Music, the other ( a double album) recorded by United Artists in 1971 called Duke Ellington's Second Sacred Concert. And I had forgotten just how good they are, with the 1966 recording undoubtedly the best. The 1960s were, for Ellington, a period when he produced some ... Read Full Story

The Stratford-upon-Avon Music Festival is one of this country's longest established and most popular events on the music calender, which this year included, as part of a superb mix, the remarkable Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain and the world renowned pianist John Lill. And today, Sunday 19th October, the festival ends with the Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra, Instant Sunshine, and, at the White Swan Hotel, a tribute to the late and great tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner Ronnie Scott. Now Ronnie Scott was a wonderfully inventive musician who played with the best. I remember seeing him with the Woody Herman Orchestra back in the ... Read Full Story

Rummaging through a heap of old LPs the other day I came across a superb Decca release from 1958: Our Kind of Jazz by the Ted Heath Orchestra - plus guests. And listening to the wonderful hi-fidelity mono recording it still sounds as fresh as the day it was recorded at Decca's Broadhurst Gardens studio, West Hampsted almost exactly fifty years ago. And what a truly stunning outfit Ted Heath put together for this recording, every bit as powerful as the Count Basie and Herman bands, and you only have to look at the line-up to see why - it's like reading the Who's ... Read Full Story

Bobby Durham, a jazz drummer known for his energetic, propulsive style, as well as for the high-flying musical company that he kept, died in Italy on Monday. He was 71, and had been ill with lung cancer and emphysema, a singer who had toured with him in Europe in recent years, Shawnn Monteiro, said. Durham was practically the only contemporary drummer who worked with Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, and, most famously, Oscar Peterson, four legendary bandleaders who were famous the demands they made on their percussionists. Durham was the drummer of choice for nearly all the swing-styled soloists and leaders of the ... Read Full Story