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Helene and Phineas: While My Lady Sleeps
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Here’s another in our continuing efforts to meld Art and Jazz. Obviously, some of these work better than others, but we continue to try to...
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Konitz, Lee and Kuroda, Shigeki – Motion!
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Kuroda's aim is to express the concept of motion. Using the bicycle as the primary object, he soon added umbrellas. The idea came from a scene...
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Marilena Paradisi with Kirk Lightsey -Someplace Called “Where”
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.From time-to-time, the editorial staff at JazzProfiles likes to turn its attention to vocal Jazz, especially when something new and different...
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Lee Kontiz - "Food For Thought"
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.While working on the video that you’ll find at the end of this piece which showcases Lee’s improvisation abilities, the editorial staff at...
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Quincy Jones's Morning Orange Juice - "Kind of Blue"
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Kind of Blue has been on my mind a lot recently. Whatever the nature of the neurological or sensory impulse, occasionally I find the music...
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The Jazz Crusaders - Looking Ahead
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Still present in their performance is the great fire and the constant regard for form and content upon which to build solos. Again, the...
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Mellophonium Memoirs - The Stan Kenton Orchestra
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Stan really wasn’t concerned about swinging at all. He wanted to hear colors in sound. Lots of colors and dynamics; anything associated with...
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QUINCY JONES AND HIS ORCHESTRA LIVE IN LUDWIGSHAFEN 1961
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Quincy Jones has achieved such an iconic status over the years that many people are not aware of the fact that his early years in the music...
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DAVE SCHILDKRAUT by Gordon Jack
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved. As many of you know, Gordon Jack is a frequent contributor to the Jazz Journaland a...
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Shelly Manne – Anything But – “Un Poco Loco”
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Shelly Manne was one of the greatest, not only as a person but also as a musician who gave 120 per cent on every performance. Even though he...
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'Kind of Bill' - Dado Moroni, Eddie Gomez, Joe LaBarbera
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.On September 29, 2017, BFM Jazz released an audio CD entitled Live at The Casino Sanremo: Kind of Bill [B 074 HCYL 22] which features the...
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Alone Together with Rein de Graaff and The Metropole Orchestra
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Rein de Graaff is a man of contrasts. He is one of Europe's foremost jazz musicians, but he describes himself as "a jazz fan who happens to...
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Jim and Andy's: A Musicians Bar
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“There were a couple of midtown bars where musicians hung out. Some of the staff guys at CBS spent their free time at the Spotlight, a...
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"Wish Me Well" - The Music of Gary McFarland by the Mark Masters Ensemble
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Gary McFarland was unknown at twenty-eight when he turned up at a 1961 rehearsal [of Gerry Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band] with two pieces,...
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Philly Jazz – John Swana
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.It’s a such a shame.Today’s Jazz players are constantly being compared to the Giants of Jazz of halcyon days gone by.Bull puckey!These guys can...
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Criss-Crossing With Kenny Washington
Steven Cerra [C] Copyright protected; all rights reserved.If Kenny Washington had played in the 1950s - modern Jazz's heyday - he would be legendary today. It’s that simple. He’s that good a...
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Al Cohn
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Sometimes it’s funny how I arrive at the subjects and themes for the postings that appear on the blog.I like to think that I am a fairly...
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"The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums" by Will Friedwald as Reviewed by Ted Gioia
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.It’s only fitting that one of the earliest reviews of Will Friedwald’s new book in a major publication be written by Ted Gioia as I would...
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Pops and Mama Jazz Holiday Gift Guide from Downbeat 2017
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Downbeat annually does its readers the service of reviewing suggested books, recordings and photography compilations that would make wonderful...
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Buddy Rich - Remembering An Icon by John McDonough
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Is this some kind of magician's trick Mr. Rich is putting on us? - that we really don't hear or see what we think we do? I recall standing...
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