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Jazz Big Band Composer-Arrangers: What They Do and How They Do It
© -Steven Cerra. Copyright protected; all rights reserved.Have you ever wondered why a Jazz big band works the way it does, let alone, how it works at all?Why the instrumentation is the way it is -...
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Pete Rugolo: Gentility and Greatness
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Gentle and self-effacing to a fault, Pete has had more influence on jazz than he would ever claim.”- Gene Lees“Rugolo was always a...
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The Montgomery Brothers and George Shearing: An Intriguing Musical Collaboration
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.One of the aspects of Jazz that I have always been intrigued with is its many styles.If, as Louis Armstrong states – “Jazz is who you are” –...
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Hugo Friedhofer - A Compositional and Orchestral Genius
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."But if you feel about music as I do, you are always working at the outer periphery of your abilities. And that makes you insecure."Look,"...
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The Sal Nistico Quartet Live at Carmelo's 1981
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Coming of age as a working Jazz drummer in the late 1950s, I was very fortunate to live in the eastern San Fernando Valley, an area north of...
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The Russia House: Jerry Goldsmith
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Jerry Goldsmith’s The Russia House could very well be the best score ever to feature an unwanted theme and an unwanted album. Not only did...
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Bernie Senensky – Jazz Pianist
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“I could just sit and listen to Bernie Senensky play all day.”Like the late Bill Evans, so could I.Bernie was also a favorite of the late...
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Dwike Mitchell and Willie Ruff – “The Catbird Seat”
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.I’m always asking Jazz musicians and Jazz fans what they are listening to or for their opinions about my current listening and/or favorite...
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Ed Bickert: Part 2 - The Views of Other Musicians
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“One of the many charms of Ed Bickert's guitar playing is that he can be enjoyed on so many levels. Bickert provides music that is seemingly...
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Red Rodney: Jazz Master and Mentor
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“I don't play like I played back in the early days with Bird. I play like today and that's what these young musicians help bring to me. I give...
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Cab, Alyn and Biographies - C.A.B.
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Duke's replacement at the Cotton Club, Cab Calloway’s … scat-jive vocals, epitomized in the "hi-de-ho" call-and-response effects on his...
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Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars - Jazz Is Back In Grand Rapids - 2 LP ORG...
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“On records, Armstrong produced between 1925 and 1932 a body of work which was a primer to a whole generation of musicians. In person, he...
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Monk Redux [From the Archives]
© -Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The reissue of Professor Kelley's [who as since it original publication moved crosstown from USC to become a professor of history at UCLA]...
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Duke Ellington in 1943
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The recordings are even of more interest because this period is a black hole in jazz recording. Because of the musicians union strike, which...
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"Gene Krupa: The World Is Not Enough" by Bobby Scott
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The Jazz at the Philharmonic tour that fall lifted Gene's spirits, at least for a while. But the traveling paled them. I often watched...
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Billy May - The Gene Lees Interview
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Arrangers tend to be mystery characters to the public at large. Even music lovers have little insight into the skills necessary to being...
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Jazz in Paris
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. (...) Paris was always...
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The Brecker Brothers: Broadening Jazz Perspectives
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Although he wrote this for the version of Michael Brecker’s tune African Skies that appears on Michael’s Tales from the Hudson CD...
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Lester Young: "The House in the Heart" by Bobby Scott [From the Archives]
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“... the most shocking thing, in gaining knowledge of where Prez was at, was the wholesale misunderstanding of everyone who crossed his...
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Ike Quebec
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Alfred Lion and his partner Francis Wolff pretty much had fairly set beliefs regarding the music they recorded for their now iconic Blue Note...
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