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"The Great Gillespie" - Whitney Balliett [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.This blog has always been as much about Jazz writings as it has been about the music and its makers.For if it is true that Jazz can’t be taught...
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Charlie Barnet - Big Band Fun [From the Archives]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Charlie Barnet (1913-91)TENOR, ALTO AND SOPRANO SAXOPHONESBorn into a wealthy New York family, Barnet took up playing sax and was at work...
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Generations of Jazz – Watching and Learning [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Passing the baton” in Jazz is a recurring theme in the history of the music.There are aspects about it that can’t be formally taught so they...
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Denny Zeitlin - "Early Wayne"
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.In many respects Jazz is one of the more difficult art forms to teach and to learn. The most effective method to learn about the music has been...
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Afro Bop Alliance Big Band - "Revelation"
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Grammy Award Winner/Drummer Joe McCarthy leads the Afro Bop Alliance Big Band on upcoming release "Revelation" due out in fall (OA2)Everytime I...
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Soaring with the Count Basie Orchestra Amongst The Foo Birds
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Due to the simple factor of chronology, my initial exposure to Count Basie’s band was during the late 1950's.My first LP by the band was...
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Dream Lucky: When FDR was in the White House, Count Basie was on the radio,...
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.During my undergraduate college days, I took the mandatory 20th century US History course and purchased the required textbook. On the...
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Dual Brass: the formation of the Lou Blackburn-Freddy Hill Quintet
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.This is a wonderful story of what the world of modern Jazz world was like at the apex of its heyday in the late 1950s and early 1960s.New...
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Bobby Shew - A Pro's Pro
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Say the name “Bobby Shew” in Jazz trumpet circles and people respond with a look of sheer delight on their faces.Bobby Shew’s trumpet playing...
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Jay Glacy's "Horace Silver Complete: Volume 2"
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The following post is probably for a more select audience but we wanted to give Jay Glacy’s efforts a boost by posting the information about...
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Hoagy's in the Hall
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The August 2016 edition of Downbeat brings the news that as part of the 64th Annual Critics Poll, composer Hoagy Carmichael has been elected to...
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NUEVA MANTECA - CRIME!
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“As indicated earlier, Nueva Manteca, inspired by the work of Jamal, generally approaches songs more as a 'compositional device' which allows...
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Tina Brooks: 1932-1974
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“But as effective as he was in orthodox hard-bop contexts, Brooks was essentially an individualist. His sound, first of all, set him apart —...
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Erroll Garner: The Nonpareil [From the Archives]
“Erroll Garner was one of a kind. He was as outré as the great beboppers, yet bop was alien to him, even though he recorded with Charlie Parker. He swung mightily, yet he stood outside the swing...
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Phil Woods and The Note
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The current issue of The Note is devoted to a series of articles, testimonials and interviews that serve as a memorial to the late, great alto...
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Charlie Parker: A Biography In Interviews by Bob Reisner and Felix Manskleid
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Charlie “Bird” Parker died on March 12, 1955. He was not quite 35 years of age. The following interviews with drummer Art Blakey, bassist Oscar...
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Little Johnny Coles - From Three Perspectives
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Moody's 1956 version [of Body and Soul] (Chess) is notable for a splendid Johnny Coles long-meter trumpet solo that coolly navigates the...
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"Bill Evans - The Art of Playing" - Dan Morgenstern
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The Argument- Modern music is not modern and is rarely music. - It represents an attempt to perpetuate a European musical tradition whose...
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Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra - All My Yesterdays: The 1966 Debut Recordings...
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Resonance Records PresentsThad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra All My Yesterdays:The Debut 1966 Recordings at The Village Vanguard Deluxe 2-CD Set...
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Pencil Pushers [aka The Arrangers or "Writers"]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The following is one of my favorite Gene Lees essays. Perhaps the clever title has something to do with making it so, but I’ve always found it...
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