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Johnny Mandel on the Art of Orchestration Continued: Part 4 - The Smithsonian...
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The following is excerpted from the JOHNNY MANDEL [1925-2020] NEA Jazz Master (2011) interview that was conducted by Bill Kirchner...
View ArticleKeester Parade CY TOUFF
My Jazz buddy Robert Gordon made this interesting musical observation: "Mandel's Keester Parade is the same line as Harry Sweets Edison's Centerpiece. Of course, that line in turn is based on the band...
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Hoagy Sings Carmichael With Johnny Mandel and The Pacific Jazzmen [From the...
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Hoagy Sings Carmichael With The Pacific Jazzmen [Pacific Jazz CD 0777 7 46862 2 8] has sat in my collection for a long time, but I never knew...
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West Coast Classics - Cy Touff, His Octet & Quintet - Arranged by Johnny Mandel
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Cy Touff, His Octet and Quintet [Pacific Jazz 1211, JWC-501, EP4-43 released in 1956] was issued as a CD in 1998 as part of the...
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Quietly There - The Bill Perkins Quintet Plays the Music of Johnny Mandel
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.*** Quietly ThereOriginal Jazz Classics OJC 1776 Perkins [ts, fl. bcl; Victor Feldman (p, org, vib); John Pisano (g); Red Mitchell...
View ArticleSmoke Gets In Your Eyes (Live At The Seville and Sundown / 1959)
Happy Birthday Conte Candoli.
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Brookmeyer, Mulligan and the Concert Jazz Band - Martin Williams
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.This feature is drawn from Jazz Changes [1992], a collection of essays and reviews by Martin Wiiliams about whom Gary Giddins...
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The Glenn Miller Years - Parts 1-7 Complete [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“... no artist should ever be evaluated other than by his intention. And Glenn Miller had no intention of leading a jazz band, despite the...
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Billy May - The Gene Lees Interview [From the Archives]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Arrangers tend to be mystery characters to the public at large. Even music lovers have little insight into the skills necessary to being...
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Ralph Burns - The Fine Art of Jazz Composition and Arrangement [From the...
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."I think the greatest aid to me in accomplishing what I was trying to do was the most prolific writer I've ever had, the greatest guy,...
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Harry James: Parts 1-6 Complete [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Some think he is “the best of all,” others accuse him of having gone too blatantly commercial. Like in many things in life, the truth about...
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Milt Bernhart - Have Trombone Will Travel Parts 1-4 Complete [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The title of this piece contains more than one element of a poor attempt at a pun on my part as Milt was both a journeyman trombone player...
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The Evolution of the Don Ellis Orchestra - Part 1 [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Don Ellis gave the concept of big band jazz. a completely new meaning.”- STEFAN FRANZEN “‘I believe in making use of as wide a range of...
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The Evolution of the Don Ellis Orchestra - Part 2 [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“I was a pimply teenager in 1967 when one afternoon my high school music appreciation teacher smiled slyly, put an index finger to his lips...
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The Evolution of the Don Ellis Orchestra - Part 3 [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."DON ELLIS IS AN ADVENTURE"“ELLIS IS the only jazz big band leader to both emerge and endure in the last twenty years.The newest version (of...
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The Evolution of the Don Ellis Orchestra - Part 4 [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Don Ellis is often associated with Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and Cecil Taylor as a proponent of the avant-garde jazz of the late 1950s...
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