According to Peter Margasak, who writes the “Post No Bills” blog, “Although he released only six albums under his own name during a career that spanned as many decades, he was a crucial presence on the city’s bop scene. (Sadly, only his excellent 1959 album, Serenata, on Delmark, is currently in print.) He was a product of Du Sable High School, under the leadership of the legendary Captain Walter Dyett, and he got his first serious professional experience as a member of Andy Kirk’s orchestra in the early 40s. By the decade’s end he was back in town working with everyone from saxophonists Eddie Chamblee and Von Freeman to blues guitarist T-Bone Walker to singers Lorez Alexandria and Nancy Wilson. In the liner notes to his 1963 trio album, A Touch of Pepper (Argo), Jazz Showcase proprietor Joe Segal observed, ‘He is constantly sought for all types of live and recording dates; from preferred anonymity on rock ‘n’ roll gigs to ‘elite’ pleasing fashion and club dances.’”

As Peter mentions, only one of Young’s albums is readily available.  While it is sad that when it comes to our jazz legends, it is their deaths that cause a renewed interest, maybe with John passing away, there will be an increase in the demand for more of his recordings. 

John was a piano player and like many Chicago jazz musicians, he was a working musician who hired himself out to various performers of a wide number of genres.  This, apparently, was very common for the Chicago-based bop jazz musicians.  They even played into the rock and roll era, their talents recognized and sought after even then.  John was one of those.

So, once again, the world and the world of jazz and music is a little bit emptier.  Here is hoping John and his family find peace.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge

I was trying to get to my car.  Of course, walking anywhere around here means walking on what amount to glaciers.  Really, to walk here in Chicago you need those metal spikes mountain climbers wear over their boots.  Trying to get from the sidewalk to the street and, therefore, the driver’s side of your car requires actually repelling down a moutain of snow that has frozen into ice.

Well, I had hoped to use the hood of my car as a balancing device and attempted to climb down the mountain of ice and snow and work my way slowly around the front of the Jeep I drive.  Normally I walk like a man of roughly 98 and thought I would do the same here.  I took one step down with my right foot and it slipped right out from under me.

There was no stopping it.  Before I knew it, I was on my back, the hat on my head flew about four feet from me and I was cold.  All of the wind got knocked out of me.  All along my right side there are aches and pains.  A few years ago I either badly bruised or perhaps cracked a couple of ribs on that side, so I am waiting to see how this day plays out.

*sigh*

Thank you for indulging me on this.  I realize this has nothing to do with jazz and blues, but at the same time, this is a place where I write daily and there wasn’t much else on my mind.

To make up for it, HERE is a link to a video of recent Grammy Award Winning jazz pianist, Herbie Hancock.  In fact, here he is playing some tunes from his award winning album “The Jonie Letters.”

Enjoy!  And if you live in an ice-covered part of the Midwest, be careful out there.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge

The most interesting complain I heard at one time, however, was that the award this year was wrong becuase “jazz is not popular.”  For me, this is wrong-headed thinking.  For me, these industry awards should be for the quality of the piece, not necessarily an award or reward just for being popular.  Lord, if such a thing were to spread “Meet the Spartans” could end up winning an Academy Award.

Of course, I am a bit biased.  I happen to love Herbie Hancock.  Man, just listen to him play on those Miles Davis records and then listen to him today.  You can even skip over his pop hit “Rock It” from the 80s.  The man is a true jazz giant and he doesn’t even play the horn, and you know I dig the horn players.

For me, this was just an acknowledgement of a quality album.  Perhaps the other votes got split amongst the various pop artists.  At the same time, why shouldn’t Herbie Hancock win?  Just because he plays jazz?  That hardly seems fair.

I, for one, as you might imagine, was thrilled to hear he had won.  Sure, the albums is jazz variation on Joni Mitchell tunes, but he learned that from Miles.  One of my favorite late-life Miles tunes was his jazz take on Cindy Lauper’s “Time After Time” of all things.  Jazz musicians have been doing jazz variations on popular tunes all along.  Take a listen to John Coltrane’s “Greensleeves” and then get back to me.

