Oscar Peterson - Piano Jazz

Charlie Parker - Celebrity (Featuring Buddy Rich, Ray Brown & Hank Jones)

Artie Shaw - Nonstop Flight

Pat Metheny Quotes

"I met Gary (Burton) at the Wichita Jazz Festival when I was 18 -- he was one of my favorite musicians and I got to play a few tunes with him there. Shortly after that, I joined his band, which was the equivalent of joining the Beatles for me! He was, and still is, one of the greatest musicians I have ever been lucky enough to be around." - Pat Metheny

source: digitalinterviews.com

Pat Metheny Quotes

"1962 to 1965, where suddenly the guitar became this icon of youth culture all over the world, thanks mostly to the Beatles. Add to that, that I saw A Hard Day's Night 12 or 13 times, and that the guitar was the one instrument that my parents absolutely refused to let in the house. So you add it up and see that irresistible forces led me to the guitar." - Pat Metheny

source: digitalinterviews.com

Pat Metheny Quotes

"..my older brother Mike is an excellent trumpet player. By the time he was 12, he was playing around Kansas City in various classical situations and he was already an amazing talent. The comparisons of being his little brother and also playing the trumpet -- and, I have to add, I was not a naturally gifted trumpet player -- didn't feel that good. I thought my name was "Mike Metheny's little brother." - Pat Metheny

source: digitalinterviews.com

Christian McBride Quotes

"Watch your attitude. I don’t mean to sound like so much of an old head, but there is another generation behind me, out there, doing it now. I find that, with the whole hip-hop generation, there’s a lot of attitude. Whether it’s confidence or arrogance or whichever, I will always say to a young guy, “Nobody wants to work with an asshole.” You know, you can still be a great player. You can still play all of the baddest licks in the world. But if you don’t have a good attitude, nobody’s going to work with you." - Christian McBride

source: digitalinterviews.com

Christian McBride Quotes

"I’ve always felt that most jazz artists don’t need producers .. most jazz artists know what kind of sound they want. They don’t need a producer to come in there and tell them, “Oh, I think you should do this.” I’ve always found it very strange that there’s been such a thing as producers in jazz." - Christian McBride

source: digitalinterviews.com

Christian McBride Quotes

"When you think of diversity, George Duke fits that bill better than a lot of people. He’s played a lot of straight-ahead jazz with people like Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley; he’s played a lot of fusion with his own groups, with Stanley Clarke; and, you know, he did the rock thing with Frank Zappa. He’s written all kinds of big arrangements for people like Burt Bacharach. So, he’s covered the board. He’s still a great pianist." - Christian McBride

source: digitalinterviews.com

Christian McBride Quotes

"I’m really not this jazz traditionalist guy you’ve been making me out to be all of these years." - Christian McBride

source: digitalinterviews.com

Christian McBride Quotes

"Had it not been for musicians like Wynton, his brother Branford, Kenny Barron, Bobby Watson and all kinds of guys, taking time out of their busy schedules to come and teach us when we were in high school, I don’t know how serious I would have become about being a jazz musician. So, I totally believe that it’s my duty to give it back." - Christian McBride

source: digitalinterviews.com

Christian McBride Quotes

"Out of nowhere, I get this commission to write a piece for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. I remember asking Wynton, “Man, are you sure you want to do this? I’ve never written for a big band before.” He said, “I bet you can do it.” That was my first chance to write for a large ensemble, and that turned out well." - Christian McBride

source: digitalinterviews.com

Christian McBride Quotes

"For my money, Ray Brown is the greatest living bass player. Every great thing that’s happened on bass since Ray Brown -- all of us point back to him. That’s where it started, you know. Ray Brown is definitely a walking master, and to get to play with him is obviously an opportunity that no one should ever pass up." - Christian McBride

source: digitalinterviews.com

Christian McBride Quotes

"The most significant bands I played in when I first got to New York were Bobby Watson’s band, Roy Hargrove’s first band, Benny Golson’s band, Benny Green’s trio, and probably the most significant out of all of those, for me personally, was playing in Freddie Hubbard’s band." - Christian McBride

source: digitalinterviews.com

Christian McBride Quotes

"That’s when I left Philly, to move up here to New York City. I learned a lot at Juilliard. It was actually my original intention to have a dual career. I wanted to have a career playing as much music as possible. I wanted to try to play jazz if I could. I wanted to play classical. I wanted to play R&B. I wanted to try to play everything but, obviously, that would be really hard to do. I went to Juilliard, obviously on a classical scholarship. I figured I was in New York City, so I would get to go to jam sessions and play with all of the jazz cats at night, and I could study classical in school during the day. But, you know, one thing led to another, and I wound up getting a lot of gigs on the jazz scene, and I had to temporarily hang up my classical career." - Christian McBride

source: digitalinterviews.com

Christian McBride Quotes

"The active jazz scene bled into what became the "Philadelphia era" and the "national era" of soul music, which hit their peak right around the time I was born -- 1972. Billy Paul had his first major hit with “Me & Mrs. Jones.” The O'Jays had “Back Stabbers.” Man, there was lots of stuff goin’ on. Hal Melvin and the Blue Notes, with a young Teddy Pendergrass as their lead singer. So, that went all the way through the ‘70s. Then, toward the late ‘70s, Grover Washington started getting gold records, and the jazz scene resurfaced in Philly. There was always lots of stuff going on. That was a really great place to grow up. In the early ‘80s, when the Philadelphia “international” scene started to die out, Grover became the national hero of Philadelphia. Then Pieces of a Dream came out. They emanated out of Grover’s band. They really were hot in the early ‘80s. By the time I graduated from high school, little did I know that half of the graduating class was going to turn out to be superstars -- Boyz II Men; Ahmir Thompson, who’s better known to the hip-hop world as ?uestlove -- he runs the group called the Roots; organist Joey De Francesco, my good buddy; guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel; and Amel Larrieux, who used to sing with Groove Theory, who now has her own thing happening in the R&B world. There was so much stuff going on in Philly growing up." - Christian McBride

source: digitalinterviews.com

T Lavitz Quotes

"I started lessons down in the neighborhood from the local piano teacher when I was seven. The first thing I did was learn to read, and then study classical piano for ten years before I did anything else - about learning blues or how to jam. I had a really good structured background first." - T Lavitz

source: digitalinterviews.com

Alphonso Johnson Quotes

"When I went to school to learn how to play, they didn't teach me jazz or classical or rock. They taught me how to play music, and the notes are the same. When Keith Richards plays a G-flat minor, minor 7 chord, it's the same chord Bach uses, it's the same chord Miles uses. It's just music." - Alphonso Johnson

source: digitalinterviews.com

Johnny Frigo Quotes

"Oh, yeah. You know, the bus. It’s that same old thing. I never “took” anything, you know. I’ve yet to smoke a normal cigarette in my entire life. It was very strange. All kids that are young want to emulate their peers, and, luckily, I never got into that bag. I’m not bragging. I’m just lucky." - Johnny Frigo

source: digitalinterviews.com

Johnny Frigo Quotes

"I met some old Italian guy who had a beat-up string bass. I remember distinctly it had only three strings on it, and the G-string, which was a gut string, was tied in a knot. I didn’t know anything about bass, so I just started slapping around. But, for the next half century, I was a bass player. I made 90 or 95 percent of my living playing bass." - Johnny Frigo

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"If you're really digging in -- soul to soul, skin on skin -- you're going to do damage to your hands [playing the Conga drum]. It's an occupational hazard. You're going to be playing, and it's going to hurt. You're really going to have to love to play in order for you to do this kind of work, because it's going to hurt you." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"I just read an article in a drum magazine, and I won an award as being the jazz percussionist. I really like that terminology -- jazz percussionist. They had different headings, like Latin percussionist and Salsa percussionist. I was the jazz percussionist. For me, that's a tremendous compliment, because it covers all the music." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"At the end of the night, I'm sweating. I feel as though I have played. That's what I am -- I'm a player. I like to play out. With this [David Sanborn's] band, I get the opportunity to do that -- to play. That's why I'm here." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"She [Joni Mitchell] wanted to have that (jazz) element in her music. Of course, when she heard Jaco's [Jaco Pastorius'] music and met him, that floored her -- really grabbed her. She decided that Wayne Shorter was really conducive to her music. She would speak metaphorically about things. "I want this to sound like a taxicab driver, or a taxi in New York," or "I want this to sound like a telephone ringing." She would speak to musicians like that, and we really tuned into what she would want our music to be." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"We're talking about an extremely prolific poet and songwriter and lyricist. That stuff comes off the top of her head. She [Joni Mitchell] will write exactly what she lives. If she puts some money in the soda machine, she'll write about putting money in the soda machine. "Dry Cleaner from Des Moines," on the Shadows & Light album, was about sitting next to a dry cleaner from Des Moines, playing a slot machine." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

