All Star Groups & Orchestra - Three Classic Albums Plus (Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson / Lionel Hampton & his Giants /1954 Apollo Hall Concert)
The Mets used to regularly play Memorial Day doubleheaders, Independence Day doubleheaders and Labor Day doubleheaders, yet the holiday that launched them into the public consciousness was the one we celebrate tomorrow. That's right: the Mets are as much a part of Thanksgiving as stuffing, pumpkin pie and forced conversation you could do without . Two months before they started limbering up in St....
Opal MannOpal Mann, an accomplished jazz musician who played piano in Sacramento nightclubs, accompanied African American church choirs and backed Billie Holiday on stage, died Friday at age 84. She died of cancer, said her daughter, Mellissa Truitt. For many music lovers, Mrs. Mann was a bridge to the golden age of African American jazz clubs downtown. She played piano in bands at the Momo Club...
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla., Nov. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- "It's Christmas Time with Sylvia Bennett" has been released, and after listening to the new CD with treasured holiday songs and four new original tunes, even Scrooge will be humming along.
electro swing // gypsy django party If you can judge a group by its influences, try these out: Django Reinhardt, Vitalic, Cab Calloway, Justice, Lionel Hampton, Daft Punk, Billy Holiday. The Paris-based group has been touring since they broke out at the Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival in 2007. They deliver an old gypsy swing, but through [...]
The electric bass entered the jazz world almost immediately after its introduction, when vibraphonist Lionel Hampton endorsed the Fender Precision. Even so, the upright bass has continued to be a jazz tradition. In spite of this, or maybe because of it, instrument companies have sought to bridge the gap between the bass guitar and bass fiddle for the last 50 years. In my humble opinion, they’ve...
Johnny Carter, one of the greatest tenor singers in American popular music history, has died of lung cancer in his home town of Harvey, Illinois. He was 75.
Our blogeration today concerns just one tune, which is fairly well known among record folks as Chicken by the Spark Plugs. It was re-issued a few year back on Norton (with the Condas' The Bird as the b-side, a tune that had never been released until the aforementioned Norton 45, it came to me via a listener to my old WFMU radio show who sent me a cassette of his dad's band which consisted of two songs...
The Exodus To Jazz series of jazz gigs continues with the Johnny O’Neal Trio on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009 at the Radisson Hotel Rochester Riverside with sets at 8:00 and 10:00 pm in Frontier Hall at the hotel. Doors open...
Russell has kindly directed to me to an exciting new series on Radio 2. Starting this Monday, October 19, at 11:30 pm, Curtis Stigers, no less, hosts a program detailing the rise to fame of Benny Goodman. The six part series includes archive interviews with such as Peggy Lee, Buddy Greco, Artie Shaw and Lionel Hampton. Dankworth's in there too. Should be well worth twiddling the cat's whisker on your...
If you were to take all the talented pianists whose careers stretched from the Big Band days to the the Modern Jazz era and lay them end to end, they’d reach to — whoops. What I meant to say was that if you’re looking for one among them who was the very definition of a [...]
Four Manhattan School of Music alumni are being honored at a special alumni homecoming reception on October 16, 2009. Joe Wilder, Capt. Kenneth Force, Elliot Goldenthal, and Laquita Mitchell will be recognized for their significant career accomplishments as well as for service to Manhattan School of Music. The Distinguished Alumni Awards Presentation, held in the School's Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades...
Curtis Ousley was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1934. He learned to play the saxophone and was influenced by alto sax players; Earl Bostic and Louis Jordan; and tenor sax players; Illinois Jacquet, and Arnett Cobb. He started his professional career playing sax with Lionel Hampton before moving to New York City in 1953. Curtis worked under his own name and played tenor sax with Horace Silver’s...