"Because ignorance of your culture is considered uncool"
Chet Baker/René Thomas – Live in Bologna – 1962 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection – Some Chet Baker this weekend – actually, the attraction for me was Renè Thomas, who was an extraordinary guitarist. But we’ll go with Baker too. This one was recorded by RAI on April 15, 1962...
The Amazing Horace Silver this weekend. Recorded from the stage at Newport 1958 for the Voice Of America. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at school in Connecticut, Horace Silver got his break on piano when his trio was recruited by Stan Getz in 1950. Silver soon moved to New...
The Great Rahsaan Roland Kirk this weekend. From the 1962 Newport Jazz Festival and rebroadcast some years later. Kirk’s musical career spans from 1955 until his death in 1977. He preferred to lead his own bands and rarely performed as a sideman, although he did record with arranger Quincy Jones,...
Over to Germany this week for a broadcast concert given at Tübingen on June 22, 1986 by The Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ). Probably one of the most distinctive ensembles in Jazz, MJQ enjoyed one of the longest runs of any Jazz group and were universally hailed by critics and audiences...
Visiting the legendary Thelonious Monk this weekend, featuring his Nonet in a concert recorded from Mainz, Germany on November 8, 1967. Luckily for everyone, a lot of Monk’s material was recorded live, and most all of his studio material has been reissued and a lot of it has stayed available...
It helps, a lot: Become a Patron! From NPR’s legendary and much lamented Jazz Alive! series comes this weekend’s Downbeat post. Recorded at the 3rd Annual Art Park Jazz Festival in Lewiston New York, between September 1-3, 1979 and featuring the Lee Konitz Nonet. He performed successfully in a wide...
Over to The Cameo Room in New York City this week for a session with The Bobby Troup Trio with Julie London on vocals. Bobby Troup’s earliest musical success came in 1941 with the song “Daddy” written for a Mask and Wig production. Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra recorded “Daddy”,...
Since we’re approaching knee-deep in the Christmas season, what better excuse to play the Carla Bley Christmas Carols Concert from Berlin in 2008 than now. As one of the leading lights in the Free Jazz Movement, Bley has been involved in an extraordinary number of projects, with a far ranging...
Over to Austria this week for a concert by the legendary Drummer/Percussionist Max Roach, recorded live at the Vienna JazzFest on July 8, 1994. In the early 1980s, Roach began presenting solo concerts, demonstrating that multiple percussion instruments performed by one player could fulfill the demands of solo performance and...
Most people remember Renaissance as the band which had a number of concept albums and hits via the FM-AOR format stations in the late 1970s. Truth of the matter, that was the third incarnation of the band. Renaissance originally began out of the ashes of The Yardbirds, with Keith Relf...
