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Grant Green: The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark [From the Archives with...
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.I am re-posting this feature with a Youtube video of the complete recordings which was unavailable at the time of the original posting. You...
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Scott LaFaro - "Young Mr. LaFaro" - Parts 1 - 4 Complete [From the Archives...
© - Steven A. Cerra - copyright protected; all rights reserved.The following piece about Scotty appeared in the July and August 2005 editions of Gene Lees’ Jazzletter.“Scott LaFaro was something of a...
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Oscar Peterson at the London House, Summer of 1961
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“There was a time when a cohesive, relatively long standing jazz band was recorded live for the sake of the music, pure and simple....
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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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Dexter Gordon - "Landslide" - The Blue Note Years Part 10
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Dexter Gordon was a year or two behind me [at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, CA], but my impression was not unlike many...
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Shelly Manne & His Men at The Blackhawk: A Review of the Jazz Literature...
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“One of the finest and swingingest mainstream recordings ever made…”- Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th...
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HARRY ALLEN by Gordon Jack
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“By the time I was in college I was around people who were...
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Earl Hines, Part 1 - Richard Hadlock
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Although the pianist would respond with delighted exuberance to, say, a perfectly tuned Steinway or Schiedmeyer grand, he was, in...
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Richie Kamuca - The Gordon Jack Interview [From the Archives with Additions]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.In view of how little tenor saxophonist Richie Kamuca [1930-1977] recorded under his own name over the years, I was immensely fortunate to...
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Oscar Peterson by Richard Palmer
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Perhaps not as well known in the USA as their American counterparts such as Nat Hentoff, Gene Lees and Ira Gitler, among many...
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Earl Hines, Part 2 - Richard Hadlock
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The meat of Hines's methodology was already set in place: sometimes called a 'trumpet style', primarily because of the sharply...
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The Improbability of the Clarke Boland Big Band [From the Archives with...
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.As has been the case recently with many of the earlier postings that have appeared on the blog in multiple or sequential formats, the...
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"THE OLD CHING-CHING-CHING " by Simon Spillett
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Upon visiting with him between sets during one of my many trips to Ronnie Scott’s place in London, I asked drummer Ronnie...
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Ahmad Jamal's Three Strings
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.FOLLOWING ARE THE LINER NOTES FROM THE ORIGINAL ALBUM PACKAGE. Ahmad Jamal at the Pershing Room: But Not for Me [Argo LP...
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"My Year with Claude Thornhill" Richard Cox Talking To Gordon Jack
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Claude Thornhill’s 1940s big band helped shape the sound of modern jazz, and orchestral bop and ethereal ballads tinged with...
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Charlie Haden - "The Jazz Musician" Interview by Rafi Zabor [From the...
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Charlie Haden has a large, warm tone, the subtle vibrato, richness, and manipulations of which are central elements in his...
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Part 1 - Tubby Hayes The Complete Fontana Recordings Box Set Notes by Simon...
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Steve:“I was wondering if you'd like to use my sleeve notes for 'Tubby Hayes: The Complete Fontana Albums 1961-69'?”The set is now...
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Dangerous Rhythms by T.J. English - The Economist Review
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.A history of jazz’s relationship with organized crimeT.J. English shows how gangsters nurtured the careers of musical...
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Part 2 - Tubby Hayes The Complete Fontana Recordings Box Set Notes by Simon...
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Here is part two of Simon Spillett’s sleeve notes for the now out-of-print 'Tubby Hayes: The Complete Fontana Albums 1961-69' More...
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Reeds and Deeds - Third Time's The Charm [From the Archives with Revisions]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."We have similar concepts," he says, "but at the same time they're different. Eric has all the things that I lack; and I might have...
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