Sometimes I found myself playing, and turning over to my left, and I would see Miles Davis standing there, looking to see what was happening. I got a call to come down to this recording session. I walked into the studio and saw all of these musicians. Everybody knew it was going to be a monumental session -- it turned out to be Bitches Brew. Most of the songs we'd done were first and second takes. Miles counted off one particular tune. I was playing percussion, and somehow or another it didn't gel. Lenny White and Jack DeJohnette were both playing drums. He counted it off a second time, and it didn't gel. I couldn't take it any longer. I had been practicing this one rhythm that I had gotten from a drummer, and I knew it was perfect for what he was playing. I just kind of just took it upon myself to say, "Miles, I've got this rhythm." He said, [raspy Miles Davis voice] "Well, just go play it." I played it, and he said, [raspy] "Show Jack." It's one of these kinds of rhythms that doesn't require a bunch of technique. An accomplished drummer like DeJohnette probably had no problem doing it, but at that moment it was a little hard to get. He just said, [raspy] "Stay there." So I got a chance to play drums on that." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"Then, on my way to California, I decided to stop in New York to do some research. I couldn't leave, because that's where the music was!" - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"Mom did not want me to have anything to do with playing music. Being from a middle-class Black family in that particular era, everybody wanted you to have a profession -- a doctor, a lawyer, and so forth. So she sent me to school to study medicine." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"I grew up learning this stuff on the streets of New York. My brother and I used to play in the subway for money." - Don Alias

source:digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"If they [the crowd at The Apollo Theater] don't like you, they will let you know. When you didn't have any talent, they would let you know about it -- and not kindly. There'd be things like "Get off the stage!" and certain expletives we won't say here. It was a rough audience." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Don Alias Quotes

"I grew up in New York. We were all diversified, as far as music was concerned. I grew up liking just about everything. So I tried to incorporate that into my playing, although the original school where I came from was Afro-Cuban music. But I liked all kinds of music -- I tried to bring that into everything." - Don Alias

source: digitalinterviews.com

Chick Corea Quotes

"As a musician, I don't have one thing that's "my thing." I like to create, and have a lot of outlets for it. Dustin Hoffman is one of the guys that sets a model for me, because of how good he is at being such different characters. Every time you see DeNiro, he's pretty much DeNiro -- great, but DeNiro. Hoffman is different every time, depending on his character. That's how I see myself as a performer." - Chick Corea

source: digitalinterviews.com

Chick Corea Quotes

"Risk is one of those factors that goes on a monitor, up and down. Even if you have the same program with the same band, the risk factor changes performance to performance, depending on how much risk the musicians are taking with what they're playing. Even a free-form ensemble can play it safe." - Chick Corea

source: digitalinterviews.com

Chick Corea Quotes

"A quality; an unexplainable, spiritual quality that creative people have, that is just inspiring, and there's no way to really describe it, except that you feel invigorated, and you want to create yourself. The arts, I feel in general, are the last bastion of that on planet Earth anyway. It's like a pinhole left on planet Earth -- of the arts, which is the idea of creativity, which is the idea of the use of the imagination in order to make up things that you present to other people, for only the purpose of wanting them to experience it. And experience the pleasure of it." - Chick Corea

source: digitalinterviews.com

Chick Corea Quotes

"I feel fortunate to have been able to be with such great musicians. I feel that's really the way I developed my own music and art form; by getting continually inspired by great musicians, and also learning various musicians' approaches -- and their way. It's the standard way anyone learns a skill, which is apprenticeship. You work with someone who does what you want to do very well, and you learn the basic ideas and then take it where you want to go." - Chick Corea

source: digitalinterviews.com

Chick Corea Quotes

"My dad was all about music. He was a musician, leading a band when I was born. His band was active all through the 40s. He'd started it in the late 20s and 30s. According to the scrapbook, his band was doing quite well around the Boston area. During the Depression they were on radio. It was a jazz-oriented band. He was a trumpet player, and he wrote and arranged for the band. He taught me how to play the piano and read music, and taught me what he knew of standard tunes and so forth. It was a fantastic way to come up in music." - Chick Corea

source: digitalinterviews.com

Dave Brubeck Trio spec. Guest Paul Desmond & Gerry Mulligan part 2 Truth

Allen Ginsberg Quotes

"From it's inception Beat poetry was hailed as "something NEW" and "like all good spontaneous jazz, newness is acceptable and expected - by hip people who listen." But the newness of jazz has in it the echoes of J. S. Bach." - Allen Ginsberg

source: On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg (by Allen Ginsberg)

Jack Kerouac Quotes

"... and up on the stand [Charlie] Bird Parker with solemn eyes who'd been busted fairly recently and had now returned to a kind of bop dead Frisco but had just discovered or been told about the Red Drum, the great new generation gang wailing and gathering there, so here he was on the stand, examinign them with his eyes as he blew his now-settled-down-into-regulated-design "crazy" notes ... whom I saw distinctly digging Mardou several times also myself directly into my eye looking to search if really I was that great writer I thought myself to be as if he knew my thoughts and ambitions or remembered me from other night clubs and other coasts, other Chicagos - not a challenging look but the king and founder of the bop generation at least the sound of it in digging his audience digging the eyes, the secret eyes him-watching, as he just pursed his lips and let great lungs and immortal fingers work, his eyes separate and interested and humane, the kindest jazz musician there could be while being and therefore naturally the greatest - watching Marldou and me in the infancy of our love and probably wondering why, or knowing it wouldn't last, or seeing who it was would be hurt..." - Jack Kerouac

source: The Subterraneans (by Jack Kerouac)

Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

"What has been America's most nurturing contribution to the culture of this planet so far? Many would say jazz. I, who love jazz, will say this instead: Alcoholics Anonymous." - Kurt Vonnegut

source: War Preparers' Anonymous, Essay in The Nation (January 7, 1984)

Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

"Foreigners love us for our jazz. And they don't hate us for our purported liberty and justice for all. They hate us for our arrogance." - Kurt Vonnegut

source: A Man Without a Country

Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

"What I would really like to have been, given a perfect world, is a jazz pianist. I mean jazz. I don't mean rock and roll. I mean the never-the-same-twice music the American black people gave the world." - Kurt Vonnegut

source: Hocus Pocus

Joe Pass Quotes

"I'm a little tired. I haven't been out for more than five or six weeks in the States, and that's really a lot for me. You know, to me, music is important, it's the way I make my living and I like it and I enjoy playing. But it's not the most important thing in my life - that's my family." - Joe Pass

source: Interview with Guitar Magazine (June, 1974)

Joe Pass Quotes

"Using drugs didn't help me to play, all it did was to hang me up for about fifteen years." - Joe Pass

source: Interview with Guitar Magazine (June, 1974)

Joe Pass Quotes

"It [drinking] all started when I split from home. I got the opportunity to go on the road and I went off with groups and trios. And I got introduced to drinking and all that. I was rebelling really and although I wasn't influenced by knowing that other jazz players were onto it, there was a point where there was a definite identifying with that, because it was part of the whole scene. It's just part of the environment and still is; but that doesn't mean that you have got to get caught up in it. But I thought that was the way to go, and I went from one thing to another and that's how I got started. I got heavily involved and people were saying, 'You'd better cool it, you'd better stop.' But I mean - I couldn't hear anything they said. Everybody, people close to me, my family; I didn't hear them; you never do." - Joe Pass

source: Interview with Guitar Magazine (June, 1974)

