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Clark Terry on Chet's Christmas Carols
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Not having Clark Terry tell this one robs it of some of its charm. You have to imagine the devilish look in Clark's eye as he sings...
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‘Daybreak Express’: Duke Ellington’s Big-Band Locomotive
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Recorded 90 years ago, the composer’s wondrous piece is a jazzy ode to the romance and mechanical might of train travel. By John...
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A Dave Brubeck Christmas
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.I first heard Dave Brubeck play solo piano around 1956 when as a newly signed artist with Columbia Records, he released Brubeck...
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The Buzz: JJA Podcast - Three Books on Mulligan
The Buzz: The JJA PodcastThree author discuss their books on Gerry MulliganAlyn Shipton, Ken Poston and Steve Cerra -- authors, editors and publishers with recent books concerning the late, great...
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Keystone Corner: "The World's First Psychedelic Jazz Club" [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“You never went to work when you were at Keystone. You went to play.”- Carl Burnett, Jazz drummer“There was a real special relationship always...
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Pepper Adams - Part 3 - Pepper Adams Saxophone Trailblazer by Gary Carner
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."On the baritone sax, he was the greatest we've ever had." - PHIL WOODS, alto saxophonist"He was a rare genius on the horn." -...
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The Dave Brubeck Quartet Live from the Northwest, 1959
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“During this period, these musicians spent more time together on stage, on the road, and in the studio than they did at home....
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Becoming Ella Fitzgerald by Judith Tick - A Review by Eric Felten
‘Becoming Ella Fitzgerald’ Review: The Queen of JazzCannily switching gears from a sweet-voiced ‘thrush’ to a swinging bandleader, Fitzgerald battled the doubts of her peers and her own stage...
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Review: “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” and the Problem of the Archive
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.So much has been writtenabout Miles Davis, so many photographs, video tapes and film clips have been taken and displayed of Miles...
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"Mel Lewis: The View from the Back of the Band" - The Chris Smith Biography...
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Mel showed me at that time, what a drummer is capable of doing as far as being integrated as an inescapable component of the arrangement as a...
View ArticleClifford Brown (1954) [DAAHOUD] arranged by Jack Montrose
Many Jazz fans are familiar with trumpeter Clifford Brown's DAAHOUD through the recordings of it he made with his quintet co-led by drummer Max Roach.Lesser known is this version of the tune which he...
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Phineas Newborn Jr. [1932 - 1989] A Personal Recollection
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.I got to know Phineas a little during the early 1960s when he played one of the week nights at The Manne Hole, drummer Shelly...
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Dave Bailey [1926-2023] - The Gordon Jack Interview
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reservedGordon Jack is a frequent contributor to the Jazz Journaland a very generous friend in allowingJazzProfilesto re-publish his...
View ArticleBop Ag'in - Milt Jackson
Thinking on Milt Jackson on this date with this tune by Jimmy Heath as performed by a line-up of "young lions" including Nicolas Payton [tp], Jesse Davis [as], Joshua Redman [ts], Benny Green [p],...
View Article(They Call It) Stormy Monday - Lou Rawls,Les McCann Ltd (1962)
In 1962, when this, his first, album was made, Lou Rawls was a singer fresh off the "chitlin' circuit" who had a few years to tough out till pop stardom. Here he wraps his rich, gospel- trained...
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Round About Monk - Valerie Wilmer
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Given how taciturn Thelonious Monk was even when he did consent to an interview, the following one in Valerie Wilmer’s Jazz People...
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The Forgotten Ones - Buddy Collette: The Gordon Jack Essay [From the Archives...
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“If I were going to pick a guy to open the Hollywood studio doors as Jackie Robinson did for baseball, Buddy would have been the man”.-...
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