Contact Me By Email

Atlanta, GA Weather from Weather Underground

Jackie McLean

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

Friday, November 04, 2016

Bob Cranshaw, jazz bassist who spent five decades with Sonny Rollins, dies at 83 - The Washington Post

"Bob Cranshaw, a versatile jazz bassist best known for his association with saxophonist Sonny Rollins, whom he accompanied on virtually every concert and album since 1962, died Nov. 2 at his home in Manhattan. He was 83.



The cause was cancer, said his wife, Bobbi Cranshaw.



Mr. Cranshaw never had an album as a leader, but he was on dozens of well-known jazz recordings, including trumpeter Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder” in 1964. He toured for several years with singer Ella Fitzgerald and appeared on more recordings on the famous Blue Note jazz label in the 1960s than any other bass player.



With his early classical training and an ability to play in any style, Mr. Cranshaw proved to be so adaptable and dependable that he may have been the only musician who performed, at various times, with Bing Crosby, Paul Simon, Coleman Hawkins, Thelonious Monk, Rod Stewart, Peggy Lee, the “Saturday Night Live” orchestra and the studio band of “Sesame Street.”



“I didn’t ask to be a star,” he said in a 2014 interview with jazz pianist Ethan Iverson on the Do the Math website. “I wanted to be a sideman. I wanted to be a super-sideman.”



Mr. Cranshaw first performed with Rollins in 1959 at the Playboy Jazz Festival in Chicago. It was a demanding job because, at the time, Rollins had a bare-bones lineup, backed by just bass and drums.





Bob Cranshaw, jazz bassist who spent five decades with Sonny Rollins, dies at 83 - The Washington Post

Juilliard students perform "Rick Rolling the Westboro Baptist Church" "Three members of the infamous Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church protested yesterday morning outside of The Juilliard School and LaGuardia High School in New York City. Largely known for its demonstrations at military funerals and routine hate speech, the group was protesting what it condemns as “the vanity called ‘The Arts’.” An announcement on Westboro’s website takes aim at Juilliard by quoting several bible verses and concludes: “If you had taught those children to invest 5 percent of the energy they use for the vanity called ‘The Arts’, America would not be leading the world in racing to destruction.” Shirley Phelps Roper, daughter of the church’s founder and one of the protesters, told Playbill that her group chose Juilliard, ranked as one of the top music academies in the world, because the school’s teachers “have taught this nation proud sin. They have filled the nation with proud sodomites.” How did the students respond when met with deplorable signs, homophobic slurs and anti-Semitic statements? By using their talents to create a joyful noise with a spirited, impromptu concert, highlighted by an original arrangement of the aptly-titled vintage tune, “God Loves Jazz.”

Sunday, October 02, 2016

I Called Him Morgan | NYFF54





"On the night of February 19, 1972, Helen Morgan walked into the East Village bar Slug’s Saloon with a gun in her handbag. She came to see her common-law husband, the great jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan, whom she had nursed through heroin addiction. They fought, he literally threw her out; then she walked back in and shot him, handed over her gun and waited for the police to arrive. Many years later, Helen was interviewed about her life with the brilliant but erratic musician, and the tapes of that interview are the backbone of this beautifully crafted and deeply affecting film from Kasper Collin (My Name Is Albert Ayler).



Catch a free talk with director Kasper Collin and more Spotlight on Documentary filmmakers at NYFF Live: Documentary Panel on 10/11 at 7:00pm."





I Called Him Morgan | NYFF54

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Bobby Hutcherson Quartet - Jitterbug Waltz

My Bill Evans Problem–Jaded Visions of Jazz and Race | NewMusicBox

"Against that historical backdrop, I also practiced a form of racial profiling of musicians. Though I was wrong about the racial identities of the Righteous Brothers, Average White Band, and Teena Marie, I knew what black musicians “sounded like” via Motown, Stax, and Philadelphia International records. Though no one stated it specifically, there was a “black sound” and a “white sound.” To like a “white sound,” or worse, a white musician who “sounded black,” was cultural treason. Without realizing it at the time, this inhibited me on many levels, especially as a clarinetist and pianist in high school. When I was studying classical music, and I allowed myself to be moved by it, I feared that some of my black peers would see me as an Uncle Tom."





My Bill Evans Problem–Jaded Visions of Jazz and Race | NewMusicBox

Monday, July 04, 2016

Jazz Legend Charlie Parker’s Mystery Music Uncovered - The Daily Beast







"61 years after jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker died, a new album of hitherto unheard recordings is being released, and yet no one will say where they came from.

When new works by dead artists are discovered, the first question asked is, Where have they been hiding all these years? Perhaps a safe deposit box in a Swiss bank? Or maybe a warehouse in a broken down industrial neighborhood? Or did a lucky collector pick it up at a garage sale?
Last November, a lost cantata by Mozart came to light in the archives of the Czech Museum of Music—its origins long unrecognized because the composer’s name was written in a code. A few months earlier, a missing score by Stravinsky was discovered in a dusty pile of manuscripts, untouched for decades, in a storage area of the St Petersburg Conservatoire. If the room hadn’t been emptied for repairs, the music might never have been found.
So when the Verve label announced a few months ago the impending release of Unheard Bird, a double album of unreleased music by legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker, fans wondered where this music had been hiding in the 64 years since it was recorded."


Jazz Legend Charlie Parker’s Mystery Music Uncovered - The Daily Beast

Friday, May 13, 2016

Blog | In Memoriam: Joe Temperley

Joe Temperley



"RIP, a wonderful baritone player and good human being.  I had the good fortune of seeing him play with Wynton Marsalis many times.  He also played with Duke Ellington.  I will never forget riding next to Joe on a bus from the Great Wall in China to a hotel in Beijing, China."



Blog | In Memoriam: Joe Temperley

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

New Haven Artist Creates Tribute Mural to Jazz Legend - Emissourian - Mobile Adv

"A tribute mural created by New Haven artist Ray Harvey of legendary Jazz trumpeter Clark Terry, who passed away in February at the age of 94, will be dedicated Saturday, April 2, at 4 p.m., as part of the Murals on Broadway Public Art Program.

The mural, located outside at 7714 South Broadway, St. Louis, is a montage tribute to Terry, who was born and raised in the Carondelet neighborhood but who went around the world with his musical talent. He played with Count Basie and Duke Ellington, was a mentor to Miles Davis and has sold more jazz records than any other musician.Harvey will be a speaker at the dedication, and there will be a musical performance by the Champian Fulton Quartet, including Steven and Champian Fulton, who were close personal friends with and inspired by Clark Terry’s music and life.Harvey’s mural is the seventh in a series commissioned by the Carondelet Community Betterment Federation for its Murals on Broadway program."

New Haven Artist Creates Tribute Mural to Jazz Legend - Emissourian - Mobile Adv

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Jazz singer Ernestine Anderson dies | KIRO-TV

She died Thursday night in Seattle surrounded by friends and family, says Vivian Philips, a spokesperson for the family. 
Anderson moved to Seattle with her family when she was 16-years-old. She was born in Houston.
She started singing when she was 3-years-old, Philips says, singing along to her parent’s blues records.
Anderson gained notoriety in the early 1940’s, singing alongside Russell Jacquet, Eddie Heywood, Shifty Henry and Johnny Otis.
Anderson performed with a Seattle contemporary and fellow Garfield High School graduate Quincy Jones, another famous black American musician.


Jazz singer Ernestine Anderson dies | KIRO-TV