In this brief audio clip from an interview with WKCR’s Phil Schaap, Harry “Sweets” Edison recalls how being a new man in a band can be a blessing but also can have its share of confusing moments.

-Scott Wenzel

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John Szwed, a wonderful writer whose music credentials include a thoroughly researched biography of Sun Ra, gives a wonderful talk at Columbia University on Jack Kerouac and how jazz influenced his style and ran through his writings.

-Michael Cuscuna

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Helen Merrill, a wonderful, intimate singer whose discography includes collaborations with Clifford Brown, Gel Evans and Steve Lacy, appears on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. They perform a number of duets and talk about Clifford Brown among other jazz topics.

-Michael Cuscuna

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The astute Howard Mandel in his Jazz Beyond Jazz blog wrote a wonderful essay on Wayne Shorter the composer, culminating with his February 1 Carnegie Hall concert with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, a magnificent, adventuresome orchestra that plays without a conductor. Shorter performed four pieces with his quartet and the chamber orchestra. What the article does not mention is that everyone piled into Avatar Studios the next day to record this material as Wayne Shorter’s second album since rejoining Blue Note. His first, Without A Net, was just released several weeks ago.

-Michael Cuscuna

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At the very dawn of jazz recording, with echoes of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band still in the air, very few musicians were able to capture a fresh new sound until the flood gates opened with the blossoming of Louis Armstrong. Naturally, there were exceptions like Sidney Bechet or Earl Hines, but, for the most part, it was the powerful virtuosic display of Armstrong that made the Roaring 20s the era of “hot jazz”. It wasn’t long, however, before another highly individual talent emerged.

On February 18, 1924, less than a year after Armstrong cut his first records, a young cornetist from Davenport, Iowa named Bix Beiderbecke made his recording debut. By the late twenties he had ushered in a striking new approach to the jazz solo concept by making it cool. His improvisations were more relaxed, melodic, and graced with inspirations from impressionistic and modern tonal composers including Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky and the lesser-known Eastwood Lane. His tone has been likened to that of a bell or a mallet on a chime; Eddie Condon said Bix’s tone was like a girl saying “yes”.

His brief and troubled life became legendary and emblematic, inspiring a best-selling novel and a full-length motion picture. What’s important is that Bix remains one the most musically brilliant figures of any period in jazz.

- Alan Goodman, Mosaic Records Brochure

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