On Monday April 1, I will be at Stockton College in Galloway, N.J. to talk about the evolution of jazz from World War II to Watergate—and the unlikely reasons jazz styles changed so often over that 30-year period. I was invited to speak by tenor saxophonist Michael Pedicin—an associate professor of music at the college and Coordinator of Jazz Studies.
During my talk, I will be projecting jazz images on a large screen and spinning tracks to illustrate the different styles of jazz. The talk will be based on my new book, Why Jazz Happened.
Carol Sloane, at her SloaneView blog last week, posted the most precious story about Barbra Streisand. For my multipart interview series with Carol, go here. To access additional parts from Part 1, scroll above the red date for a link to Part 2, and do the same at Part 2.
David Amram sent along a terrific Life magazine photo [above] from 1956 taken by James Burke: Painter Milton Resnick, right, dancing with sculptor Marisol to the music of the David Amram/George Barrow Quartet at a 10th St art gallery party in New York. For more on this group, go here.
Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra appeared in the film Las Vegas Nights in 1941. Courtesy of reader Richard Salvucci, here's Dorsey and band playing Song of India...
Dig Charlie Parker on Verve? There's a Facebook page devoted to the pairing—courtesy of Richard Havers. Go here.
Hey There. Still hungering for more versions of the song I posted about last week? Here's Doris Day singing (or lip-syncing) the song in Pajama Game (1957)...
Tom Reney of New England Public Radio posted about tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson last week. Go here...
The struggle to be a jazz musician is captured wittily in a pilot called Bass Solo, directed by Casey Lock. For more information, go here. If you like it, help the team raise funds here...
Boston jazz, day by day. Reader Jon Foley alerted me
to Richard Vacca's blog—where he posts daily on "this day in Boston jazz history." Nifty idea for fans of the city's rich jazz past. Vacca is author of The Boston Jazz Chronicles (Troy Street).
CD discoveries of the week. Charles Lloyd has two CDs out: Hagar's Song and Athens Concert (both ECM). I'm a bit partial to the former. The duet album pairs the tenor saxophonist with pianist Jason
Moran, and the pressure to create meaningful music compels both artists to deliver. Five of the first six tracks are extra-slow standards like All About Ronnie and You've Changed, which shine a warm light on Lloyd's elegiac approach and Moran's feathery phrasings. Lloyd's freer pieces like Pictogram and the album's balance will push you to reconsider his avant-garde thinking and earthy attack.
I last wrote about German pianist-organist Florian Ross in January 2012, when he released Wheels & Wires. Now he's out with a new one—Front Room Songs. It's spectacular
and one of my favorite keyboard albums of the year. Ross plays piano and overdubs the Hammond organ, accompanying himself. The results are sterling. Sample Alice in Wonderland, Daffodil and I Should Care. Shades of Bill Evans and Larry Young. There's a delicate poetry about this experiment that won't let you go.
Oddball album cover of the week.
In our continuing series on the mood music revolution of the '50s, there actually was an album of solo piano music specifically for romantically connecting palms and fingers. I suspect those who routinely slipped this one on and left the jacket face-up more than likely wound up with only first dates.
