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Ralph Moore - "This I Dig Of You"
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.I took a break from Jazz some time in the early 1970’s. I didn’t like where the music was going at the time so I decided to check out for...
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Nat King Cole Sings and George Shearing Plays" - An Unlikely Pairing
© -Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“At the time of their births the chances of the two principals' in this lively and appealing album ever meeting, let alone combining forces...
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The Sugar Hill Trio - "The Drive"
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.There are four elements that combine in such a way so as to make The Drive [Goschart 031547] commendable and these are the musicians who...
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Harry James - Cornet Chop Suey and Jazz Connoisseur - Part 1
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Some think he is “the best of all,” others accuse him of having gone too blatantly commercial. Like in many things in life, the truth about...
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Louie Prima - 1910-1978: A Tribute
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The three greatest early jazz musicians to have recorded extensively, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Jelly Roll Morton, have all...
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Harry James - Cornet Chop Suey and Jazz Connoisseur - Part 2
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."Harry James was a deep, deep, deep man; he may not have been academically educated guy, but he was street educated. He was as perceptive as...
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Intenso! - The Clare Fischer Latin Jazz Big Band
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept... I wouldn't be me if it wasn't for Clare Fischer."—Herbie Hancock"Everything the...
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Harry James - Cornet Chop Suey and Jazz Connoisseur - Part 3
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The following posting continues and concludes the George T. Simon portion of our planned, extended profiles on Harry James as drawn from the...
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GARY SMULYAN INTERVIEW WITH GORDON JACK [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Gordon Jack is a frequent contributor to the Jazz Journal and a very generous friend to these pages in his allowance of JazzProfiles...
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Harry James - Cornet Chop Suey and Jazz Connoisseur Part 4
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."Harry James was a genius. He could read all of the highly syncopated charts at sight, and he played fantastic jazz solos—different every time....
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Don Ferrara - The Gordon Jack Interview [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra. Copyright protected; all rights reserved."Don is a real improviser and a very complete player—sound, ideas, time. He possesses very cohesive intuition."… Don was a powerful player and...
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Herb Geller - The Gordon Jack Interview [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The following interview was first published in the September and October 1994 edition of JazzJournal and you can also find it reprinted in...
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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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"The Forgotten Ones:" Don Fagerquist - Gordon Jack [From the Archives]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Gordon Jack, author of Fifties Jazz Talk: An Oral Retrospective and a frequent contributor to JazzJournal “dropped by” the editorial...
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Jimmy Giuffre and Scintilla Revisited [From the Archives]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“It’s just one way and every man must go his own way.”- Jimmy Giuffre, Down Beat, November 30, 1955“Jimmy is an innovator and much has been...
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Victor Feldman All-Stars Plays Soviet Jazz Themes
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Drummer, vibraphonist and pianist Victor Feldman was such a superbly talented musician and accomplished reader that he made his primary living...
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Al Strong - LoveStrong Volume 1.
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Conceptualizing a recording is no easy task; bringing it to fruition is harder still.What songs do you play? How are they arranged? Who...
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Harry James - Cornet Chop Suey and Jazz Connoisseur Part 5
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“While it is fashionable for jazz writers to pick out the relatively few "pure jazz" sides in the more commercially successful bands, using...
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Lee Konitz Nonet by Gordon Jack
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Gordon Jack is a frequent contributor to the Jazz Journal and a very generous friend to these pages in his allowance of JazzProfiles...
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In the Studio With Miles Davis By STUART ISACOFF
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Because the music was performed for so many years primarily in night clubs, recording studios were somewhat of an artificial environment for...
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