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The Evolution of the Don Ellis Orchestra - Part 8 - "Don Ellis Electric...
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.While Jazz and its makers have historically been well-served by an aural record in the form of recordings, tapes and discs, all too...
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The Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra Featuring Lew Tabackin - "Desert...
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The band sounded so good that sometimes when I listen to the recordings I am touched by the performance. I think that’s the way it should be,...
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Red Norvo: The All-But-Forgotten Big Red One
© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“Red Norvo, …, presents an especially acute challenge to jazz historians. His various musical associations flew in the face of stylistic...
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JAZZ: The Iconic Images of Ted Williams.
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The best Jazz photographer in the world.”- Julian “Cannonball” Adderley“In Chicago, if you weren’t captured by Ted, it was like you...
View ArticlePaul Horn - Profile of a Jazz Musician - 06 - Fun Time
Paul Moer's Fun Time returns the combo to its more customary habit of toying with bar-lines. Here the measures in the chorus run 3-3-5 (four times) followed by 5-5-3-3-5. "These things sound so...
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Stan Getz - "From Swing to Bop"
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“The fourth movement of "Summer Sequence" was just something tossed in front of us, an afterthought by Ralph Burns . . . and there...
View ArticleJust in Time - Joe Morello
"Just in Time" with Joe Morello - drums; Phil Woods - alto saxophone; Gene Cherico - bass; John Bunch - piano; Gary Burton - vibes.The rub on Joe was that he didn't swing. After listening to this cut,...
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Erroll Garner on Verve Jazz Masters
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“What amazed the world most about Garner was that his virtuosity was achieved without any of the customary foundations upon which...
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"Lullaby of Birdland" - George Shearing
© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The following is excerpted from George’s aptly-titled autobiography Lullaby of Birdland [New York: Continuum Books, 2004].Jazz clubs were...
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Bill Holman - "Working Methods, Personal Views and Influences" - from the...
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.The following interview on Bill Holman’s “Working Methods, Personal Views and Influences” is from composer-arranger Bill Dobbins’...
View ArticleMelvin Rhyne - The Trick Bag
Organist Mel Rhyne with guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Kenny Washington lighting it up on Wes Montgomery's "The Trick Bag." Notice the way in which Melvin and Peter alternate their [two chorus]...
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Miles Davis At Columbia Records - "How It All Began" - by George Avakian
© - Steven A. Cerra - copyright protected; all rights reserved.The following is from a time when support from recording companies along with coverage by the Jazz press could help bring national and...
View ArticleSpring Will Be A Little Late This Year
“No one who experienced him in performance can forget the sight: a stocky blind man swaying precariously back and forth on the lip of a bandstand, dressed in a yellow jump suit, his face implacable...
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John Coltrane - The Jazz Musician Essay with Interviews by Pete Watrous
© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.“He called me up and asked if I would join his band. I was very interested in trying to get the things I was playing in the public's...
View ArticleFelliniJazz - Enrico Pieranunzi - "I Vitelloni"
Pianist Enrico Pieranunzi performing Nino Rota's theme to Fellini's film "I Vitelloni" with Kenny Wheeler, trumpet, Chris Potter, soprano and tenor saxophones, Charlie Haden, bass and Paul Motian, drums.
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