The Jazz Icons series has been earning well-deserved raves from jazz fans around the world for its two rounds of live concert releases on DVD, featuring compelling and historical performances from the likes of Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk…you get the picture. (And the sound!) A third wave of titles has been announced–we’ll be seeing the following come September…
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Once upon a time in the West–yes, Cannonball Adderley and Jose Feliciano guest-starred as two traveling musicians on the 1970s TV show Kung Fu, carrying their respective alto sax and guitar through the dusty milieu of the American frontier (do not ask, grasshopper, if this was a frequent instrumental combination in the Wild West of the 1870s). You can look and listen…
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Most jazz lovers have favorite albums that they turn to for certain moods, times, or occasions–or just out of habit, because over the years that particular LP or CD has created some pleasantly well-worn grooves in one’s listening state of mind. Such albums for me include Bud Powell’s The Genius Of, John Coltrane’s Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, and Bill Evans’…
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(This is a continuation of a previous post, Along the Avenue: the Legacy of Indianapolis Jazz.)
Indianapolis in those days was sharing in the euphoric glow of the post-World War II economy. Lockefield Gardens, the expansive and beautiful housing complex built during the Depression to provide…
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Multi-instrumentalist Victor Feldman was a musical prodigy who sat in on drums with Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force Band at the age of 10 and was hailed by the English press as “Kid Krupa.” After continuing his rise to fame in the 1950s British jazz world, Feldman moved to America and eventually made his way to the West Coast jazz scene.
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This Memorial Day weekend on Night Lights we present a sequel to last May’s program, “Turn Out the Stars,” with more jazz elegies written or performed for musicians who passed away. This year’s broadcast includes Albert Ayler’s appearance at John Coltrane’s 1967 funeral, a teenaged Lee Morgan’s recording…
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