CiTR -- The Jazz Show

Multi-instrumentalist, Eric Dolphy's recording debut under his own name was a startling reminder of some of the changes that were taking place in Jazz in the late 50's and early 60's. Eric Dolphy seemed to come out of nowhere and in his short life was like a comet that streaked across the Jazz horizon. Eric was born in Los Angeles on June 20,1928 and died as a result of diabetes in Berlin on June...

This immortal all-star session took place on Christmas Eve 1954. The date was nominally led by a newly revitalized Miles Davis who by early 1954 had shaken off the shackles of heroin addiction and began his rise to Jazz greatness. Bob Weinstock, the wily and feisty owner of Prestige Records offered Miles, who was under contract with the label, a date on Christmas Eve 1954 and asked Miles to pick t...

When Grant Green first came on the international Jazz scene and signed, upon the recommendation of alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson, to Blue Note Records, the owner of the record company, Alfred Lyon, was unsure how to present Green. Green was a solid blues player and was well versed in bop and standards. Lyon featured Green in an organ trio context but Grant wanted and loved the more accoustic sett...

Yusef Lateef (born William Evans in Chattanooga, Tennessee and raised in Detroit) was 80 years old on October 9 2008 and is still teaching/lecturing and performing. Yusef really became prominent to the Jazz community in general when he expanded Cannonball Adderley's Quintet to a Sextet, adding his compositions, his flute and oboe and of course, his mighty tenor saxophone to the Adderley band. Afte...

Dizzy Gillespie was not only a great Jazz pioneer and an extraordinary trumpet player, composer, percussionist, band leader and excellent scat singer but a great musical catalyst who understood musical situations and he understood the competitive spirit of tenor saxophonist Sonny Stitt who is paired with the younger titan of the tenor, Sonny Rollins. Both musicians inspire Gillespie to reach beyon...

This album was Stan Getz' pride and joy. The great tenor saxophonist had returned to the USA from a long stay in Europe in 1961 and found himself yesterday's man. The face of Jazz was changing and the music of Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane had become predominant and to add to Getz' woes, Sonny Rollins had returned to active playing after a sabbatical. Getz led a fine quartet with...

This is some of the best live music ever recorded....fresh and raw...vital with a street sense that is lacking in much of today's Jazz. This music is the real deal! The great drummer,Art Blakey was the virtual 'house' drummer at Birdland in New York...."The Jazz Corner of the World"....Blakey played and backed everyone of importance. He occasionally was asked to put together a band himself and thi...

One of Ellington's pivotal and innovative recordings that came out of a tour of the Middle East in cities like Baghdad, Isfahan, Damascus, Tehran, Kabul, Beirut, Calcutta, New Delhi etc. and into the far east culminating in Japan was this one called "The Far East Suite". Can you imagine an American orchestra playing in some of these cities today? Ellington and his alter ego, Billy Strayhorn absorb...

Recorded on Oct. 20,1960 with just a quartet with Charles Mingus on bass leading Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, Ted Curson on trumpet and Dannie Richmond on drums, this date was done with the studio lights turned down and with Mingus announcing the tunes as if they were in a club. This was the last hurrah for this quartet as Dolphy and Curson had given their notice to Mingus. The...

This is one of Monk's most important recordings and set the stage for his return to the forefront of Jazz. In the early 50's Monk, although his recordings for Blue Note and Prestige are now classics, was brushed aside by the forces in Jazz and didn't work very much. He was generally dismissed as a mildly interesting eccentric...nothing more. He did, however have a small following among musicians a...

Although not exactly a household name, vibist/composer Teddy Charles was one of the most important musicians in the 1950's. He was at the forefront of cutting edge Jazz as a musician, bandleader, producer and a.& r man for various record labels. Teddy came through the last era of the big bands and in 1952 formed his New Directions Quartet and went on to working with his close friend, the mercurial...

John Coltrane's pivotal album "Giant Steps" recorded in May of 1959 with a hand picked band including Tommy Flanagan on piano,Paul Chambers on bass and Arthur Taylor on drums marked a summing up of what Coltrane was aiming for after playing with Miles Davis(twice) and Thelonious Monk and recording extensively as a sideman and leader. All of the compositions are his and he rarely played them after...

