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Jackie McLean

John H. Armwood Jazz History Lecture Nashville's Cheekwood Arts Center 1989

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Steve Reid Foundation pledges support for Arthur Blythe | Gilles Peterson

crisis, it has been brought to our attention that a good friend of Steve Reid, the Jazz saxophonist Arthur Blythe needs our help. He recently underwent a serious kidney operation, which affected his ability to walk and swallow foods. He is also struggling with Parkinson’s disease. While he’s slowly regaining strength at a rehabilitation centre in California, he needs financial support to pay bills and to get the help of a good neurologist.

Monday, September 30, 2013

Veterans of City Opera, Proudly Wistful, Reflect as the Curtain Falls - NYTimes.com

This is extremely sad.  I remember the NYC Opera with fondness.  Yes the Met is still with us but as a young grade school student my first exposure to opera live was at the NYC Opera at Town Hall.  At Hunter College my opera class was taught by the Assistant Director of the NYC Opera.   NYC is losing a major cultural institution.   In an era where American culture has in part devolved into a form of pop fast food entertainment we need to preserve the arts in all of it's forms.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Carline Ray, an Enduring Pioneer Woman of Jazz, Dies at 88 - NYTimes.com

NewImage

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm photographed in the 1940s with Carline Ray on guitar, third from left in the second row.

 
Carline Ray, a pioneering jazz instrumentalist and vocalist who joined the all-female International Sweethearts of Rhythm in the 1940s, later performed with Erskine Hawkins and Mary Lou Williams and this year released her first recording as a lead vocalist, died on July 18 in Manhattan. She was 88.

Carline Ray, an Enduring Pioneer Woman of Jazz, Dies at 88 - NYTimes.com: ""

(Via.)

Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Supreme Court Says Police Can Take DNA Samples - NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — The police may take DNA samples from people arrested in connection with serious crimes, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a 5-to-4 decision.

Supreme Court Says Police Can Take DNA Samples - NYTimes.com

Savannah music icon Ben Tucker killed in golf cart crash | savannahnow.com

Although he was internationally known as a jazz bassist and composer, friends remember Ben Tucker as a charitable man who did wonders for the Savannah community.
The 82-year-old, who was killed late Tuesday morning when the golf cart he was driving on Hutchinson Island was struck by a speeding car, was instrumental in reviving the once-considerable jazz community in Savannah, said Teddy Adams, a local jazz trombonist and longtime friend of Tucker.
Robert William Martin, 52, of Spicewood, Texas, had been charged with racing, vehicular homicide in the first degree, and reckless driving after the dark blue Chrysler 300 he was driving at a high rate of speed southbound on Grand Prize of America Roadway struck Tucker’s golf cart about 11:45 a.m., said Julian Miller, Savannah-Chatham police spokesman.
The police department’s Major Accident Investigation Team determined Tucker was crossing the street, a part of a former road race track on the island, from the golf course to the employee parking lot when Martin’s vehicle hit the golf cart, Miller said. He added police are continuing their investigation into the wreck.

Savannah music icon Ben Tucker killed in golf cart crash | savannahnow.com








Front- Skip Jennings, Ben Tucker, Ket Vui Chia and Trudy Nan. 

Back- Rick Saylor and John Armwood

Monday, June 03, 2013

Remembering Mulgrew Miller: Beautiful Words Of Wisdom - YouTube


Remembering Mulgrew Miller: Beautiful Words Of Wisdom - YouTube

Golden Fingers: An Interview with Jazz Piano Legend Mulgrew Miller - YouTube


Golden Fingers: An Interview with Jazz Piano Legend Mulgrew Miller - YouTube

Mulgrew Miller: Its Easy to Remember (and so hard to forget) - YouTube


Mulgrew Miller: Its Easy to Remember (and so hard to forget) - YouTube

Mulgrew Miller "I got it bad and that ain't good" - Jazz à Vienne 2012 - YouTube



Mulgrew Miller "I got it bad and that ain't good" - Jazz à Vienne 2012 - YouTube

Mulgrew Miller passed last week.- The Art of Solo Piano - I Love You - YouTube


Mulgrew Miller - The Art of Solo Piano - I Love You - YouTube

Mulgrew Miller, Jazz Pianist, Dies at 57 - NYTimes.com

Mulgrew Miller, a jazz pianist whose soulful erudition, clarity of touch and rhythmic aplomb made him a fixture in the postbop mainstream for more than 30 years, died on Wednesday in Allentown, Pa. He was 57.

Mulgrew Miller, Jazz Pianist, Dies at 57 - NYTimes.com

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Warren Demands To Know Why Banks Weren't Prosecuted After Crash

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised the stakes of her quest to find out why a single Wall Street bank has not been prosecuted in the aftermath of the financial crisis Tuesday, sending a letter to the heads of three federal agencies.

