2-5-1

Musician, composer, and conductor Andre Previn had a long and varied career career.  Simon and Nick discuss his life and his work in the jazz, film and classical music worlds 

Nick and Simon discuss the biography Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original.  Author Robin D. Kelley grew up in Harlem in a house where modern jazz was the soundtrack to family life. His PhD was on Social Movements, but through a series of posts at top American universities he moved more towards writing about music...

The Fillmore district of San Francisco was known as " The Harlem of the West" in the 1940s and there were many clubs that flourished there for a decade or more.  Live recordings of top artists bear the names of some of them. There are currently several jazz clubs and a specialised Jazz Centre in San Fransisco so  in the words of Frank Zappa,  in Fog City " jazz isn't dead it ju...

Send us a text Nick and Simon discuss the  well known book of jazz interviews  ' Hear  me Talkin' to Ya  The Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It.'

Red Garland was one of the big beasts of the 1950s New York jazz scene recording  many albums as leader with his  trio, he was also part of the first great Miles Davis quartet and with Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones  they collectively became known as " The Rhythm Section" In this episode Nick and Simon discuss and demonstrate Red Garlands pugilistic block chord playing styl...

Simon and Nick discuss the book Blue Notes in Black and White a book about the relationship between jazz image and jazz music.  Below is the blurb from the book:  You can read an excerpt here   Miles Davis, supremely cool behind his shades. Billie Holiday, eyes closed and head tilted back in full cry. John Coltrane, one hand behind his neck and a finger held pensively to his lips. T...

The rent party was a phenomenon that occurred from 1920-1950's particularly in areas like Harlem, to raise the money needed to meet the cost of accommodation,  which was often higher for black tenants.  They were covertly advertised on simple cards  as "Social Parties" or "Whist Parties"  Rent parties in Harlem often had music provided by stride piano stars like Fats Waller or...

What is quartal harmony? Who brought it into jazz and when? Nick and Simon discuss these questions.

Send us a text Here are 2 examples of quartile harmony to support the previous podcast

Send us a text When is a dominant chord not a dominant chord? When it's a tritone substitution! We try to demystify this term and speak about its use in jazz harmony.

Send us a text The Flamingo Club The  Flamingo Club (not to be confused with Club Flamingo of Police Squad!) was a London nightclub active from 1952-1969. It was initially, primarily a jazz club and later became a haunt for the swinging 60s crowd featuring bands like The Who. Simon would like to make a correction 1959 is, in fact, not the book he was thinking of it was London Blues. However 1959 i...

Send us a text Book Review Ted Gioia has written 11 books on music, many of them on jazz. Simon wrongly said that the first book of Ted's he read was West Coast Jazz forgetting that it was actually  " Jazz : An Imperfect Art" from 1989 - one of the four books of  Gioia's which won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. How to listen to how to listen to jazz - click here Subscribe to his...

Archer Street We discuss the role of a single Soho street in the lives of musicians looking for work in London from the 1920s until the 1960s Watch the Documentary mentioned here Musicians Union Article here

This is our third interview with people who promote, facilitate and help proliferate jazz. Sebastian Scotney is the driving force behind London Jazz News a hub for the promotion of new jazz releases, upcoming gigs and all things 'jazz' in London and beyond.  

Tete Montoliu was a Spanish pianist who had a long and successful career. As part of our "under-the-radar" pianists strand we discuss him and his playing style. This goes with our other episodes on pianists Mel Powell, Joe Albany, Hod O'Brien and Horace Parlan, all well worth checking out if you haven't heard those episodes.

Riverside Records only ran from 1953 to 1964 but in that time captured some of the greats of the period. Orin Keepnews was the producer of a majority of the jazz albums, and even had a tune named after him composed by Bill Evans at his anagramatical best! 

In this Episode Nick and Simon discuss Stars of Jazz   which was an American television program that ran between 1956 and 1958 and featured performances and interviews with many leading jazz performers of the time. The innovative program started on KABC-TV in Los Angeles in June 1956. It was produced by Jimmie Baker , and presented by pianist and songwriter Bobby Troup . Musicians who appeared on...

Another in our series of music theory podcasts, this time we focus on the whole tone scale. In music , a whole-tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole tone . In twelve-tone equal temperament , there are only two complementary whole-tone scales, both six-note or hexatonic scales. A single whole tone scale can also be thought of as a "...

Nick and Simon talk about Birdland the  jazz club which  started in New York City on December 15, 1949. The original Birdland, which was located at 1678 Broadway , just north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan , was closed in 1965 due to increased rents, but it re-opened for one night in 1979 for the 30 year anniversary. A revival began in 1986 with the opening of the second nightclub by the same na...

Horace Parlan is another of our 'under-the-radar' piainists,  known for working in the hard bop and post-bop styles of jazz . In addition to his work as a bandleader Parlan was known for his contributions to the Charles Mingus recordings Mingus Ah Um and Blues & Roots .   

What is a fakebook, where can I get one and is a real book different? These questions are answered as Nick and Simon discuss the jazz player's tune bible.

In this episode Nick and Simon discuss classic holiday albums from the past, and also look at a couple of new Christmas releases. This year we also deal with the issue of wassailing!  Here is an apple music playlist of some of the albums we discuss https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/2-5-1-christmas-special-2021/pl.u-2aRjqtKaoYZ MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Norman Granz set up Jazz at the Philharmonic with little more than chutzpah and a handful of cash. JATP would go on to create careers and fortunes for many musicians.  Find out more as Nick and Simon discuss a series of concerts that changed jazz.

Simon and Nick discuss an instrument less often heard in jazz - the harp.

Send us a text Who was the Jazz Heavy weight?  Nick and Simon discuss the biography of a jazz great who had a varied career.