Joe Pass Quotes

"Well I never copied [Django Reinhardt]. I don't remember that I copied any guitar player note-for-note. But I remember copying Charlie Parker note for note." - Joe Pass

source: Interview with Guitar Magazine (June, 1974)

Joe Pass Quotes

"My father would say, 'Play a scale,' and I'd play one and he'd say, 'What about the rest? There must be one above,' so we'd figure them out. I'd start the scale on the root of the chord and I'd go as far as my hand would reach without going out of position, say, five frets, and then I'd go all the way back. So when ! practised I'd start right away on scales. As well as the usual ones, I'd play whole tone scales, diminished, dominant sevenths, and chromatic scales. Every chord form, all the way up, and this took an hour." - Joe Pass

source: Interview with Guitar Magazine (June, 1974)

Joe Pass Quotes

[My father] didn't know anything about music, he didn't play an instrument; but he wanted us to become something more than a steel-worker like himself." - Joe Pass

source: Interview with Guitar Magazine (June, 1974)

Joe Pass Quotes

"I grew up playing the guitar. I started when I was nine, and by the time I was nine and a half or ten, I was doing seven or eight hours' practice every day. I did two hours' practice at six o'clock in the morning before I went to school, and another two hours as soon as I got home from school in the afternoon. Then I did four hours at night before I went to bed. I did that until I was fourteen or fifteen." - Joe Pass

source: Interview with Guitar Magazine (June, 1974)

Joe Pass Quotes

"Guitarists should be able to pick up the guitar and play music on it for an hour, without a rhythm section or anything." - Joe Pass

Joe Pass Quotes

"If you hit a wrong note, then make it right by what you play afterwards." - Joe Pass

Tal Farlow Quotes

"For something to gain so much popularity and appeal for so many people, it has to be either musically valid or so commercial that you can't ignore it, especially if your living depends on it. Jazz has never really reached that kind of popularity and I don't think it ever will, because you're actually playing for musicians and musicians are not a good crowd to play for. If you are going to try and make some money, you've got to appeal to a wider area than that. But I think that it's the musicians that determine who's good, who goes to the top, and who gets work. I guess the enthusiasts who are not involved in it, just take the musicians word for it." - Tal Farlow

Wes Montgomery Quotes

"I don't know whether it was his [Charlie Christian's] melodic lines, his sound or his approach, but I hadn't heard anything like that before. He sounded so good and it sounded so easy, so I bought me a guitar and an amplifier and said now I can't do nothing but play! Really, welding was my talent, I think, but I sort of swished it aside." - Wes Montgomery

Larry Coryell Quotes

"Barney Kessel was 'Mr. Guitar,' the foremost jazz guitarist of his generation. He had an amazing imagination, his solos were incredible, he swung his tail off, he was a heck of an arranger and could out-read anybody..." - Larry Coryell

Barney Kessel Quotes

"Charlie Christian showed me a lot, and was a great help, but even then, I realised that if I was going to make it, it was no use copying Charlie." - Barney Kessel

Barney Kessel Quotes

"When I joined the [Oscar Peterson] Trio, it was as if I was capable of driving a sports car at 60, but Ray Brown and Oscar Peterson just kept pressing the pedal down, and I was trying to control the car at 80!" - Barney Kessel

Kenny Burrell Quotes

"My inspiration comes from the message Duke Ellington gave - you are unique, be yourself, put out that thing that is you, then use your work ethic and produce great music." - Kenny Burrell

Larry Coryell Quotes

"Over the years I hope I've become more of a musican and less of a guitarist." - Larry Coryell

Larry Carlton Quotes

"Back in the day in my teens I was listening to Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery a lot; before that I was listening to what I would call now the more 'simple' jazz players (but still very valid), like Barney Kessel or Johnny Smith; I learnt a lot of voicings from Johnny Smith records. Now, I listen to the old blues players; that's what you'd hear in my house if there was music on. It would be Albert Collins or Albert King." - Larry Carlton

George Benson Quotes

"People who love jazz musicians love us when we play what we want to play and we're starving. But as soon as you commercialize your sound like Wes Montgomery did, the jazz fans and the critics are down on you!" - George Benson

Howard Roberts Quotes

"I've come up with the theory that the music is within. We don't bring it in; it's already there. We have to figure out how to get it out." - Howard Roberts

Kenny Burrell Quotes

"My audience has developed so that they come to listen and are quiet, Thus I can work in a limited volume range and explore all the subtleties that can happen, which is my favorite part of the music." - Kenny Burrell

George Benson Quotes

"Lenny Breau dazzled me with his extraordinary guitar playing... I wish the world had the opportunity to experience his artistry." - George Benson

Wes Montgomery Quotes

"I got a standard box. I don't never want nothing special. Then if I drop my box, I can borrow somebody else's." - Wes Montgomery (his "standard box" was the hollowbody Gibson L5-CES - cutaway electric Spanish)

Lenny Breau Quotes

"I started playing jazz by slowing down Tal Farlow records and analyzing his runs." - Lenny Breau

Barney Kessel Quotes

"Playing scales is like a boxer skipping rope or punching a bag. It's not the thing in itself; it's preparatory to the activity." - Barney Kessel

Jeff Beck Quotes

"... by far the most astonishing guitar player ever has got to be Django Reinhardt ... Django was quite superhuman, There's nothing normal about him as a person or a player." - Jeff Beck

B.B. King Quotes

"Charlie Christian had no more impact on my playing than Django Reinhardt or Lonnie Johnson. I just wanted to play like him. I wanted to play like all of them. All of these people were important to me. I couldn't play like any of them, though ..." - B.B. King

Charlie Byrd Quotes

"Usually, no one quite knew where Django Reinhardt was going to be, but I met his brother and about an hour later in walks Django with an entourage of friends. He always traveled with a large group--carried his own admirers with him, the most sinister-looking bunch of hoodlums you've ever seen. I walked up and offered to buy him a drink. That seemed to be the right thing to do... he was the first really brilliant solo guitarist I ever became aware of, I had records of his when I was 10 years old. It just blew my mind that anyone could play a guitar like that. Still does." - Charlie Byrd

Theodor W. Adorno Quotes

"The aim of jazz is the mechanical reproduction of a regressive moment, a castration symbolism. 'Give up your masculinity, let yourself be castrated,' the eunuchlike sound of the jazz band both mocks and proclaims, 'and you will be rewarded, accepted into a fraternity which shares the mystery of impotence with you, a mystery revealed at the moment of the initiation rite." — Theodor W. Adorno

Theodor W. Adorno Quotes

"Jazz is the false liquidation of art — instead of utopia becoming reality it disappears from the picture." — Theodor W. Adorno

Billy Collins Quotes

"At home, the jazz station plays all day, so sometimes it becomes indistinct, like the sound of rain, birds in the background, the surf of traffic. But today I heard a voice announce that Eric Dolphy, 36 when he died, has now been dead for 36 years. I wonder - did anyone sense something when another Eric Dolphy lifetime was added to the span of his life, when we all took another full Dolphy step forward in time, flipped over the Eric Dolphy yardstick once again? It would have been so subtle -
like the sensation you might feel as you passed through the moment at the exact center of your life or as you crossed the equator at night in a boat. I never gave it another thought, but could that have been the little shift I sensed a while ago as I walked down in the rain to get the mail?" — Billy Collins

source: "Tipping Point"

Joe Strummer Quotes

"As the floods of God wash away sin city, they say it was written in the page of the Lord. But I was looking for that great jazz note that destroyed the walls of Jericho, the winds of fear, whip away the sickness." - Joe Strummer

source: The Clash - The Sound of the Sinners

Augusten Burroughs Quotes

"The Schnauzer listens to jazz. I listen to jazz because he likes it, and I have even gone to jazz concerts with him, but truthfully I would rather listen to retarded children pounding on pan lids with wooden spoons." — Augusten Burroughs

source: Magical Thinking: True Stories

Elmore Leonard Quotes

"I'm very much aware in the writing of dialogue, or even in the narrative too, of a rhythm. There has to be a rhythm with it … Interviewers have said, you like jazz, don’t you? Because we can hear it in your writing. And I thought that was a compliment." — Elmore Leonard

