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Mike Le Donne on Barry Harris and "Negative Harmony"
“It's actually pretty simple, you need to know how harmony works but there's no substitute for using your own ears and your own instincts to find your own music. There's no easy way out or magic...
View ArticleWoody Herman and His Orchestra - Not Really the Blues
"Woody Herman also hired a few different arrangers. Johnny Mandel was not only a very good bass trumpet player, but I think he also started a different style of writing jazz arrangements; he didn't...
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Part 1 - "My Friend, Buddy D." - Terry Gibbs
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.This is from Terry Gibbs’ autobiography - Good Vibes: A Life in Jazz [Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2003].“Since 1980, besides...
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Part 2 - "My Friend, Buddy D." - Terry Gibbs
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.This is from Terry Gibbs’ autobiography - Good Vibes: A Life in Jazz [Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2003].Buddy and I were...
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Hendrik Meurkens - "Harmonicus Rex"
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The harmonica would seem to have promise as a jazz instrument: it is a free-reed instrument capable of producing a wide range of voice-like...
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Mike LeDonne pays tribute to Ahmad Jamal
Today is the heavenly birthday of the great Ahmad Jamal. I once had a friend of mine say he didn't get Ahmad because he couldn't tell when the melody started. But the thing is there are very distinctly...
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Happy Birthday to Johnny Coles
Johnny Coles (July 3, 1926 – December 21, 1997) never became a star name, but his associations with a half-dozen of the leading jazz figures of the post-war era are significant enough testament to his...
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Shelly Manne - The Drummer as Colorist
By the mid-Sixties, Shelly Manne had signed with the makers of UniRoyal Tires to do a series of commercials using only the sounds of percussion. The creative juices flowed in this kind of challenge,...
View ArticleBob Brookmeyer's Brookside by the Mel Lewis Sextet
Afternoon listening. This one is full of surprises.The trumpet player is not Chet Baker, it's Jack Sheldon. The tenor sax player IS Charlie Mariano [?!]. The baritone sax player is not Bob Gordon but...
View ArticleThe Box with Shelly Manne
In addition to the business of the Manne-Hole, Shelly was working on The Box, an animated short subject that he completed in October, 1967. It would win an Oscar at the next Academy Awards...
View ArticleTexas Tenor: The Illinois Jacquet Story
TEXAS TENOR;THE ILLINOIS JACQUET STORYUSA 1992 • 81 mins • Directed by Arthur ElgortOn the road and in performance with the Swing era saxist. With Gillespie, Rollins Clark Terry and Lionel Hampton
View ArticleLouis Prima - Pee Wee Russell
LOUIS PRIMA: THE WILDEST (DVD)USA 1999 • 90 mins • Directed by Don McGlynnPrima was the jump jive king of the forties and fifties and with his wife; the vocalist Keely Smith had a number of hits. Prima...
View Article35 Seconds of Music and More (Live - Montreux Jazz Festival 1998)
Recorded in performance on July 16, 1998 at Auditorium Stravinsky in Montreux, Switzerland with pianist Michel Petrucciani joined by Flavio Boltro, trumpet, Stefano di Battista, alto sax, Denis LeLoup,...
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Art Tatum - "Too Marvelous for Words" - James Lester
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“By all the criteria of the nineteenth-century piano tradition, Art Tatum made himself into a piano virtuoso worthy to be compared to the best...
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A Word or Two About Conte Candoli
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.I am re-posting this today to honor the anniversary of Conte's birth on this date in 1927.“Born in Mishawaka, Indiana, Candoli toured with...
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