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Straighten Up and Fly Right by Will Friedwald - A Review by Terry Teachout
‘Straighten Up and Fly Right’ Review: UnforgettableAll of America fell for his warm, close-grained baritone, but jazz aficionados swooned over his piano playing.By Terry TeachoutWall Street Journal...
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Maria Schneider - Data Lords
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“… when you look at Maria's resume: she studied composition with Bob Brookmeyer, and spent three years as Gil Evans' musical...
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Gerry Mulligan - Before: First of Two Articles by Leonard Feather
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The way Mulligan wrote made his omission of the piano inevitable: His chords were moving so much that the piano got in the way. Gerry was...
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Gerry Mulligan - After: Second of Two Articles by Leonard Feather
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."Gerry has a missionary's zeal. He equates jazzmen with the left bank writers in Paris in the 1920s. He goes about things so fiercely that...
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Tony Williams - The Tony Scherman Interview
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.A LESSON FROM TONY WILLIAMS“When I was a kid, for about two years I played like Max Roach. Max is my favorite drummer. Art Blakey was my first...
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Bill Kirchner - Booklet Notes to "The Complete Verve Gerry Mulligan Concert...
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."It was the hottest band I ever played on."— Bill Crow, bassistI once made the mistake of referring to Bill Kirchner as a “Jazz...
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Solitary Moon: Ginger Berglund & Scott Whitfield Sing The Johnny Mandel Songbook
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.It’s always great when developing a review of a new recording to have someone do the “heavy-lifting” in terms of preparing all of the...
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Charlie Parker’s Scorching Innovations - John Edward Hasse
PHOTO: ELIOT ELISOFON/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES"Born 100 years ago this week, the saxophonist pushed bebop to jazz’s forefront and set a lasting benchmark for virtuosity and style.By...
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"Mulligan - The Sound Alone" - Will MacFarland
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.In existence for about a year, the “original” Gerry Mulligan Quartet featuring Chet Baker disbanded in June 1953, about six months...
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“Mulligan – The Man Behind The Sound” - Herb Kimmel - an unpublished...
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Herb Kimmel read MacFarland’s article in [January, 1954] Theme and sent the editor a response that he hoped would be published as...
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"The Latinization of Cal Tjader - Or … what’s a nice Swedish boy like you...
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.What a difference a decade makes, especially in the tumultuous Jazz World of circa 1945 - 1965 when it seems approaches to the music...
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How a Latin Jazz Rhythm Section Works
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.When it comes to 20th-century American pop music, "virtually all of the major popular forms--Tin Pan Alley, stage, and film music,...
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7/4 with tenor sax solo by Warne Marsh; trumpet solo by Conte Candoli; Larry Bunker on drums
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Kandinsky and Kenton: An Artistic Accord [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Beginning in the mid-1940’s, Kenton found an enthusiastic, ever-growing, devoted audience. His music seemingly spoke to the postwar young and...
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Mellophonium Memoirs - The Stan Kenton Orchestra
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Stan really wasn’t concerned about swinging at all. He wanted to hear colors in sound. Lots of colors and dynamics; anything associated with...
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