I haven’t really had a chance to check the other “beats” covered and written about on the b5media blogs.  I am not sure if any of those writers and bloggers were outraged.  As for me, I felt like the home team had finally scored one and it thrilled me.

It’s about awarding quality, I think, not what’s popular.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge

What was it about him that made me so sad he was gone and, yet, at the same time, brought back such a warm and happy feeling?  Why was it that even though I was reading about him passing away, I smiled when I saw the name Oscar Peterson?

Well, I found some of his music and listened to it.  Ah!  Suddenly it all came back.  That’s why!  Listen to that?  Could I find some video footage of him playing?

Well, of course, in this day and age, if you want to find anything on video, you have to turn to YouTube.  So, I did.  What a great find!  I wanted to share at least one of those with you.

So, for Oscar Peterson playing and for the sheer enjoyment of seeing a musician loving what is playing and conveying that love to an audience, please click HERE.

It’s an interesting trio that Oscar is playing with there.  You can read about it on the site, but it’s Oscar and two bass players.  I haven’t really seen that done too much.

Notice the way Oscar smiles as he plays.  Listen to how fast the notes come.  Listen to the applause from the audience.

Enjoy!

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge

I do enjoy jazz pianists.  However, who are the ones you should focus on?  Around here, I do try to imagine that people new to jazz stop by and check things out and, maybe, something I write will make them explore this genre of music.

Jelly Roll Morton was probably the first big deal jazz piano player.  I wrote about him on here somewhere.  He claimed to be the inventor of jazz.  While that may be in dispute, what you cannot dispute is that without Jelly jazz wouldn’t be what it is today.  He was also, without a doubt, a truly talented composter and piano player.

If you are even remotely interested in jazz, it won’t take you long before you come across the name Thelonius Monk.  Not only is that one of the greatest names EVER, he was one of the greatest and most influential jazz musicians of all time.  His tunes are still covered to this day.  If you don’t have at least some Monk in your collection of jazz, then your collection of jazz has a big, gaping hole in it.

Earl “Fatha” Hines is right up on the Mt. Rushmore of great jazz piano players.  He is one of my personal favorites.  He was given the nickname “Fatha” out of respect from people who thought he was one of the greatest ever.  He was.  Again, you need to have at least one Earl Hines recording.

Herbie Hancock is a guy who got some of his “training” under the great Miles Davis.  He also scored a huge pop hit in the 80s with the song “Rock It.”  He is still playing and recently opened the Chicago Jazz Festival with a concert where he played along with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  He is a truly talented man who has made some of the most impressive music of the latter half of the twentieth century.

Keith Jarrett is one of my personal favorites.  Back when I was working at that jazz radio station, myself and another DJ got into a little contest to see who could get away with playing the longest jazz tune.  I managed to play one of Keith’s work in which the album was four records, with one song on each side.  Needless to say, I got in trouble for playing something almost a half-hour long.  Keith is great, but has an annoying habit of singing along with the notes he plays.  I cannot possibly describe the sound, but it can get on your nerves very quickly.

Diana Krall is a vocalist.  I am not  big on vocalists, so I cannot say for sure how much I like Diana.  I know she is married to Elvis Costello, so that gives her some cred in my book.  Still, what I have heard has made me think she has the potential to stick around and become a true jazz great somewhere down the road.  From what little I have heard, she has some talent at the keyboard.  I just wish she didn’t open her mouth so much.

Those are just a few of my favorites.  As always, I LOVE hearing YOUR favorites.  I absolutely love discovering new music through this blog and from your suggestions.  It’s part of why I do this and part of what makes a blog so cool.

So, please, feel free to leave your suggestions.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge

I also don’t want to appear as some kind of shill for Amazon.com.  They don’t pay me to mention them on this blog and I’ll show anyone my financial records to prove it.  It’s just that, well, you can find just about anything there.  I love getting an Amazon.com gift card for Christmas. 

Anyway, I did a quick search for Oscar Peterson CDs and music and came up with a huge list.  To see the list click HERE. 

See, for me, the thing that makes Oscar’s death so sad is that, well, he seems like he was such a nice guy!  Far too many truly talented musicians are just jerks.  Heck, my jazz idol, Miles Davis, was notorious for being a complete ass to people.  I cannot find anything said like that of Oscar.  He seems to have been a truly talented, truly nice guy.

