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Roberta Piket - WEST COAST TRIO
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Since 2010, the gifted New-York based pianist Roberta Piket has recorded twice with various-sized ensembles - Sides, Colors and One for...
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Jazz Literature on the Career of Composer-Arranger George Russell
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.This blog posting features a collection of six articles on George Russell, an American Jazz Composer and Arranger and orchestra leader,...
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Jazz Literature on the Career of Gary McFarland:
This blog posting features a collection of four articles on Gary McFarland, an American Jazz Composer and Arranger and orchestra leader, who lived from 1933 to 1971.It is essentially an unedited...
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You Stepped Out A Dream/Chick’s Tune
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved."You Stepped Out of a Dream Composed by Nacio Herb Brown, with lyrics by Gus Kahn"During the early 19405, "You Stepped Out of a Dream" was...
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Oscar Peterson - In The Black Forest
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Oscar Peterson's contract with Verve ran out in 1964 and he left the company. He signed with Limelight, a new subsidiary of Mercury that would...
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The Metropole Orchestra [Metropole Orkest]
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.As a young man aspiring to make a career in music, the catchphrase as I was maturing in the business was – “Don’t give up your day...
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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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Joe Dodge - The Gordon Jack Interview
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Gordon Jack's interview with the late drummer Joe Dodge [1922-2004] first appeared in the January, 1995 issue of JazzJournal....
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John Coltrane: The Prestige Recordings
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“In less than five years from his debut with Miles Davis, Coltrane moved from virtual obscurity to acclaim as the tenor saxophone innovator of...
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Structure and Freedom: A Reappraisal of the Modern Jazz Quartet by Don DeMicheal
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“When John Lewis stated his jazz ideals for the 1955 Metronome Yearbook, Jazz 1955, he said "They stem from what led to and became Count...
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Sonny Rollins – The Prestige Years
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved“Sonny Rollins first recorded for Bob Weinstock's new Prestige label in 1949, when he was not yet 19 years old and at the very beginning of his...
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Zoot Sims - All in One Place
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Zoot Sims produced elegant melodies with apparent nonchalance.”[Len Lyons and Don Perlo, Jazz Portraits, p.469]““Zoot was the most swinging...
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Karel Boehlee – Soft Touch
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.Piano is such an intriguing instrument. Not only can one pound the hell out of it, but it can also be played softly, almost caressingly, to a...
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Cal Tjader - 1965 Downbeat Blindfold Test
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.I’ve always been amazed by how closely Jazz musicians of my era followed the work of their peers or, at least, had an interest in those...
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Natural Flow - The Bill Evans Trio by John A. Tynan
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.In the early 1960s, not too long after it first opened, pianist Bill Evans was a frequent visitor to drummer Shelly Manne’s - The Manne...
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