Mary Lou Williams on the First Piano Jazz
Mary Lou Williams was always a musician’s musician — far better known among her peers than among the jazz public. A pioneer in jazz as a woman, as a composer and as an artist who bridged the leap from swing to modern, Mary Lou was also a strong supporter of younger artists like Thelonious Monk and Randy Weston. This 1978 episode of NPR’s Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland is a real treat.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Rudresh Mahanthappa: All Influences Considered
Did you hear Rudresh Mahanthappa on NPR’s All Things Considered last weekend? Mahanthappa compares sides and influences with the show’s host, Arun Rath, who seems to especially relish interviewing a musician he considers a rocking contemporary Indian-American kindred spirit.
-Nick Moy
Photo: Jimmy Katz, courtesy of the artist
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NPR’s Fresh Air: A Look at Earl Hines and our New Box Set
It’s always nice to have the Fresh Air crew examine one of our sets. In this edition, Kevin Whitehead looks at the Earl Hines set, while focusing in on recordings Hines made as soloist and as the leader of some distinct big bands.
-Scott Wenzel
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Bessie Smith: Empress of the Blues
Bessie Smith is the subject of this fine entry in NPR’s “Jazz Profiles” hosted by Nancy Wilson (who no doubt felt inspiration from Smith). There have been many tributes to Smith, whose power and emotion has rarely been equaled: an artist that deserves all the accolades ever given to her. Among those interviewed are Albert Murray, Chris Albertson, John Hammond and Susannah McCorkle.
-Scott Wenzel
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Charles Lloyd: Looking Back and Forward
It’s hard to believe saxophonist Charles Lloyd is 75: he sounds so fresh and vital — in many respects better and more primed for challenges than ever. But 75 he is, as Patrick Jarrenwattananon and Walter Ray Watson respectfully note in this NPR retrospective, peppered with audio clips from his remarkable career.
-Nick Moy
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Arnett Cobb’s Story, As Told to a Friend
Jazz Wax’s Marc Myers provided this link to Armin Buttner’s Crownpropellor’s Blog for this unpublished 1980 Arnett Cobb interview with Swiss jazz researcher Otto Fluckiger. Fluckiger, a friend, gets him to tell his life story and it just flows beautifully.
-Michael Cuscuna
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Five Early Greats of Jazz Guitar
Nick Morrison looks at 5 jazz pioneers of the electric guitar, beginning quite rightly with the daddy of them all Charlie Christian, followed by the inventive Les Paul, George Van Eps, George Barnes and Bucky Pizzarelli with great performances from each. I must say that T-Bone Walker may be more blues than jazz but he was right there at the beginning with Christian in Oklahoma. He’s a painful omission in this otherwise excellent survey of the early greats.
-Michael Cuscuna
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John Scofield Jams in Beantown on New Year’s Eve
Now we know why John Scofield’s upstate New York hometown seemed a little sedate on New Year’s Eve: Scofield and his Uberjam band were tearing it up at his old stomping ground, the Berklee School of Music, in Boston. Luckily, we can all groove with the Scofield band in the New Year; thanks to NPR for capturing the proceedings.
-Nick Moy
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