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Sonny Clark - The Blue Note Years by Steve Siegel
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.With previous features on pianist Wade Legge, the Great Day in Harlem Photograph “Mystery Man” - William J. Crump, drummer Frankie...
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The Four Freshmen: A Vocal Quartet with Quarter Tones [From The Archives]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.I received so many requests to bring this feature up again, so here goes.What's especially fun about this essay is that it "unlocks" the...
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ELLA AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL 1956: THE IRVING BERLIN SONGBOOK
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Some readers of the blog may recall that back in the early days of radio and television, occasional statements and information...
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JULIUS WATKINS by Gordon Jack
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Original liner notes Julius Watkins: Volumes 1 & 2 [Blue Note 7243 4 95749 2 2] PRIOR TO THESE Blue Note sessions, Julius...
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Dexter Gordon - The Blue Note Years - Part 1
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.In his prime, his music had a kind of jovial gravitas at its heart, building on Lester Young's example without succumbing to...
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Oscar Peterson - In The Black Forest [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Oscar Peterson's contract with Verve ran out in 1964 and he left the company. He signed with Limelight, a new subsidiary of Mercury that would...
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Dexter Gordon "Doin' Allright" - The Blue Note Years - Part 2
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The King of Quoters, Dexter Gordon, was himself eminently quotable. In a day not unlike our own, when purists issue fiats about...
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Pleasants on Pops - Louis Armstrong by Henry Pleasants
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.I guess I should be grateful to the Whippanong Library of the Morris County Free Library system in New Jersey for a remainder of...
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Dexter Gordon "Our Man in Paris"- The Blue Note Years Part 6
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Gordon feels that the absence of big bands today has cheated the younger musicians. "A pet peeve or gripe of mine is the lack of...
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Dexter Gordon "Dexter Calling" - The Blue Note Years - Part 3
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“ … his own date for Savoy on 30 October, 1945, … reveal the saxophonist still identifiably absorbing his influences, although the...
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The "New" Nueva Manteca - ART
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.With the passing of Jan Laurens Hartong in 2016 - its founder, keyboardist and principal composer-arranger - I assumed my writings...
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Dexter Gordon "GO!" - The Blue Note Years - Part 4
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Listening to Gordon talk was not unlike hearing him play. His voice, like his sound on the saxophone, was warm, self-assured,...
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Bix Beiderbecke - The Father of Cool from Ted Gioia, The Birth {and Death} of...
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The decade of the 2020's marks the 100th anniversay of many of the significant developments in the early history of Jazz.Mervyn...
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Dexter Gordon "A Swingin' Affair"- The Blue Note Years Part 5
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Los Angeles-based saxophonists Dexter Gordon, Teddy Edwards, and Wardell Gray rank among the finest soloists of their generation,...
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Mildred Bailey by Henry Pleasants
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The emergence ol three girl singers at virtually the same time: heralded the beginning of the age of the female jazz and band...
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Dexter Gordon "One Flight Up" - The Blue Note Years Part 7
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Whether or not he was given credit, Dexter Gordon is the man who wove an important piece into the great tapestry of the modern...
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"Ladies Day" - Billie Holiday by Gary Giddins
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.As you will note if you quickly peruse the subject headings of past blog features under LABELS in the right-hand column or sidebar...
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Dexter Gordon - "Gettin' Around" - The Blue Note Years Part 8
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Dexter Gordon is. ol course, the man who first created an authentic bebop style on the tenor saxophone He is also the man who...
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Pleasants Holiday - Billie Holiday by Henry Pleasants
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“As muse and ancestor, metaphor and myth, Billie Holiday lingers in lines of poetry and pages and pages of prose. She appears in...
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Dexter Gordon - "Clubhouse" - The Blue Note Years Part 9
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Gordon was a major force in the emergence of modern tenor saxophone styles. His main influence was Lesler Young, but he also...
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