Clik here to view.
The Birth {and Death} of the Cool
Regular readers of the blog may recall that the JazzProfiles editorial staff has a particular fondness and high regard for the writing and the writings of Ted Gioia. In its estimation, Ted is right up...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sammy Nestico And The SWR Big Band - "A Cool Breeze"
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.SWR Big Band - Südwestrundfunk Seventeen musicians-one sound. And a very convincing sound, at that. The SWR Big Band has so far been nominated...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Shorty Rogers As Interviewed By Steve Voce
© - Steven A. Cerra - copyright protected; all rights reserved.The following interview by Steve Voce with trumpeter, composer-arranger Shorty Rogers who passed away in 1994 first appeared in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Soaring with the Don Ellis Orchestra
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Don Ellis gave the concept of big band jazz. a completely new meaning.”- STEFAN FRANZEN “‘I believe in making use of as wide a range of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Louie Bellson: Blazing, Bombastic and Beautiful [From the Archives with...
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.In all the years I’ve been around Jazz musicians, I have never met a kinder more nobler soul that Louie Bellson.- the editorial staff at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Finding Bix by Brendan Wolfe
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The following appear in the July 14, 2017 Edition of The Wall Street Journal.Review: “Young Man With A Horn”By John CheckFINDING BIXBy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Alan Broadbent - Live at Maybeck Recital Hall
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.While he has gone on the become a highly regarded and award-winning musician, my first encounter with Alan Broadbent as a pianist and with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tom Harrell, Like Night and Day by Jonathan Eig, Esquire, December 1998
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The editorial staff has received a number of requests to select out of our longer profile on Tom Harrell the following Like Night and Day...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stuff Smith: 1909-1967
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Smith was comparatively more adventurous harmonically and in his playing which favored a rough, vibrato-less tone. In the 1930’s he was the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bam Bam Bam !!! - From The Archives
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.While reflecting on this piece after it had finished researching and compiling it, the editorial staff at JazzProfiles was amazed to note...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Connection - Freddie Redd and Jackie McLean by Ira Gitler
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Growing up a Jazz fan on the Left Coast “back-in-the-day,” finding Blue Note LPs was like going on a hunt for buried treasure.The major labels...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ornette Coleman The "New Bird" by Grover Sales
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“When the musicians hang on to a few rhythmic phrases Coleman has been able to create — when they realize they have a new camouflage of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chronicle Books - Blue Note: The Album Cover Art
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."They were sure that with these newartists they were introducing, so many of themwere leaders for the first time, somaybe the public in Harlem...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Remembering L.A.’s First Great Record Store, Wallichs Music City
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Bing Crosby shopped the aisles, Frank Zappa worked the floor”In an age of instantaneous audio gratification via digital file downloads and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rat Race Blues: The Musical Life of Gigi Gryce - 2nd Ed.
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“In the few short years Gigi Gryce lived in New York, it seemed just about every important jazz musician knew him. This was inevitable...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tony Fruscella: THE NAMES OF THE FORGOTTEN - John Dunton
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Jazz history is full of enfant terribles, mythical characters, maudits, legendary figures who seem to have been born in order to become...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Quintetto Basso Valdambrini: A Tribute
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Having been raised in California during an era when the West Coast Jazz style of Jazz was still predominant, this approach to the music with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jazz Lab- Donald Byrd and Gigi Gryce "In The Laboratory"
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.One thing often leads to another when the editorial staff at JazzProfiles goes hunting through its extensive library and recording collection...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mel + Marty = Musical Magic [From The Archives]
This piece was originally published in 2010 but copyright issues blocked the accompanying video from being seen in many countries. For whatever reason/s, and with the continuing exception of Germany,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pub Crawling with Jimmy Deuchar and The Lads
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“[Jimmy Deuchar] …the great Scot, whose sound sometimes seemed like a hybrid of Bunny Berigan and Fats Navarro, and who is usually...
View Article