In The Wall Street Journal last week, I interviewed comedian Wanda Sykes for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Wanda talked about growing up in Maryland and who inspired her the most (her brother Harry and TV's Moms Mabley). Wanda is now in the Netflix sitcom The Upshaws. [Photo above of Wanda Sykes by Lara Solanki, courtesy of Netflix]
Last week, she was on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and they talked about my column here...
Creed Taylor. Last week I spoke with producer Creed Taylor on his birthday. He sounded fantastic. We talked about trombonist Urbie Green and the recordings he made for Creed at Bethlehem and ABC-Paramount in the 1950s. As Creed said, "Whenever I felt out of sorts, I'd put on one of Urbie's albums. The sound of his trombone was so tasteful and relaxing, largely because of his fantastic breath control." We also talked about his hanging out with jazz musicians and getting to know them on a personal level. "I admired them and loved the special quality of their art," he said. "It was about my own passion and enjoyment rather than some sort of strategy. They recognized I was as committed to their music as they were." [Photo above of Creed Taylor by Chuck Stewart]
Creed Taylor 2. For a post on Creed's early years, see Mark Cathcart's Creed Taylor Produced blog here.
A new blog from Jeffrey Sultanof called The Eclectic's Corner: About the Arts had its debut on May 7 (go here).
CD you should know about:
Julia Perminova—Imagination (JP Music). Born in Tyumen, a city in Siberia, Russia, Julia Perminova is a pianist and composer who started piano lessons at a local music school at age 5. She attended Tyumen College of Arts in the pop and jazz music department, and in 2013 moved to Moscow to study at the Gnessin Academy of Music, graduating in 2017. In 2016, Julia released her first album, Luminescence. Her trio album, Revival, followed in 2018. She's now at the Jazz Institute in Berlin and lives in Amsterdam. This year, she released Imagination, a solo album. Her 14 originals have a singular intensity, lulling you into a range of moods that coax you to feel and think. The music is different than the type of jazz that appears on most albums, but the difference is its charm and the root of its hypnotic power. The more I listened, the more I found myself imagining nature—the feel of the wind, the smell of snow and sound of birds. The transformative power of Julia's playing and music is quite remarkable and special. Listen to Imagination at Julia's site here. You can buy it there as well—or at Amazon here.
Here's a promo video for Julia's new album...
Here's Julia in action in 2019...
And here's Julia taking a solo...
Curtis Fuller radio. This Sunday, May 16, Sid Gribetz will be hosting a five-hour tribute to the late trombonist Curtis Fuller on "Jazz Profiles" on WKCR-FM in New York, from 2 to 7 p.m. (ET). Listen from anywhere in the world by going here.
And finally, here's João Gilberto and Caetano Veloso, another great Brazilian singer-composer, performing Antônio Carlos Jobim and Newton Mendonça's Desafinado...
