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The Complete RCA Victor Recordings
''The Complete RCA Victor Recordings'' is a 1995 compilation 2-CD set of sessions led by Jazz trumpeter and composer Dizzy Gillespie recorded for the RCA Victor label between 1937 and 1949. Reception Writing for Allmusic, Richard S. Ginell states: "Although the sheer scope of this double-CD roundup of all of Dizzy's Victor sessions places it most obviously within the evolution of bebop, it is absolutely essential to Latin jazz collections as well".Ginell, R. G.Allmusic Review accessed February 20, 2014 Music historian and Arts Administrator for the National Endowment for the Arts, A. B. Spellman recommended the album for the NPR Basic Jazz Record Library, stating: "Primarily, I say this for the big band, but that's not all that's on here. You have some very early Dizzy, when he's playing with the Teddy Hill Orchestra or with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. You have some small group stuff from the 52nd Street time, when he was playing all the clubs there. And you also have a very ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of Harmony, harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him a leading popularizer of the new music called bebop. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, scat singing, bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality have made him an enduring icon. In the 1940s, Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione, and balladeer Johnny Hartman. He pioneered Afro-Cuban jazz and won several Grammy Awards. Scott Yanow wrote: "Di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe ( Lemott, later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American blues and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer of Louisiana Creole descent. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential characteristics when notated. His composition " Jelly Roll Blues", published in 1915, was one of the first published jazz compositions. He also claimed to have invented the genre. Morton also wrote " King Porter Stomp", " Wolverine Blues", " Black Bottom Stomp", and "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say", the last being a tribute to New Orleans musicians from the turn of the 20th century. Morton's claim to have invented jazz in 1902 was criticized. Music critic Scott Yanow wrote, "Jelly Roll Morton did himself a lot of harm posthumously by exaggerating his worth ... Morton's accomplishments as an early innovator are so vast that he did not really n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Eckstine
William Clarence Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award "for performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording". His recording of " I Apologize" (MGM, 1951) was given the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999. ''The New York Times'' described him as an "influential band leader" whose "suave bass-baritone" and "full-throated, sugary approach to popular songs inspired singers such as Earl Coleman, Johnny Hartman, Joe Williams, Arthur Prysock, and Lou Rawls." Early life and education Eckstine was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of William Eckstein, a chauffeur, and Charlotte Eckstein, a seamstress. Eckstine's paternal grandparents were Willi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woody 'n You
"Woody 'n' You" is a 1942 jazz standard written by Dizzy Gillespie as an homage to Woody Herman. It was one of three arrangements Gillespie made for Herman's big band, although it was not used at the time; the other two were "Swing Shift" and "Down Under". It was introduced on record in 1944 by Coleman Hawkins initiated by Budd Johnson, Hawkins' musical director of his 12-man orchestra that included the bebop pioneers Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach and Gillespie. It is also called "Algo Bueno". Structure The 32-bar composition is in AABA form. The A section "consists of three two-measure sequences on ii-V chords, ending on the tonic (D)": Gm7(5) – C7(9) – Fm7(5) – B7(9) – Em7(5) – A7(9) – Dmaj9. Covers *Miles Davis recorded the song three times, on ''Miles Davis Volume 1'', '' Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet'', and the rare '' Amsterdam Concert''. *Hampton Hawes played it in 1956 in his '' All Night Session! Vol. 2''. *Sonny Rollins played the song on his ''A Night at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tadd Dameron
Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron (February 21, 1917 – March 8, 1965) was an American jazz composer, arranger, and pianist. Biography Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dameron was the most influential arranger of the bebop era, but also wrote charts for swing and hard bop players. The bands he arranged for included those of Count Basie, Artie Shaw, Jimmie Lunceford, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, and Sarah Vaughan. In 1940–41, Dameron was the piano player and arranger for the Kansas City band Harlan Leonard and his Rockets. He and lyricist Carl Sigman wrote " If You Could See Me Now" for Sarah Vaughan and it became one of her first signature songs. According to the composer, his greatest influences were George Gershwin and Duke Ellington. In the late 1940s, Dameron wrote arrangements for the big band of Dizzy Gillespie, who gave the première of his large-scale orchestral piece ''Soulphony in Three Hearts'' at Carnegie Hall in 1948. Also in 1948, Dameron led his own group in New Y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Lewis (pianist)
John Aaron Lewis (May 3, 1920 – March 29, 2001) was an American jazz pianist, composer and arranger, best known as the founder and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Early life John Lewis was born in La Grange, Illinois, and after his parents' divorce moved with his mother, a trained singer, to Albuquerque, New Mexico when he was two months old. She died from peritonitis when he was four and he was raised by his grandmother and great-grandmother. He began learning classical music and piano at the age of seven. His family was musical and had a family band that allowed him to play frequently and he also played in a Boy Scouts of America, Boy Scout music group.#Lyons, Lyons, p. 77. Even though he learned piano by playing the classics, he was exposed to jazz from an early age because his aunt loved to dance and he would listen to the music she played. After attending Albuquerque High School, he then studied at the University of New Mexico, where he led a small dance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babs Gonzales