Bob Kaufman Quotes

"Streets paved with opal sadness, Lead me counterclockwise, to pockets of joy, And jazz." — Bob Kaufman

source: Cranial Guitar

John A. Kouwenhoven Quotes

"The structure of a jazz performance is, like that of the New York skyline, a tension of cross-purposes. In jazz at its characteristic best, each player seems to be—and has the sense of being—on his own. Each goes his own way, inventing rhythmic and melodic patterns which, superficially, seem to have as little relevance to one another as the United Nations building does to the Empire State. And yet the outcome is a dazzlingly precise creative unity." — John A. Kouwenhoven

Gerald Early Quotes

"There are only three things that America will be remembered for 2000 years from now when they study this civilization: The Constitution, Jazz music, and Baseball. These are the 3 most beautiful things this culture's ever created." — Gerald Early

G.K. Chesterton Quotes

"Do not enjoy yourself. Enjoy dances and theaters and joy-rides and champagne and oysters; enjoy jazz and cocktails and night-clubs if you can enjoy nothing better; enjoy bigamy and burglary and any crime in the calendar, in preference to the other alternative; but never learn to enjoy yourself." — G.K. Chesterton

Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

"And what gift of America to the rest of the world is actually most appreciated by the rest of the world? It is African American jazz and its offshoots. What is my definition of jazz? "Safe sex of the highest order." — Kurt Vonnegut

source: Armageddon in Retrospect

Dave Hickey Quotes

"Jazz presumes that it would be nice if the four of us--simpatico dudes that we are--while playing this complicated song together, might somehow be free and autonomous as well. Tragically, this never quite works out. At best, we can only be free one or two at a time--while the other dudes hold onto the wire. Which is not to say that no one has tried to dispense with wires. Many have, and sometimes it works--but it doesn't feel like jazz when it does. The music simply drifts away into the stratosphere of formal dialectic, beyond our social concerns." - Dave Hickey

source: Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy

Boris Vian Quotes

"There are only two things: love, all sorts of love, with pretty girls, and the music of New Orleans or Duke Ellington. Everything else ought to go, because everything else is ugly." — Boris Vian

Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

"Comedians and jazz musicians have been more comforting and enlightening to me than preachers or politicians or philosophers or poets or painters or novelists of my time. Historians in the future, in my opinion, will congratulate us on very little other than our clowning and our jazz." — Kurt Vonnegut

source: Palm Sunday

Thomas Pynchon Quotes

"I am the twentieth century. I am the ragtime and the tango; sans-serif, clean geometry. I am the virgin's-hair whip and the cunningly detailed shackles of decadent passion. I am every lonely railway station in every capital of Europe. I am the Street, the fanciless buildings of government. the cafe-dansant, the clockwork figure, the jazz saxophone, the tourist-lady's hairpiece, the fairy's rubber breasts, the travelling clock which always tells the wrong time and chimes in different keys. I am the dead palm tree, the Negro's dancing pumps, the dried fountain after tourist season. I am all the appurtenances of night." — Thomas Pynchon

source: V.

Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

"I will say, too, that lovemaking, if sincere, is one of the best ideas Satan put in the apple she gave to the serpent to give to Eve. The best idea in that apple, though, is making jazz." - Kurt Vonnegut

source: Timequake

Donald Miller Quotes

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself." - Donald Miller

source: Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

Miles Davis Quotes

"Philly Joe [Jones] was a bitch. If he'd been a lawyer and white, he would have been president of the United States, because in order to get there you gotta talk fast and carry a lot of bullshit with you; Philly had it all and a lot to spare." - Miles Davis

Miles Davis Quotes

"I remember one time - it might have been a couple times - at the Fillmore East in 1970, I was opening for this sorry-ass cat named Steve Miller. Steve Miller didn't have his shit going for him, so I'm pissed because I got to open for this non-playing motherfucker just because he had one or two sorry-ass records out. So I would come late and he would have to go on first and then we got there we smoked the motherfucking place, everybody dug it." — Miles Davis

'Sopranos' actor supports NY school's jazz program

NEW YORK – Actor Michael Imperioli is in tune with the times — starring in a new thriller set in a foreclosed house and off-screen supporting a school jazz program led by recession-squeezed musical greats.

"To be inspired by the energy and mystique surrounding these older artists fills gaps in young people's relationship to the world," says Imperioli, who gained fame in the HBO mob series "The Sopranos" and now is shooting the Richard Ledes-directed film "Foreclosure" in Queens.

The 44-year-old actor was at Manhattan's Claremont Preparatory School recently for a concert featuring the veteran musicians with the students, including his 11-year-old son, Vadim, on trumpet.

Each week since January, the jazz artists have been showing the kids a thing or two — about music and...

Read More:
http://news.yahoo.com/imperioli_jazz_school

Jeff Beck honors Les Paul with special club gig

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jeff Beck honored his late friend and mentor, Les Paul, with an intimate performance Wednesday night at his favorite haunt, the Iridium Jazz Club.

The legendary Paul played there every Monday night until his death last August, so it was an appropriate place for a celebration on the night he would have turned 95.

The small basement club was packed with an invitation-only crowd that included...

Read More:
http://hosted.ap.org/JEFF_BECK

NYC seeks developer for jazz museum in Harlem

(AP) – May 24, 2010

NEW YORK — New York City is seeking a developer to build a new home for the National Jazz Museum in Harlem at a city-owned lot across the street from the Apollo Theater.

The 10,000-square-foot site also will house the ImageNation Sol Cinema, an art house movie theater.

The city's Economic Development Corp. on Monday issued a request for proposals seeking a developer for the project.

The site was the former home of Mart 125, a market where vendors rented space. The market closed in 2001.

The developer will be responsible for demolishing the existing structure and leasing the rest of the building once it's completed.

Submissions are due July 30.

Sweets Edison Quotes

"New York was a school, it was a lesson .. I had so much fun in New York that when I first went there, I never went to bed. I fell out one night and went to the hospital. I couldn't go to sleep. I was afraid I'd miss something." - Sweets Edison

Sweets Edison Quotes

"That's the one part about that movie, 'The Cotton Club,' that's true. They didn't allow blacks in there. I couldn't even go there to pick up my wife. I had to stand on the corner and wait for her to come out. So I finally got to the point I wouldn't even go down and pick her up. Cause I was having too much fun in Harlem, anyway." - Sweets Edison

Lewis Nash Quotes

"For me, I got two real mentors in my early career, two musicians who took care of me, who were all the time there to respond to all my questions, to show me every thing I wanted to know about this music and life, all problems about travelling, business, being myself and be a real true musician. My two mentors are Sweets Edison and Ray Brown- I was so blessed to have them with me." - Lewis Nash

Ray Brown Quotes

"The amazing thing about Sweets [Edison] was that he exactly spoke the way that he played! He was really unique, the one and only. He was one of the greatest Blues players that I ever heard and played with. Nobody can play like Sweets man, nobody! Most of us, musicians, frequently quote Sweets' phrases in our solos. Like Lester Young, Sweets had a big influence on us musicians, especially when we play some Blues." - Ray Brown

Ella Fitzgerald Quotes

"Nobody else even approaches the trumpet like [Sweets Edison] does: Never too much and always plenty. He's the greatest trumpet player to play along with singers. He exactly knows how to play with you, how to answer you about what you just sang … On top of that, he has some great sense of humor, both as a musician and as a man. Every time I see him, I’m laughing so much. Sweets is impeccable and incomparable." - Ella Fitzgerald

Sweets Edison Quotes

"Billie [Holiday] was a fantastic singer and a beautiful Lady. One of the highlights of my career was when she sang “Lover Man” and asked me to play with her. Can you imagine that? I was certainly the youngest cat in the band. Wow!" - Sweets Edison

Sweets Edison Quotes

"I should have paid him [Count Basie] to be in the band because I was having so much fun. You couldn’t pay for that kind of education." - Sweets Edison

Sweets Edison Quotes

"Oh yes sure (I practice)! Even more than 10 years ago. The older you get, the more difficult you have to keep your level at the top of your game. Trumpet is a very difficult instrument." - Sweets Edison

