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... 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... 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... 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... 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... Read Full Story
Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and into the 1970s, one of the best jazz composers, arrangers, and band-leaders around was Oliver Nelson; he wasn't a bad alto saxophonist either. Sadly, Nelson died in 1977 of a heart attack, which is of little surprise when you listen to the tremendously energetic albums he recorded, most especially the iconic More Blues and the Abstract Truth, and the truly spectacular Swiss Suite featuring the Argentinian tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri, and the much lamented... Read Full Story
If Charles Dickens is one of the great pillars of English literature, and he is, then John Dankworth (Sir John now of course) is undoubtedly one of the great pillars of British jazz, or jazz anywhere for that matter. Combine the two, as they are in Dankworth's 1963 recording What The Dickens! - when John still called himself Johnny - and we experience not only the creative strengths but also the wonderful humour of these two most prolific of creative artists. Listening to my forty-three year... Read Full Story
There were drummers before them, most notably Warren 'Baby' Dodds, the younger brother of clarinettist Johnny Dodds, and Arthur James 'Zutty' Singleton; and alongside them legends such as Jo Jones and Art Blakey, and later Philly Jo Jones and Elvin Jones; and after them giants such as Tony Williams, and the amazing British drummers Allan Ganley, Tony Oxley, and John Marshall - plus all of those you think are better and I haven't mentioned. But when push comes to shove there will only be two... Read Full Story
On a cold and wet Sunday night in January 1938 the Benny Goodman Orchestra - and a few illustrious guests such as Count Basie, Lester Young, and Buck Clayton - played Carnegie Hall in New York, the first jazz orchestra ever to do so. They changed forever the way jazz was perceived and one man, the pianist Jess Stacy, changed forever the way jazz piano was perceived. On that night Jess Stacy had -until the twelve minute long version of Sing Sing Sing (With a Swing) came along toward the end... Read Full Story
Back in the early 1990s I heard a young British tenor sax player called Johnny Lippiett play in a small restaurant in Salcombe, Devon. I remember the food and wine as being excellent, and the playing of young Mr Lippiett as being completely out of this world. And very young he seemed to be at the time too - he looked about sixteen - and was, I now realise, probably either waiting to, or was already studying music at the Dartington College of Arts at Plymouth University, which is effectively... Read Full Story
