Singer Madeleine Peyroux: Perfect Musical Pedigree and Beyond
Madeleine Peyroux has the perfect artistic pedigree: New Orleans heritage and raised in Brooklyn and Paris. Her unique vocal approach is directed toward the songs that Ray Charles popularized on “Modern Sounds In Country And Western” on her latest album “The Blue Room,” for which I had the honor of writing the liner notes. Here’s a brief but interesting interview in the Great Britain’s The Guardian.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Chick Corea Interviewed
This late ‘80s Chick Corea interview by Billy Taylor took place when Chick was splitting his life between the Akoustic Band and the Elektric Band, satisfying his two major streams of music and inspiration. The conversation reaches back to Chick’s Boston beginnings.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Read MoreBechet Legacy: China Boy
Initially billed as Bob Wilber and the Smithsonian Jazz Repertory, this became the “Bechet Legacy” and was a band I saw on many occasions in New York — one of the great jazz groups on the scene in the 1980s. This clip from 1982 features Wilber, Glenn Zottola (tp), Chris Flory (g) and Phil Flanigan, as they re-create the great HRS recording of “China Boy” by the Bechet-Spanier Big Four.
-Scott Wenzel
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Interview: Sonny Rollins
Marc Myers has a wonderful way of getting people to relax and open up in an interview. This recent one with Sonny Rollins in his new home in Woodstock covers topics not usually discussed in Rollins interviews. But don’t miss his investigative skills by clicking on his “Anatomy Of A Song” column, in which he discovers the etymology of the Four Tops anthem “Reach Out”.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Zoot Sims Shows Off His Backhand
From the photo gallery of Bill Crow: this priceless photo of Zoot Sims playing table tennis aboard the Andrea Doria, while traveling to Italy with the Gerry Mulligan sextet — a year before that cruise ship sank. Thanks, JazzTimes.
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The 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music Goes to: Caroline Shaw
We thought you might like to know more about the composer whose work won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Music. Listen to this NPR profile of Caroline Shaw, with excerpts from her entrancing a capella composition Partita for 8 Voices, that took this year’s Pulitzer in a formidable field, including Wadada Leo Smith’s epic work, Ten Freedom Summers.
- Nick Moy
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Tony Williams: Bridge To The Beyond
Tony Williams was a brilliant, complex and ever-changing artist and human being. Ken Micallef’s thorough feature on the great drummer covers the various associations he had and the stages of career with understanding and insight. Essential reading on this major musician.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Read MoreRay Charles: One Of The Greatest Live Performers
Ray Charles was a recording genius and also one of the great live performers with a great band that included saxophonists Hank Crawford, David Fathead Newman and Leroy Cooper and the Raelettes. This Newport 1960 concert includes Titus Turner’s “Sticks And Stones’.
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New Life for Jazz: 1955 Photographs
In the midst of the “singer’s era”, a point where Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine, Doris Day and the like were dominating the pop charts, Life Magazine’s January 1955 article titled “New Life for U.S. Jazz” explored how jazz was now growing faster than almost any other form of music (especially noting that there was a “new” genre in the West Coast school). Photographer Eliot Elisofon captures in wonderful detail a series of color portraits featuring jazz giants.
-Scott Wenzel
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Charnett Moffett: Solo
This is a great interview with Charnett Moffett, a superb bassist and a great personality with a wonderful sense of humor. I first got to know him when we put together the Tony Williams Quintet in 1987. Charnett tells stories of his years with Tony, but omits the one unforgettable night that Moffett ended his bass solo with an inspired moment of insanity by twirling his bass. Now, either you find that very funny or very offensive. Tony fell on the side of offensive and chewed Charnett out mercilessly after the set. But the next day, Tony was laughing about it too.
-Michael Cuscuna
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