Sweets Edison Quotes

"You have to have lived the Blues to play the Blues, You have to feel it." - Sweets Edison

Freddie Hubbard Quotes

"A very few musicians passed across all decades. In terms of trumpet playing, Louis Armstrong does it of course but Sweets [Edison] is right up there too. He is unique, in every sense of the term." - Freddie Hubbard

Wynton Marsalis Quotes

"The originality of Sweets [Edison's] sound lay not only in his rhythmic choices, but also in a direct, full tonal quality. So when the [Count] Basie band broke up in 1950, he was well-equipped to strike out on his own and go further in his musical adventures. Still today, he inspires me so much and all my colleagues I assume". - Wynton Marsalis

Dizzy Gillespie Quotes

"Many critics always saw and heard that my style comes from Roy Eldridge, which is true. But for many things, not only how to play the trumpet but the way to choose the notes, how to play them and how to phrase all of them, I took that from Sweets [Edison]. He really brought something new to the trumpet." - Dizzy Gillespie

Clark Terry Quotes

"[Sweets Edison] was one of the greatest stylists in Jazz of all time. And on top of that, when you listen to him, you say 'yes, that's Sweets' and you automatically smile. This is really unique. He changed the way how to play this instrument." - Clark Terry

Frank Wess Quotes

"You hear two notes and you know that's Sweets [Edison]. He was the only one, both as a musician as a man." - Frank Wess

Sweets Edison Quotes

"[Count] Basie was my mentor, my father and brother. He did it so much to me … So every time I got the opportunity to play again with him, I immediately did it. I remember one time, in the 50’s, that I had a gig with my group in a small town in about 200 km in the north of Miami, Florida. Basie played from 2:00 am to 6:00 am! Yes! That was like that in those days! When I finished my gig, I took a car, went down to Miami and played with him for the rest of the night! All the members of the band were so happy to see me there that they gave me all the trumpet solos in the band! I was sitting just near by the great drummer Sonny Payne. Good God that was really something! A great early morning to remember to!" - Sweets Edison

Oscar Peterson Quotes

"Sweets [Edison] can say more with one note than any other Jazz player alive... an approach that stresses simplicity, glorious tone, natural potency and an unmatched affinity. He is a unique stylist in our music." - Oscar Peterson

Miles Davis Quotes

"You can't compete with Sweets' sound and time feel. It's impossible." - Miles Davis (on Sweets Edison)

Sweets Edison Quotes

"[Frank Sinatra] was a fantastic and a marvellous guy, to be around and to work with. He (was so) impressed in fact that he funded music lessons for me to learn to read music. Since this, I regularly accompanied Frank for so many years: every where, in every studio recording sessions, TV shows, movies, concert halls. He was Sensational!" - Sweets Edison

Sweets Edison Quotes

"If you messed with us, you found your hindquarters on the floor at the end of the night. We didn't play around. We swung, and we kept swinging ... you were in a big natural mess if you came up against us." - Sweets Edison

Sweets Edison Quotes

"That was in June 1938 [when he joined Count Basie's band and was given his nickname]. When Lester [Young] loved somebody's in the band, he gave you a nickname like Lady and your first name or your family name. But for me, he found something else: 'Sweetie Pie' and I still don’t know why he gave me this." - Sweets Edison

Sweets Edison Quotes

"I remember listening to a lot of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. They right away made a huge impact on me!" - Sweets Edison

Billie Holiday, “Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles” (Sony, 2007; tracks recorded 1933-44)

Review:
If you're a fan of Lady Day, you probably already know that these Columbia recordings are weighted almost as heavily as Louis Armstrong's Hot 5s and 7s in the jazz heavy weight arena. Their unique aural beauty is a foregone conclusion.

Coleman Hawkins, “The Bebop Years” (Proper, 2001; tracks recorded 1939-49)

Review:
This is an excellent compilation of Hawkins' work between 1939 and 1949. Most of the selections date from 1943 to 1947 and were recorded for several record labels, including Victor, Bluebird, Okeh, Brunswick, V-Disc, Commodore, Signature, Keynote, Apollo, Savoy, Clef, Regis, Capitol, Aladdin, Joe Davis, and Selmer. Sidemen include Roy Eldridge, Benny Carter, Cootie Williams, Count Basie, Art Tatum, Oscar Pettiford, Teddy Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie, Budd Johnson, Ben Webster, Earl Hines, Don Byas, John Kirby, Jonah Jones, Buck Clayton, Thelonious Monk, Howard McGhee, Milt Jackson, Hank Jones, Harry Carney and Miles Davis. As you would expect with such a wide variety of source material, the sound quality varies a bit. However, it ranges from good to excellent and in most cases is on par (or identical:)) with the best previous CD issues of the same music. The set comes with a 56 page booklet that includes a lengthy essay with analysis of each session, several photographs, and a very thorough discography (you can read the complete essay and discography at Proper's website). The essay is good, though it could have used some editing. Also, the photos look like they were duplicated from printed sources. The most important thing, however, is that the music is consistently excellent. These discs show Hawkins at his absolute best, whether in a small group, big band, or solo. For the price the set is an astounding value!

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. Body and Soul
2. Dinah
3. When Day Is Done
4. Smack
5. I Surrender, Dear
6. I Can't Believe That You're in Love With Me
7. Dedication
8. Rocky Comfort
9. One O'Clock Jump
10. 9-20 Special
11. Feedin' the Bean
12. Esquire Bounce
13. My Ideal
14. Voodte
15. How Deep Is the Ocean?
16. Hawkins Barrel House
17. Stumpy
18. Lover, Come Back to Me
19. Blues Changes
20. Crazy Rhythm
21. Get Happy
22. Man I Love

Disc: 2
1. Sweet Lorraine
2. My Ideal
3. I Only Have Eyes for You
4. 'S Wonderful
5. I'm in the Mood for Love
6. "Bean" at the Met
7. Woody 'N You
8. Bu-Dee-Daht
9. Yesterdays
10. Flame Thrower
11. Imagination
12. Night and Day
13. Cattin' at Keynote
14. Disorder at the Border
15. Feeling Zero
16. Rainbow Mist
17. Blue Moon
18. Father Co-Operates
19. Just One More Chance
20. Through for the Night
21. On the Sunny Side of the Street
22. Three Little Words

Disc: 3
1. Battle of the Saxes
2. Louise
3. Pick-Up Boys
4. Porgy
5. Uptown Lullaby
6. Salt Peanuts
7. Make Believe
8. Don't Blame Me
9. Just One of Those Things
10. Hallelujah
11. Stompin' at the Savoy
12. On the Sunny Side of the Street
13. All the Things You Are
14. Every Man for Himself
15. Look Out Jack!
16. Under a Blanket of Blue
17. El Salon de Gutbucket
18. Undecided
19. Recollections
20. Drifting on a Reed
21. Flyin' Hawk
22. On the Bean
23. Hawk's Variations, Pts. 1 & 2

Disc: 4
1. April in Paris
2. Rifftide
3. Stuffy
4. What Is There to Say?
5. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away)
6. Bean Soup
7. It's the Talk of the Town
8. Say It Isn't So
9. I Can't Get Started
10. Cocktails for Two
11. Sweet Lorraine
12. Nat Meets June
13. How High the Moon
14. Bean-A-Re-Bop
15. Isn't It Romantic?
16. Way You Look Tonight
17. Phantomesque
18. Angel Face
19. Picasso
20. It's Only a Paper Moon
21. Bah-U-Bah

Coleman Hawkins, “The Essential Sides Remastered, 1929-39” (JSP, 2006)

Review:
If you like Fletcher Henderson, you're gonna love this! Most of these tracks feature a sound very much like Fletch: upbeat, snappy numbers rendered with authority and panache. There is a startling level of interplay between the players that has the listener finding something new with repeat playings. The first cuts are a revelation. The early Chocolate Dandies (including Benny Carter, Fats Waller, Rex Stewart, J.C. Higgenbothamn, among others) produce tighter, more complex playing than any Fletch records from the same period (1929). And Hawk soars to heights he would not produce for Henderson for several years.

