As one of the greatest crooners and stylists of the Great American Songbook, Tony Bennett has been influenced by and taken vocal impressions from many singular, legendary jazz performers. Bennett’s well-known emotional and physical reaction to hearing the birth of Bebop through Charlie Parker’s rapid-fire saxophone soloing at Birdland...
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Herbie Hancock: Profile of Jazz Journeyman of Musical Genre
A sweeping messenger of the widest of musical genre explorations (classical, traditional jazz, post-bop, jazz-rock fusion, funk, electronica, hip-hop, pop, and ambient); jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer Herbie Hancock is true to his own label as “cultural ambassador.” Early in his musical career, Hancock followed a seemingly unbroken...
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“Free” Jazz saxophonist Jon Irabagon channels Charlie Parker in Black Hills
When I started playing fast out in the canyon it just didn’t make sense at first. I had to stop and say ‘this doesn’t feel right’—like this open ravine with river doesn’t give a crap about bebop. —Jon Irabagon An un-planned flight from peak Covid spread in New York...
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Erroll Garner: 100th Anniversary birthday of the immortal swinging maestro of jazz piano
In the 1950s, with the advent of “cool jazz” and Miles Davis leading the way with a modal change with Birth of the Cool (1957) Milestones (1958), and later the seminal, legendary recording of Kind of Blue (1959) with its stellar cast of musicians, there were suddenly jazz recordings...
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Sonny Rollins: A profile of the tenor saxophone master – in craft and innovation
If you happened to be on the Williamsburg Bridge anytime from the summer of 1959 through roughly the autumn of 1961, you would have been privileged to hear the sound of a true artist seeking to find new directions and an inner voice on his instrument. Already famous and...
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Taiwan’s Blue Note Taipei: A Jazz Club Mainstay for Locals & Expat’s Alike
Though jazz knows no boundaries, it still remains a wonderful surprise and reward to find a gem of a jazz club in whatever corner of the world you happen to find yourself. Since 1974, The Blue Note Taipei, a cozy historic jazz café in the capital city of Taiwan,...
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Chick Corea: The Passing of a Giant
The passing of a giant in all categories of jazz. Chick Corea, NEA Jazz Master, 22-time Grammy Award winner, keyboard virtuoso as pianist, composer and arranger has earned, by contribution and breadth of musicianship, all the accolades, awards and recognition. If ever the title applied: a legendary figure in...
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Monk: A Legacy of influence both past and present
If legendary jazz musicians were collected together in one giant jigsaw puzzle and each musician was one piece – Thelonious Monk’s individual piece would be impossible to cut out. As a singular artist, his shape or place in jazz is too uniquely non-conforming. From a musical and historical standpoint,...
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Boston’s legendary music impresario Fred Taylor shares life in “behind the scenes” biography
In his upcoming biography (December, 2020), What, and Give Up Showbiz?: Six Decades in the Music Business, Boston‘s late legendary and iconic music impresario Fred Taylor reveals six decades of promoting, booking, and personal friendships with an “A” list of musicians. With an ear for talent, endless energy, and...
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Maria Schneider takes aim at lack of privacy with Data Lords release
Maria Schneider, jazz pianist, orchestral composer and 2019 NEA Jazz Master, has just released a new double-album, Data Lords (artistShare, 2020), which creates poignant musical imagery about our data-driven world. Schneider, who has been an active advocate for musicians’ rights and copyright, has followed-on this impact, citing “big data”...
