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saxophonist + composer

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Category: American Music History

Summer Reading List 2021

Mingus Speaks by John Goodman, Mister Jelly Roll by Alan Lomax, The Man That Got Away by Walter Rilmer, Dead Man Blues: Jelly Roll Morton Way Out West by Phil Pastras

Published October 5, 2021
Categorized as American Music History, Jazz History

Jazz and Trains: A Connected History

The American railroad system as a driving force for cultural exchange

Published October 13, 2020
Categorized as American Music History Tagged American History, Chattanooga Choo Choo, Duke Ellington, Early Jazz, Glenn Miller, Great Crush Collision, Gunther Schuller, Jazz, Lead Belly, Linin' Track, Music History, Plessy v. Ferguson, Pullman Porters, Scott Joplin, Trains, WBUR

Solo Transcription: Lou Donaldson’s “Minor Bash”

A close look at a Lou Donaldson solo transcription and how it relates to moments in jazz history

Published September 27, 2020
Categorized as American Music History, Transcription Tagged Blues, Carmen, Charles Mingus, Charleston, Fables of Faubus, Georges Bizet, James P. Johnson, Jazz, Jon Batiste, Joshua Berrett, Lou Donaldson, Louis Armstrong, Paul Whiteman, Ricky Riccardi, Soloist, Summer Reading, Transcription, West End Blues

Cab Calloway and Minnie the Moocher

My thoughts on Cab Calloway and his appearance in The Blues Brothers

Published May 28, 2020
Categorized as American Music History Tagged Blues Brothers, Cab Calloway, Jazz, Jive

Four – Is There More To It?

Did one of Miles Davis’ most popular tunes borrow ideas from a Tadd Dameron ballad?

Published September 28, 2019
Categorized as American Music History Tagged Blog, Four, If You Could See Me Now, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan

Jitterbug Waltz

The history behind Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Watlz” and some of the finest renditions of the tune

Published September 21, 2019
Categorized as American Music History Tagged Abbey Lincoln, Art Tatum, Charles Mingus, Chick Corea, Dinah Washington, Dizzy Gillespie, Eric Dolphy, Erroll Garner, Fats Waller, Frank Foster, Great American Songbook, Hank Jones, Herbie Hancock, Jazz, Jitterbug Waltz, John Coltrane, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Vince Guaraldi, Zoot Sims

Meet the Gellers

The story of jazz “power couple” Lorraine and Herb Geller

Published September 15, 2019
Categorized as American Music History Tagged Allan Chase, At the Piano, Bebop, Herb Geller, Lorraine Geller, Piano, Saxophone, West Coast Jazz

Summer Reading List 2019

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

My great summer reads – Mary Lou Williams, Billie Holiday, Angela Davis, and more

Published August 30, 2019
Categorized as American Music History, Uncategorized Tagged Angela Davis, Art Taylor, Billie Holiday, Books, Charles Mingus, Gunther Schuller, Madame Jazz, Mary Lou Williams, Music, Music History

Willene Barton: An Overlooked Link in the Big Three Tenor Legacy

It baffles me how this incredible saxophonist hasn’t gotten her dues

Published August 24, 2019
Categorized as American Music History Tagged Blog, Madame Jazz, Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Willene Barton, Women in Jazz

I Know That You Know

A deep dive into one of my favorite tunes from the Great American Songbook

Published August 19, 2019
Categorized as American Music History Tagged Art Tatum, Dizzy Gillespie, Great American Songbook, I Know That You Know, Jazz, Jimmie Noone, Music, Music History, Nat King Cole, Sonny Stitt

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