The disks work their way through the next decade, with McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Mound City Blowers, Henry Allen All Stars, Benny Carter's Orchestra, and other small goups headed by Hawkins. The Jack Purvis Band swings harder than most of the more famous swing bands that followed. The latter disks feature tracks from his European stay where he plays with some English, French and Dutch jazz bands which seem to be playing their hearts out in honor of Coleman (and, it seems to me, there's exceptional good cheer in Hawk's playing in response). Throughout the disks, one great solo is followed by another, often better. We watch the development of the Hawk as he lays down the vocabulary that was the foundation for most tenor sax men to follow. Not to mention the flawless, rich tone and exciting raw power that characterized his earlier years. This is music that excites in a way that will startle those who only know Hawkins from his later ballad and standard dominated work.

This must have been a true labor of love for Ted Kendall (acolyte of the famed John R.T. Davies). He did a flat out AMAZING job of remastering from the 78's. Even the 1929 sides sound like they were recorded in the fifties. You can distinguish the individual instruments quite clearly, the horns have that snap that goes missing when Kendall's lessers carelessly apply noise reduction. Yet, except for a couple of the European tracks, there is but a faint hint of hiss, and NO pops or tics.

Despite their being over 100 tunes, collected over a mere 10 year span, there are no out-takes, alternates, or other redundancies. And they are all highly listenable at worst to jaw-dropping at best. Kendall did not just round 'em up and slap 'em down (like some European jazz collections who shall remain nameless, Proper Box), he clearly chose with a golden ear what to include. He produced a set of CD's that are highly listenable all the way through, every time.

If you have the good fortune to own the Charlie Parker box set from JSP, you already know that they adhere to the highest of standards. And I like that each disk is safely esconced in it's own full sized jewel box, with each containing a sheet giving full musical lineups, recording dates, and a succinct but informative little essay relating to the tracks on the individual disk. Speaking of the JSP Parker set, I note that it is no longer available on Amazon. If I were you, I would snag this set now lest it too should disappear.

I've heard it rumored that Ted is working on another Hawkins box set covering the next decade. Hope the sales of this one encourages that.

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. That's How I Feel Today
2. Six Or Seven Times
3. Plain Dirt
4. Gee, Ain't I Good To You
5. I'd Love It
6. The Way I Feel Today
7. Miss Hannah
8. Peggy
9. Wherever there's Will, Baby
10. Hello, Lola
11. One Hour
12. Dismal Dan
13. Poor Richard
14. Down Georgia Way
15. Goodbye Blues
16. Cloudy Skies
17. Got Another Sweetie
18. Bugle Call Rag
19. Dee Blues
20. Georgia On My Mind
21. I Can't Believe You In Love With Me
22. The Darktown Strutter's Ball
23. You Rascal, You
24. Someday, Sweetheart
25. I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate

Disc: 2
1. Nocturne
2. Somebody Stole Gaberiel's Horn
3. Pastorale
4. Bugle Call Rag
5. Arabesque
6. Fanfare
7. Sweet Sorrow Blues
8. Music At Midnight
9. Sweet Sue - Just You
10. Air In D Flat
11. Donegal Cradle Song
12. Firebird
13. Music At Sunrise
14. How Come You Do Me Like You Do?
15. The River's Taking Care Of Me
16. Ain'tcha Got Music?
17. Stringin' Along On A Shoe String
18. Shadows On The Swanee
19. The Day You Came Along
20. Jamaica Shout
21. Heartbreak Blues
22. Hush My Mouth
23. You're Gonna Lose Your Girl
24. Dark Clouds
25. My Galveston Gal
26. Georgia Jubilee

Disc: 3
1. Junk Man
2. Ol' Pappy
3. Emaline
4. It Sends Me
5. I Ain't Got Nobody
6. On The Sunny Side Of The Street
7. Lullaby
8. Lady Be Good
9. Lost In A Fog
10. Honeysuckle Rose
11. Some Of These Days
12. After You've Gone
13. I Only Have Eyes For You
14. I Wish I Were Twins
15. Hands Across The Table
16. Blue Moon
17. Avalon
18. What A Difference A Day Made
19. Star Dust
20. Chicago
21. Meditation
22. What Harlem Is To Me
23. Netcha's Dream
24. Love Cries
25. Sorrow
26. Tigar Rag

Disc: 4
1. It May Not Be True
2. I Wanna Go Back To Harlem
3. Consolation
4. A Strange Fact
5. Original Dixieland One-Step
6. Smiles
7. Something Is Going To Give Me Away
8. Honeysuckle Rose
9. Crazy Rhythm
10. Out Of Nowhere
11. Sweet Georgia Brown
12. Lamentation
13. Devotion
14. Somebody Loves Me
15. Mighty Like The Blues
16. Pardon Me, Pretty Baby
17. My Buddy
18. Star Dust
19. Well All Right Then
20. Blues Evermore
21. Dear Old Southland
22. 'Way Down
23. I Know That You Know
24. When Buddha Smiles
25. Swinging In The Groove
26. The Darktown Strutter's Ball
27. My Melancholy Baby

Duke Ellington, “Money Jungle” (Blue Note Records, 1962)

Review:
What an alliance: a legendary bandleader and composer, a pioneering bop drummer, and an unclassifiable (and often prickly) bass behemoth. It's no wonder that the tension between Duke Ellington, Max Roach, and Charlie Mingus is thick and extremely tangible, permeating this breathtaking 1962 album with passion and aggression. On the jagged blues "Very Special," Ellington establishes a weighty mood while his piano work almost borders on free jazz. Roach's sticks dance and prance across every inch of his kit on "A Little Max"; on "Caravan" he effectively shifts from exotic rhythms to straight time. Duke's harmonic invention is delicate and mysterious on "Fleurette Africaine," but simultaneously jarring and cerebral on the confrontational "Wig Wise." It's hard to believe only three people are creating the stomping, disjointed monster that is the title track. Ellington alone emphasizes the beautiful melodies of the classic ballads "Soltitude" and "Warm Valley," but the edge returns when the rhythm section joins him. Mingus, who actually idolized Ellington, seems to be purposely agitating the master, almost taunting him. You'd say the synergy was magical, except that they seem to be working against each other.

Duke Ellington, “Ellington at Newport 1956” (Sony, 1999)

Review:
When Duke Ellington took his orchestra to the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956, the band was in need of an uplift, some humongous event that would revitalize its image in the wake of bebop, hard bop, and so many more jazz currents. Ellington got the lift he needed when he called "Diminuendo in Blue" with set-closer "Crescendo in Blue" tacked on the end. Tenor saxophonist Paul Gonsalves got the nod from Ellington to segue from "Diminuendo" to "Crescendo," and he blew doors. With one rousing 27-chorus solo, Gonsalves blew a fever into the crowd and jump-started Ellingtonia for another generation. Trouble with all this is that the living document of the Newport show is almost fully manufactured, recorded in a studio with crowd madness dubbed in. So this two-CD historical correction is an awesome addition to the centennial-era reissues on Columbia (including Anatomy of a Murder, Such Sweet Thunder, First Time: Count Meets the Duke, and Black, Brown and Beige). The producers revisited the Newport gig after four decades because they discovered an extant Voice of America tape--the one whose microphone Gonsalves blew his solo into, and the VOA tape catches the whole Newport set in its organic glory. Alternately tender with layers of brushstroke orchestration and blazing with the band's well-seasoned tightness, this new Newport is one for the generalist and the Ellington completist. It's got the revived original gig as well as the original commercial release. And they make great siblings, illustrative of the live-event charm and the music industry's dogged labors in reinventing it on record.

Duke Ellington, “Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band” (RCA, 2003; tracks recorded 1940-42)

Review:
This 75-track, three-CD set from Duke Ellington's RCA dates from 1940 to 1942, was culled from the massive, 1999 Bluebird mega-set. It's named for bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster. Blanton's astonishing technique made him one of the greatest bass players of all time, and Webster's warm, raw-boned tenor tones inspired future saxophonists. Along with the famous Ellingtonians, alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges, trumpeter Cootie Williams, violinist Ray Nance, and trombonist Tricky Sam Nanton, the addition of Blanton and Webster, along with the arrival of composer/arranger/pianist Billy Strayhorn, make this aggregation Ellington's first "superband."