The late vibraphonist, Walt Dickerson, who was born in Philadelphia on April 16, 1928 and died on May 15, 2008 was an extraordinary musician who never compromised his music and remained true to his artistic muse. Dickerson's style is neither beholden to Lionel Hampton or the all-pervasive Milt Jackson but was influenced by saxophone players. Some critics called Dickerson "the Coltrane of the vibes...

This famous recording is Part 2 of our "back to school" mode and an annual Feature on The Jazz Show. Bernstein, who loved, respected and understood Jazz presents an educational and entertaining study of this musical form. He talks about how it's put together with some musical examples provided by Bernstein, himself at the piano and some major players like Coleman Hawkins, Buck Clayton, Buster Bail...

Julian Edwin Adderley was born in Tampa,Florida on September 15, 1928 and died of a stroke in Los Angeles on August 8,1975 just shy of his 47th birthday. Adderley was more than one of the great masters of the alto and later the soprano saxophone, he was a bandleader, educator and one of the greatest communicators in Jazz. The loss to the music upon his death was enormous as not only could his soun...

This band was one of the most innovative and exciting groups of the 1980's. It's beginnings happened in what many consider to be Charles Mingus' last great band. In that band was tenor saxophonist/vocalist George Adams, pianist Don Pullen and of course, drummer Dannie Richmond plus trumpeter Jack Walrath and Mingus. Pullen left the Mingus band after a musical dispute with the leader and Adams left...

This album is a bit of a misnomer as it was recorded in New York in the studio in March and April 1965, after the band had returned from a short(Ellington's first) to the West Indies. Duke and his alter-ego, Billy Strayhorn wrote some new material for the tour and it's heard here along with some standard Ellington fare. All of the compositions come from within Ellingtonia. The band is relaxed and...

Carla Bley has had one of the most interesting and varied careers in Jazz and improvised music. Composer, pianist, arranger and band leader, Bley was born in Oakland, California on May 11,1938. Ms. Bley is still very much with us and a vital force in music, playing duets with her present partner, electric bass virtuoso Steve Swallow and leading her band and playing her highly original music. Carla...

The legendary Louis Smith was born in Memphis, Tennessee on May 20, 1931 and although felled by a stroke and not able to play anymore is still alive and teaching select students. Smith burst upon the New York scene in the late 50's and made two classic albums for Blue Note Records that were for years collector's items. When Blue Note released the newly discovered "Horace Silver Quintet Live at New...

Park "Pepper" Adams is without a doubt one of the great voices of the baritone saxophone. Adams rejected the softer approaches of Gerry Mulligan and Serge Chaloff and came to the instrument directly from Harry Carney and Leo Parker with a rich, muscular sound that earned Adams the nickname, "The Knife". He graced many bands, Mingus,Kenton,Lionel Hampton and the great Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra...

This most personal statement from this great Chicago-born tenor saxophonist, Clifford Jordan, is even more unique because all the tunes save for the standard, "How Deep is the Ocean?", and Tom McIntosh's tune "Malice Towards None" are all written by Jordan. His great sound and individual approach to the tenor is evident here, his high keening sound and blues inflected concept works beautifully. Jo...

Pianist Ahmad Jamal is one of the major stylists and this trio with the underrated Israel Crosby on bass and Vernel Fournier on drums was one of Jamal's finest organizations. None other than Miles Davis loved Jamal and insisted that all of his pianists, Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, Herbie Hancock etc. listen to Jamal and learn about dynamics and the use of space from Ahmad. Israel Crosby was to Jama...

Michael Brecker's final recording was not one of a man who was in the throes of pain and death but was an affirmation of life. Pianist Herbie Hancock was the only musician on the date(he recorded four tracks) who was fully aware of Michael's health and the seriousness of his illness, which was MDS, the cause of leukemia which killed Brecker in January 2007. The other musicians involved were Brad M...

Dizzy Gillespie always rose to the occasion when playing in front of a big band whether it was his own, a reunion band or like this one.....put together for a special occasion. Dizzy was selected as artist-in-residence at the 1965 edition of the Monterey Jazz Festival and this album was recorded in the studio ib June of 1965 to be sold at the Festival which was held in September. It marked a reuni...

Charlie Rouse, the underrated tenor saxophonist, was one of the great individual stylists on his horn and he rose to fame as Thelonious Monk's saxophonist. He was with Mr. Monk for eleven years. Red Rodney was with Charlie Parker for three years in the early 1950's. Rodney and Rouse joined up in 1984 for this fine session of good Jazz tunes and one standard. They picked an excellent rhythm section...