Eddie Palmieri's Latin Jazz Septet On JazzSet

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Saxophonist Wayne Shorter triple winner in 2013 Jazz Awards; Smith jazz musician of the year - Entertainment - Times Colonist


NEW YORK, N.Y. - Saxophonist-composer Wayne Shorter is a triple winner in the 2013 Jazz Awards presented by the Jazz Journalists Association.
Shorter was a member of Miles Davis' legendary mid-1960s quintet and co-founded the fusion band Weather Report. He won awards for lifetime achievement in jazz, top soprano saxophonist and best small ensemble.
Veteran trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has been recognized as jazz musician of the year and best trumpeter. Smith's civil rights-themed composition "Ten Freedom Summers" was a 2013 Pulitzer Prize finalist.


Saxophonist Wayne Shorter triple winner in 2013 Jazz Awards; Smith jazz musician of the year - Entertainment - Times Colonist

Female jazz acts are the real Cool Japan


One of the highlights of my Golden Week this year was a concert by the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Jazz Orchestra at Blue Note in Tokyo. Reuniting her big band for the first time in a decade, Akiyoshi rolled back the clock with a superb set and some witty banter. The high point of the Sunday nightshow was “Kogun,” with her husband, Tabackin, delivering a superb performance on flute.
Akiyoshi was a trailblazer — literally. She become the first Japanese musician to be accepted to study jazz in the United States, and has received numerous accolades since. Seeing her perform, with such a command of the stage, I wondered why the government’s Cool Japan campaign doesn’t tout her achievements more often.


Female jazz acts are the real Cool Japan

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Home, in the Key of E

—Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, 82, is recipient of the National Medal of Arts and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His songs "St. Thomas," "Oleo," "Doxy" and "Airegin" have become jazz standards. He is currently working on a new album, "Road Shows, Vol. 3," for release in 2014. He spoke with reporter Marc Myers.
I moved to Woodstock, N.Y., about four months ago for the heat. For the past 40 years I lived on the other side of the Hudson River in Germantown, N.Y., in a small farmhouse built in the late 1880s. My wife, Lucille, and I first moved up there from New York in 1972.



Home, in the Key of E

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Merton Simpson Possessed Valuable Art but No Burial Money - NYTimes.com

Merton Simpson Possessed Valuable Art but No Burial Money - NYTimes.com: "Family and friends gathered in Charleston, S.C., on Friday for the funeral of the New York-based artist Merton D. Simpson, a painter and pioneering champion of African art who accumulated a collection said to be worth millions of dollars. Gathering in the city of his birth, eulogists celebrated Mr. Simpson’s expertise on the saxophone, his generosity and his visionary artistic taste."

(Via.)

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Bebo Valdes & Diego El Cigala - Veinte Anos - YouTube

Romance en la Habana. Bebo Valdés. El arte del Sabor

: ""

Romance en la Habana. Bebo Valdés. El arte del Sabor. 

(Via.)

Bebo Valdés & Javier Colina - Lágrimas Negras - YouTube

BBC News - Cuban jazz musician Bebo Valdes dies aged 94

BBC News - Cuban jazz musician Bebo Valdes dies aged 94: "Bebo Valdes, who started his career in the nightclubs of the Cuban capital, Havana, in the 1940s, was a central figure in the golden era of Cuban big band music.

A pianist, he also composed and arranged songs, and led two big bands, as well as creating his own rhythm, the batanga.

He died in Sweden, where he had lived since the 1960s.

Valdes came to fame as the musical director of the Tropicana club in Havana. From 1948 to 1957, he worked as singer Rita Montaner's pianist, also arranging many of her songs.

During his time at the Tropicana, he also performed with US artists Nat 'King' Cole and Sarah Vaughan"

(Via.)

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Jazz Articles: Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Bandleader and Conductor, Dies at 65 - By Jeff Tamarkin — Jazz Articles

I have many fond memories of spending time with and around Butch Morris as well as his brother Wilbur, particularly in the early eighties when he conducted the David Murray Big Band.  He was an innovative conductor and really nice guy.  May he rest in peace.

John H. Armwood

Jazz Articles: Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Bandleader and Conductor, Dies at 65 - By Jeff Tamarkin — Jazz Articles

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Chico-amp-Rita - NYTimes.com

Chico-amp-Rita - NYTimes.com

Chico and Rita - Every lover of Afro-Cuban music or jazz must see this film. It is set in the reality of the birth of Latin Jazz with the real pioneers of the music playing their music. Chico is in real life the father of the great pianist Chucho Valdez. This is not to be missed. It is on Netflix but any jazz or Latin lover will want this film in their collection.