This is a rare thing and it makes missing him that much more difficult to get over.  So, I encourage you to check out that list and maybe make a purchase or two.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge

Although it is well documented that I love the horn players, particularly the trumpet players I do love other instruments used in jazz.  I am a big fan of Lionel Hampton, for example, and he plays the vibes.  I love a good Thelonius Monk tune and he is definitely a trumpet player.  Heck, I love Billy Holiday and she is definitely a singer, so you go figure all of that out.

Anyway, McCoy Tyner has a new CD out and I think it should probably go on your Christmas listy.  McCoy is one of the best living jazz pianists, in my opinion, that you are likely to find.  He is also known for putting together impressive lineups of musicians.  For example, one of his most-famous groups is the McCoy Tyner Latin Jazz All Stars. 

His new album is called “Afro Blue” and it just came out in the middle of November.  I have not had a chance to listen to the whole album yet, but the samples I got to listen to thanks to Amazon.com were enough for me to consider adding it to my list of CDs to pick up this holiday season.

Just consider me one of Santa’s little helpers.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge

Just like Little Richard likes to walk around calling himself the “Architect of Rock and Roll” so Jelly Roll walked around claiming he had invented the music that we now call jazz.  Of course, this has been disputed and refuted by most scholars of music and jazz in particular.  Like most forms of music, it was not really created in a vacuum and one person cannot really take credit for inventing the music.

What is know, however, was that Jelly Roll Morton certainly was a powerful and influential force over what would become known as jazz.  He did create some of the most famous pieces of music in the jazz canon.  He also was a very good composer and, by all accounts, an outstanding piano player.  Regardless of whether or not you believe he really created jazz, there is no denying that through sheer force of will, the man helped spread jazz music around the country and helped laid the foundation for what is modern day jazz.  Jazz may have existed without Jelly Roll Morton, but it may not have reached the heights it did without him.

Even Jelly Roll’s birthday is a bit controversial.  That’s because it is commonly believed that he changed his birth year to make himself seem older and, therefore, old enough to have been around when the first music to be labeled jazz began to be heard.  He said he was born in 1885, but some believe he was actually born in 1891.  He was born into a Creole community near New Orleans and that is where much of the music we know as jazz was first born.

He began playing piano, and playing it well, at the tender age of 14 in a house of prostitution.  Around 1904 he began traveling in minstrel shows around various southern states.  It was during this time he composed such classics as “Jelly Roll Blues,” “New Orleans Blues,” “Frog-I-More-Rag”, “King Porter Stomp” and more.  He eventually made his way to Chicago and then moved on to New York City.

In 1915 his “Jelly Roll Blues” became, arguably, the first jazz composition ever published and probably why he always claimed to be the Originator of Jazz.

As jazz grew and waned in popularity, so did Jelly Roll.  At one time he was very wealthy and was fond of wearing expensive tailored suits and driving around in expensive cars.  At other times he lived in and around Washington DC as the manager and piano player of a dive bar.

During his time managing that bar, he was invited by a man named Alan Lomax to record music and interviews for the Library of Congress.  Thus, whatever you may think of Jelly Roll and his playing and personality, he has become one of the greatest resources for the history of early jazz and music in this country thanks to these interviews.

Jelly Roll died in 1941 from a constant asthmatic condition he had suffered from for many years.  He left behind a large part of jazz history, an impressive amount of music and more than just a little bit of controversy.

Many of his recordings can be found on compilation CDs and recordings.  If you are lucky, maybe you can even find an old 78 rpm record of his original recordings somewhere.  His playing sounds like what it is…old…maybe even primitive.  He also, to me, sounds a bit like Scott Joplin who was also playing at that time and inventing the close-cousin-to-jazz music known as “Ragtime.”

Again, maybe to some there sounds like no connection between the recordings of Jelly Roll Morton and Miles Davis or John Coltrane, but the connection is there.  Had Jelly Roll not come first and laid what groundwork he did, who knows what would have come and if Miles and John would have played what they did.

Post from: Jazz & Blues Lounge