Babs Gonzales (October 27, 1919 – January 23, 1980), born Lee Brown, was an American bebop vocalist, poet, and self-published author. His books portrayed the jazz world that many black musicians struggled in, portraying disk jockeys, club owners, liquor, drugs, and racism. "There are jazz people whose influence can be described as minor," wrote Val Wilmer, "yet who are well-known to musicians and listeners alike ... You'd have to be hard-pressed to ignore the wealth of legend that surrounds Babs Gonzales." Jazz writer Jack Cooke explained that Gonzales "assumed the role of spokesman for the whole hipster world... ecomingsomething more than just a good and original jazz entertainer: the incarnation of a whole social group." Early life Gonzales was born Lee Brown in Newark, New Jersey, United States. He was raised solely by his mother Lottie Brown alongside two brothers. Of his nickname, Gonzales explained: "my brothers are basketball players... there was a basketball star ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonard Feather
Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing. Biography Feather was born in London, England, into an upper middle-class Jewish family. He learned to play the piano and clarinet without formal training and started writing about jazz and film by his late teens. At the age of twenty-one, Feather made his first visit to the United States, and after working in the UK and the US as a record producer finally settled in New York City in 1939, where he lived until moving to Los Angeles in 1960. Feather was co-editor of '' Metronome'' magazine and served as chief jazz critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' until his death. Feather made a significant contribution to the development of jazz broadcasting in Britain, first devising three ''Evergreens of Jazz'' programmes broadcast in August and September 1936, using George Scott-Wood and His Six Swingers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Night In Tunisia
"A Night in Tunisia" is a musical composition written by American trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in 1942. He wrote it while he was playing with the Benny Carter band. It has become a jazz standard. It is also known as "Interlude", and with lyrics by Raymond Leveen was recorded by Sarah Vaughan in 1944. Background Gillespie called the tune "Interlude" and said "some genius decided to call it 'A Night in Tunisia'". He said the tune was composed at the piano at Kelly's Stables in New York. He gave Frank Paparelli co-writer credit in compensation for some unrelated transcription work, but Paparelli had nothing to do with the song. "A Night in Tunisia" was one of the signature pieces of Gillespie's bebop big band, and he also played it with his small groups. In January 2004, The Recording Academy added the 1946 Victor recording by Gillespie to the Grammy Hall of Fame. On the album '' A Night at Birdland Vol. 1'', Art Blakey introduced his 1954 cover version with this statement: "At this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk ( October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the Jazz standard, standard jazz repertoire, including "'Round Midnight (song), 'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser (composition), Straight, No Chaser", "Ruby, My Dear (composition), Ruby, My Dear", "In Walked Bud", and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington. Monk's compositions and improvisations feature consonance and dissonance, dissonances and angular melodic twists, often using flat ninths, flat fifths, unexpected chromatic notes together, low bass notes and stride, and fast whole tone scale, whole tone runs, combining a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations. Monk's distinct look included suits, hats, and sunglasses. He also had an idiosyncratic habit dur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
52nd Street Theme
This is a list of compositions by jazz musician Thelonious Monk. 0-9 52nd Street Theme A contrafact based loosely on rhythm changes in C, and was copyrighted by Monk under the title "Nameless" in April 1944. The tune was also called "Bip Bop" by Monk, and he claims that the tune's latter title was the origin of the genre-defining name bebop. It quickly became popular as an opening and closing tune on the clubs on 52nd Street on Manhattan where Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker played. It was first recorded by Dizzy Gillespie's sextet on February 22, 1946, under the title "52nd Street Theme". Leonard Feather claims he gave the latter title. A Ask Me Now A tonally ambiguous ballad in D first recorded on July 23, 1951, for the ''Genius of Modern Music'' sessions. It also appears on ''5 by Monk by 5'', and '' Solo Monk''. Jon Hendricks wrote lyrics to the tune and called it ”How I Wish”; it was first recorded by Carmen McRae on ''Carmen Sings Monk''. Mark Murphy sings a versi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Quincy Jones. In 1992, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and he was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996. Hampton was a member of the executive committee of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group. In 1984, he signed a letter protesting German arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Biography Early life Lionel Hampton was born in 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky, and was raised by his mother. Shortly after he was born, he and his mother moved to her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. He spent his early childhood in Kenosha, Wisconsin, before he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1916. As a youth, Hampton was a member of the Bud Billiken Club, an alternative to the Boy Scouts of Ameri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