All the vivid and varied dimensions of Ellingtonia are included in this digitally remastered set, with songs written by his son, Mercer. There's Ellington's silky blues numbers such as "Jack the Bear" and "C-Jam Blues." The Puerto Rican valve trombonist Juan Tizol's "Conga Brava," "Moon Over Cuba," and "Bakiff" contribute Latin and Middle Eastern colors. "Harlem Airshaft" and "Sepia Panorama" are but two examples of Ellington's tonal portraits. The legendary Ellington/Blanton duets, with the bouncy "Pitter Panther Patter" and the emotive "Sophisticated Lady" still sound modern. Webster's surging, pre-bop solos drive the George Gershwin-based "Cottontail," and soulfully signature Strayhorn's ballad "Chelsea Bridge." This set also marks the introduction of other Strayhorn's classics, including "Take the 'A' Train" and "Johnny Come Lately." All told, these World War II-era sides are essential for the Ellington canon. Eugene Holley, Jr.

Duke Ellington, “Golden Greats” (Disky, 2002; tracks recorded 1927-48)

Review:
All together these three CDs contain sixty six vintage recordings of Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, from The Jungle Band days up until a mid forties recording of "Brown Betty," recorded in Carnegie Hall.

I believe that all of these 66 numbers were recorded for Victor Records,
the first batch from the late 1920s until the early 1930s and the rest were
disked from 1939 until the mid-'40s I believe.

There are many of Duke's masterworks included such as "East St. Louis Toodle-oo"
and "Black and Tan Fantasy" from among the early works right up to 'Take the "A" Train," "Caravan" and the incomparable "Koko" among many others.

This set plays and sounds all right to my ears and considering the super
low price is quite a bargain. This is a collection of big band masterpieces
by one of America's greatest composers whose music, in my opinion, is really beyond category. A tremendous bargain.

Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. Slippery Horn
2. Blues I Love to Sing
3. Hot and Bothered
4. East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
5. Black and Tan Fantasy
6. Creole Love Call
7. Diga Diga Doo
8. Mooche
9. Take It Easy
10. Move Over
11. Jubilee Stomp
12. Black Beauty
13. Cotton Club Stomp
14. Misty Mornin'
15. Ring Dem Bells
16. Mood Indigo
17. Rockin' in Rhythm
18. Creole Rhapsody, Pts. 1 & 2
19. It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
20. Blue Ramble
21. Drop Me off in Harlem
22. Sophisticated Lady

Disc: 2
1. Stormy Weather - Duke Ellington Orchestra
2. In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree
3. Stompy Jones
4. Solitude
5. Merry-Go-Round
6. In a Sentimental Mood
7. Showboat Shuffle
8. Clarinet Lament (Barney's Concerto)
9. Echoes of Harlem (Cootie's Concerto)
10. Kissin' My Baby Goodnight
11. Caravan
12. Azure
13. Harmony in Harlem
14. I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
15. Gal from Joe's
16. Prelude to a Kiss
17. Riding on a Blue Note
18. I'm Slappin' Seventh Avenue (With the Sole of My Shoe)
19. Gypsy Without a Song
20. Boy Meets Horn
21. Country Gal
22. Jack the Bear

Disc: 3
1. Ko Ko
2. At a Dixie Roadside Diner
3. Sepia Panorama
4. Morning Glory
5. Conga Brava
6. Me and You
7. Cotton Tail
8. Dusk
9. In a Mellow Tone
10. Take the "A" Train
11. I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)
12. Chelsea Bridge
13. C Jam Blues
14. Blue Serge
15. Never No Lament (Don't Get Around Much Anymore)
16. Perdido
17. Bojangles
18. Concerto for Cootie
19. Main Stem
20. I'm Beginning to See the Light
21. Transblucency (A Blue Fog That You Can Almost See Through)
22. Brown Betty

Benny Goodman Quotes

"I think I’ve done a lot in this business, whether through screwball methods or not I don’t know, that has helped other bands. I made a kind of road for them, you might say. If I raised my price, they found out about it and raised theirs. But somebody had to start it, to make the first move. You have to have the courage and confidence in your own ability. You have to know what the hell and who the hell you are in this business. Music may change, but I don’t think that ever will." - Benny Goodman

source: Interview with American Heritage Magazine (Oct/Nov, 1981)

Benny Goodman Quotes

"I don’t really stay that much in touch with it. All I’ll say is that I can’t imagine someone forty years from now reminiscing fondly about having heard Blondie, or even the Rolling Stones, or—what was the name of that group the other day—Clash. What could they say about it? “Remember the volume, the flickering lights? Remember when we got high?” I kind of doubt it." - Benny Goodman

source: Interview with American Heritage Magazine (Oct/Nov, 1981)

Benny Goodman Quotes

"I always wanted to do things with style. Don’t care if it was clothes, or eating, or women. Or making music. Especially that. If you’re going to do it, do it right. Don’t take second class. You know—I’d rather have one or two good suits than a bunch of crappy ones. One of the things I think is wrong with a lot of what you see today is that it doesn’t have that sense of style, of elegance. I don’t know where it’s gone." - Benny Goodman

source: Interview with American Heritage Magazine (Oct/Nov, 1981)

Benny Goodman Quotes

"If I have something I want to do, I make a business of doing it." - Benny Goodman

source: Interview with American Heritage Magazine (Oct/Nov, 1981)

Benny Goodman Quotes

“Whatever you do, don’t stop. Just keep on going. Because one way or the other, if you want to find reasons why you shouldn’t keep on, you’ll find ‘em. The obstacles are all there—there are a million of ‘em. But if you want to do something, you do it anyway, and handle the obstacles as they come." - Benny Goodman (advice to Glenn Miller, when he asked Benny how he managed an orchestra with such great success)

source: Interview with American Heritage Magazine (Oct/Nov, 1981)

Benny Goodman Quotes

"When I first arrived (in New York), it seemed to me the most terrifying city in the world… all those big buildings. I remember walking on Broadway, looking up at this huge, mountainous place—and being so lonely. But things started to clear up when I met a few people on the street whom I’d met before—all of a sudden there got to be a certain familiarity about the place, and the terror kind of evaporated. There was a lot of playing going on, and the New Yorkers, of course, were a completely different crowd from what I’d known." - Benny Goodman

source: Interview with American Heritage Magazine (Oct/Nov, 1981)

Benny Goodman Quotes

"I think my first impression (of Bix Beiderbecke) was the lasting one. I remember very clearly thinking, 'Where, what planet, did this guy come from? Is he from outer space?' I’d never heard anything like the way he played—not in Chicago, no place. The tone—he had this wonderful, ringing cornet tone. He could have played in a symphony orchestra with that tone. But also the intervals he played, the figures—whatever the hell he did. There was a refinement about his playing. You know, in those days I played a little trumpet, and I could play all the solos from his records, by heart." - Benny Goodman

source: Interview with American Heritage Magazine (Oct/Nov, 1981)

Benny Goodman Quotes

"We always had a Victrola in our home. It was hand-wound, and we had all sorts of records to go with it. Caruso and people like that—but also Ted Lewis, who was a big thing in those days, and even the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. [My father] discovered that the Kehelah Jacob Synagogue, not much more than a mile from where we lived, would lend instruments to youngsters and supply them with lessons, so they could play in the band at the synagogue. So we all went down, and my brother Harry, who was about twelve and the biggest of us, got a tuba. Freddy, who was a year older than I was, got a trumpet, and I wound up with the clarinet." - Benny Goodman

source: Interview with American Heritage Magazine (Oct/Nov, 1981)

Benny Goodman Quotes

"Some of the guys I played with .. didn’t go around learning more about their instruments from an intellectual point of view. All they wanted was to play hot jazz, and the instrument was just a means. I’d imagine that a lot of them criticized me—said my technique was too good. Something like that. But I’ve always wanted to know what made music. How you do it, and why it sounds good. I always practiced, worked like hell." - Benny Goodman

source: Interview with American Heritage Magazine (Oct/Nov, 1981)

Benny Goodman Quotes

"I started out as a clarinetist playing around Chicago, making a living, listening to other people like many other musicians did. I enjoyed playing—and I found myself really making money at age fourteen or so." - Benny Goodman

source: Interview with American Heritage Magazine (Oct/Nov, 1981)

Artie Shaw Quotes

"I'm not conditioned to be an entertainer. An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself. The problem with that is artists are misunderstood by all. I'm not interested in the clarinet but in music. we speak our emotions into music. An artist should write for himself and not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away. My situation is the same. Let them concentrate on my music and not on me. I like the music. I love it and live it, in fact. But for me, the business part of music just plain stinks." - Artie Shaw

source: Artie Shaw's commencement speech entitled 'Three Chords For Beauty And One To Pay The Rent', given to the graduates at California Lutheran University, 1987.

