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Jazz: Body and Soul - The Photography of Bob Willoughby with a Foreword by...
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The West Coast in the 1950s: a time of youth, exuberance and change. Nowhere was this more evident than in the music emanating from the...
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Harry Carney and Gerry Mulligan: Two of A Kind
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Is it significant, I wonder, that neither Harry Carney nor Gerry Mulligan could identify any of the baritone saxophone players in the...
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J.J. Johnson's "Lament"
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.I found everything about the Columbia LP Miles Ahead or Miles Davis + 19 Davis fascinating as Gil Evans’ arrangements opened up a whole...
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Victor Feldman Plays Everything In Sight
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Many multi-instrumentalists had fun with over-dubbing and or multi-tracking when the long-playing record and audio tape first became a...
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Roger Kellaway - STRIDE!
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Bill Crow - bassist, author and all-round good guy, has a rule-to-live-by, one which he stresses over-and-over again, and it is that -...
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The Ultimate Organic Tenor Groove Experience [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.We put this feature together essentially to pay homage to the venerable tradition of the jam session.As defined by Gunther Schuller in The New...
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Westcoasting
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Shelly Manne liked to introduce his band members in this ironic manner: 'On tenor—Richie Kamuca from Philadelphia, PA; on trumpet — Joe...
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An Afternoon with Benjamin Francis Webster
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Look at those two heavyweights!.”The speaker was Jack Marshall a guitarist who was perhaps best known as a composer-arranger in Hollywood...
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Gary Giddins - "Rhythm-a-ning" [From the Archives]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The most stimulating young Jazz journalist to surface in years. Giddins combines and exhilarating style with rare insight, standing...
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Martin Williams Gettin’ Together with Art Pepper in Jazz Changes From the...
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."Martin Williams is perhaps the greatest living jazz critic."- Gunther Schuller"Martin Williams is one of the few truly distinguished...
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Freddie Redd - The Thespian
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Freddie Redd has an endless imagination for melody.”- Mabel Fraser, Jazz author“Freddie Redd is a real master of melody. He has a lot more to...
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Cal Tjader: "A Certain, Smooth Elegance" [La Onda Va Bien] [From the Archives]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The vibraphone invites overplaying almost by its very nature. … Unlike a horn player, the vibraphonist is unable to sustain notes for...
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Vince Guaraldi at the Piano by Derrick Bang [From the Archives]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."When I met him, he immediately liked the feeling I had, even though I wasn't experienced. So I would go to his house for lessons,...
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John Williams - Rollicking, Rolling and Rumbling
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Onomatopoeia - words that sound like the sound they are describing, words like rumbling, roaring, booming, drumming, thumping, et al.I...
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Buddy DeFranco Interview with Steve Voce [From the Archives]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Woody [Herman] has no encouraging words about the status or future of the clarinet in jazz. He says there are no new players who have...
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West Coast Jazz Box
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“There was something special about the West Coast jazz scene of the Fifties and early Sixties. Those of us privileged enough to have lived...
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Ted Gioia – The Jazz Standards – A Review [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“THE JAZZ STANDARDS will be indispensable for any fan who wants to know more about a jazz song heard at the club, or on the radio. Musicians...
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Art Van Damme - The Accordion in Jazz [From the Archives with Revisions]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Art Van Damme, in his prime years, played so many gigs in clubs, hotels and concert stages across the USA and Europe that it is said that he...
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Part 1 - The John Williams Interview with Steve Voce
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.I will keep this introduction brief so as not to interfere too much with the tone and tenor of Steve Voce’s marvelous interview with...
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Part 2 - The John Williams Interview with Steve Voce
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Here’s Part 2 of Steve Voce’s extended 1998 interview with pianist John Williams. As noted in Part 1, Steve is a British journalist and...
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