Ben Webster Quotes

"I like to play things that people understand, or maybe tunes that they could recognize. And so — I play for the people, just as much as for myself. Because, as I say, I still like to play." - Ben Webster

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1965.

Ben Webster Quotes

"I’ve been back in New York a year and a half now. Before that I was on the West Coast for five years. There’s no comparison between the two. You hear things in New York you don’t hear anywhere else. Unless these guys go out. Quite a few make it out to the Coast. Of course, you can’t stay in New York for ever. You have to move." - Ben Webster

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1965.

Ben Webster Quotes

"I used to live at the Cecil Hotel, which was next door to Minton’s [Playhouse]. We used to jam just about every night when we were off. Lester [Young], Don Byas and myself — we would meet there all the time and like, exchange ideas. It wasn’t a battle, or anything. We were all friends. Most of the guys around then knew where I lived. If someone came in Minton’s and started to play — well, they’d give me a ring, or come up and call me down. Either I’d take my horn down, or I’d go down and listen. Those were good days. Had a lot of fun then." - Ben Webster

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1965.

Ben Webster Quotes

"There are four guys that I’ve always listened to and admired and have great respect for. I think they’re just about the greatest for what they’re doing. That’s Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges and Hilton Jefferson. If I have a kind of an alto approach to the tenor, I guess that’s because I like Johnny, Jeff and Benny so much. I’ve listened to them for so long, you know. I take each guy for what he does. I wouldn’t want to sound just like somebody else. But I think it’s kind of healthy to listen to these guys, because I consider all four of them bosses. They all have definitely different styles, and you know them as soon as you hear them." - Ben Webster

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1965.

Artie Shaw Quotes

"I pride myself as a semi-schizophrenic. I'm trying to understand the universe. There is no sense in the real world. I try to inject a bit of rationality in this wide-range of irrationality. So what am I doing? Criticizing the hell out of everything!"

source: Artie Shaw's commencement speech entitled 'Three Chords For Beauty And One To Pay The Rent', given to the graduates at California Lutheran University, 1987.

Artie Shaw Quotes

"Whatever you do in life, aim at perfection. It will not be understood or even appreciated by most people. However, in the long run, the closer you come to achieving your own inner standards of perfection, and they'll be rising all the time, the better you'll be. In your lifetime you will come reasonable close (two or three times) to perfection. I've come about twice where I can say that is as close to perfection as I can get. I consider myself an 80-percent loser, of which I am proud. So, have fun. Get into your life and do what you enjoy and be the best at what you can be. Maybe you won't be successful and rich by the world's standards, but you will have the best life capable of having. If you don't do that, you're cheating yourself." - Artie Shaw

source: Artie Shaw's commencement speech entitled 'Three Chords For Beauty And One To Pay The Rent', given to the graduates at California Lutheran University, 1987.

Artie Shaw Quotes

"People ask what those women saw in me. Let's face it, I wasn't a bad-looking stud. But that's not it. It's the music; it's standing up there under the lights. A lot of women just flip; looks have nothing to do with it. You call Mick Jagger good-looking?" - Artie Shaw

source: Interview with New York Times, 1994.

Artie Shaw Quotes

"I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less." - Artie Shaw (when asked about the cause of his early retirement)

source: Interview with New York Times, 1994.

Artie Shaw Quotes

"I wanted to resign from the planet, not just music. It stopped being fun with success. Money got in the way. Everybody got greedy, including me. Fear set in. I got miserable when I became a commodity." - Artie Shaw (when asked why he walked off stage at the Hotel Pennsylvania in 1939, and eventually moved to a little village in Mexico.)

source: Jazz Connection Magazine

Artie Shaw Quotes

"The distance between me and Benny [Goodman], was that I was trying to play a musical thing, and Benny was trying to swing. Benny had great fingers; I'd never deny that. But listen to our two versions of 'Star Dust.' I was playing; he was swinging." - Artie Shaw

source: Jazz Connection Magazine

Artie Shaw Quotes

"That's the clarinet I used to use... but it's just a piece of wood, you know, with holes in it and they put these clumsy keys on it and you're supposed to try to take that and manipulate it with throat muscles and chops... and try to make something happen that never happened before. And when you do, you never forget it. It beats sex, it beats anything... " - Artie Shaw

source: Interview with NPR (March 8, 2002)

Artie Shaw Quotes

"I was very uncomfortable, I played the role called Artie Shaw. People (ask) me for autographs, so I (say), 'I got out of the Artie Shaw business about 50 years ago.' That's why I walked out. I walked out of the business at my peak. I quit." - Artie Shaw

source: Interview with NPR (March 8, 2002)

Artie Shaw Quotes

"I knew that was going to be kind of scandalous, but she was a good singer." - Artie Shaw (on his decision to ask Billie Holiday to sing on 'Any Old Time' with his all-white band in 1938)

source: Interview with NPR (March 8, 2002)

Art Blakey Quotes

"Who knows ... we'll be playing Jazz and having a good time!" - Art Blakey (when asked what Jazz will be like in 50 years.)

source: Interview with WUSS Radio (August 18, 1977)

Art Blakey Quotes

"Anything Dizzy [Gillespie] does, I think, he has proven himself a genuis- he can try anthing." - Art Blakey

source: Interview with WUSS Radio (August 18, 1977)

Art Blakey Quotes

"It takes an intelligent ear to listen to Jazz." - Art Blakey

source: Interview with WUSS Radio (August 18, 1977)

Art Blakey Quotes

"These things, we don't know anything about. Especially the blacks. They don't know anything about Jazz, and it's their own music! And this is where, it all comes from the same thing- it all comes from the Blues, from the santified church, from Negro spirituals on down. You know? They deny it. They don't know it. People let themselves be programmed, because they don't wanna think." - Art Blakey

source: Interview with WUSS Radio (August 18, 1977)

Art Blakey Quotes

"The people know more about [Jazz] in other countries than in America. America is the last country to know about anything, because we're too fat, we have too much of everything, you understand? And we do not listen." - Art Blakey

source: Interview with WUSS Radio (August 18, 1977)

Art Blakey Quotes

"Jazz, I mean, music will always move, because it can't become stagnant. Because if it becomes stagnant, it's like a river, it'll kill us all. It has to keep moving, music will always flow." - Art Blakey

source: Interview with WUSS Radio (August 18, 1977)

Art Blakey Quotes

"They say that Jazz is back, and I don't think it's gone anywhere. But they say it's back." - Art Blakey

source: Interview with WUSS Radio (August 18, 1977)

Howlin' Wolf Quotes

"I wasn't interested in nothin' else but the blues, you know. Course now I ain't gon' pour no water on somebody else 'cause he like jazz, how-high-is-the-moon and who-bop-a-dop, that's his business." - Howlin' Wolf

Jazz artist Boney James hurt in crash

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Publicists for Boney James say the Grammy-nominated jazz saxophonist has canceled a show after being struck by a suspected drunken driver in Long Beach.

They say James was driving home from a jazz festival in Newport Beach on Saturday when his car was rear-ended while he was stopped in traffic on Interstate 405. He suffered a fractured jaw, two broken teeth and a gash on his chin that needed 14 stitches.

Passers-by pulled him from the car. He has been released from the hospital but canceled a Friday show in Columbia, S.C.

James is married to Lily Mariye, who played nurse Lily Jarvik on TV's "ER."