Filipek Musik Shoot

Norah Jones On Piano Jazz

2011-09-23T05:43:00.004+02:00

Singer,composer and pianist Norah Jones was born on March 30, 1979,in New York City.

But her musical life began in Grapevine,Texas.It was during her time there that she began singing in church choirs and taking piano lessons,even trying out the alto saxophone.
Her earliest influences came from her mother's extensive LP collection and a Dallas oldies station.While listening to her mom's records,Jones fell in love with jazz by way of the Billie Holiday albums she'd play over and over again.

When she was 15,Jones moved to Dallas with her mother.

She became a student at the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.Inspired by an Etta James recording of "I'll Be Seeing You,"she performed her version at age 16 in a local coffeehouse during open-mic night.It was her first solo gig.While in high school,she played with a jazz-rock band and earned her first awards:the 1996 Downbeat Student Music Awards for "Best Jazz Vocalist" and "Best Original Composition."
She won the Downbeat SMA for "Best Jazz Vocalist" again in 1997,and she later majored in jazz piano at the University of North Texas.

Jones' musical life started taking off when she moved to Manhattan in 1999.

She intended to stay in the city for the summer,but found a musical life so rich and appealing that she decided to stay.Later that year, Jones began to appear regularly with a funk-fusion band called Wax Poetic.

By the fall of 2000,she had a group of her own, with which she recorded some demos for Blue Note Records.

Following a live showcase,she signed with the label in January 2001.

Jones first album, Come Away With Me, became a multiple Grammy winner and multi-platinum seller,and it opened the door for her to perform around the world with her band.

Her second album, Feels Like Home, featured such guests as Dolly Parton,drummer Levon Helm and organist/accordionist Garth Hudson of The Band,as well as long-time friends such as guitarists Jesse Harris and Tony Scherr and drummer Brian Blade.

Her third album, Not Too Late,came in 2007 and featured 13 tunes that Jones either wrote or co-wrote.

She also recently made her acting debut in the film My Blueberry Nights and appeared on the soundtrack.

This program is Jones' second appearance on Marian McPartlands Piano Jazz.

It was recorded live at the 2003 Tanglewood Jazz festival with a record-setting audience on hand.

Set List

"Mean to Me" (Alhert, Turk)

"Lover Man" (Davis, Ramirez, Sherman)

"Walking My Baby Back Home" (Alhert, Turk)

"Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most"(Landesman, Wolf)

"Melancholia" (Ellington with Lyric by N. Jones)

"Tenderly" (Gross, Lawrence)

"Portrait of Norah Jones" (McPartland)

"Summertime" (G. & I. Gershwin, Heyward)

"Easy Livin'" (Rainger, Robin)

"A Foggy Day in London Town" (G. & I Gershwin)

"Special Hiromi" / Michel Camilo On JazzSet Hear The Concerts From The Newport Jazz Festival at July 29,2010

2011-08-15T03:28:00.021+02:00

Wiqan Ang Photography

Hiromi performs at Newport Jazz Festival,July 29,2010.

First,just inside the festival gate,the audience packs the Harbor Stage for Hiromi.

Her light-to-squeaky onstage voice belies her huge piano sound and technique, applied full-bore to longtime warhorses "Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise" and "I Got Rhythm."

Hiromi's stride-style left hand pumps rhythm to support the fabulous speed and articulation of her right.

And, with her electronic keyboard and guitarist John Shannon in her band, she's got fusion in her arsenal, too.

She calls her group Sonic Bloom.

Michel Camilo performs also at Newport Jazz.

On the main stage,Michel Camilo is a Newport veteran.
After Hiromi attended his Master classes at Berklee College of Music in Boston, the two performed duo piano concerts in Japan.
Camilo is the current Jazz Creative Chair with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

He and the DSO have performed Camilo's first piano concerto and will stage the American premiere of his second in February 2011, with Leonard Slatkin conducting.

In other words,Michel Camilo operates at the top of the musical world and without borders.
In a recent interview with Tomas Pena on Jazz.com,Camilo got to the heart of something important about our times.

"People don't realize we are living in a golden era of jazz," Camilo says.

"Musicians of my generation are touring and playing constantly.The last time we played Tokyo,it was for a crowd of 5,000 people, and that's not the only concert where we get audiences like that.

We did a concert in Germany last year, and it was filmed for German television. Things like that are happening."

His trio with Charles Flores and Cliff Almond is long-running. His more episodic group is the Michel Camilo Big Band.

It might be playing in the U.S. soon; at least it's rumored that a CD is coming.

And musicians, check out these voicings for the first three chords of "Poinciana" below, courtesy of Camilo, which you can watch on YouTube.

Set Lists

Hiromi's Sonic Bloom

"Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise" (Hammerstein, Romberg)

"I Got Rhythm" (G. & I. Gershwin)

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Michel Camilo Trio

"Piece of Cake" (Camilo)

"Repercussions" (Camilo)

"Poinciana" (Simon & Bernier, arr. Camilo)

"Descarga for Tito" (Camilo)

"A Night in Tunisia" (Gillespie, Hendricks, Paparelli)

Michel Camilo Trio :

Michel Camilo, piano;

Charles Flores,bass; Cliff Almond, drums.

Hiromi's Sonic Bloom :

Hiromi, piano and keyboards;

John Shannon, guitar; Tony Grey, bass;

Mauricio Zottarelli, drums.

Marciac 2011

With Brad Mehldau

Hiromi la vraie Grande Classe.

& Michel Camilo&Anthony JACKSON

From Within - Dvd "Calle 54" - HD.

Piano:Michel Camilo.

Bass:Le Fantastique Anthony Jackson.

Drums:Horacio"El Negro"Hernandez

"Special Hiromi" / "Hiromi's Sonic Bloom:Newport Jazz Festival 2009

2011-08-15T02:19:00.006+02:00

Wiquan Ang Photography

It's hard not to notice Hiromi Uehara's energy: her dazzling, explosive keyboard abilities are front and center in her music. The way she designs tunes, or even interprets standards, ripples with flourishes of Romantic-era classical music, prog-rock bombast and playful gusto. And her touch on piano and keyboards is nothing if not intense.

Born and raised in Japan, but trained in jazz at Berklee College of Music, Hiromi has found fellow graduates and Boston-area collaborators to match her vision. In the last three years, her newest band SonicBloom, a quartet which often features gonzo jazz-rock guitarist Dave Fiuczynski, has made two albums, plus a forthcoming live DVD.

That group's expressive jazz fusion will be on display at the Harbor Stage on Saturday at the 2009 Newport Jazz Festival.

Set List

"Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise"

"Led Boots"

"Claire de Lune"

"Piano Solo"

"Caravan"

Personnel

Hiromi, piano, keyboards

Tony Grey, bass

Mauricio Zottarelli, drums

John Shannon, guitar

Marcus Miller Montreux Jazz Festival & DJ Logic"What is Hip" So groove

2011-08-06T16:53:00.006+02:00

"What is Hip"

Montreux Jazz Festival 8th July 2008

Marcus Miller - Electric Bass

Alex Han - Alt Sax

Federico Gonzalez Peña - Keyboards

Jason JT Thomas - Drums

& DJ Logic

Le Plaisir au quotidien:Triangle Sound 2.1:Triangle&Atoll&Cabasse

2011-07-22T06:29:00.015+02:00

Comete Esprit Triangle Ex

Davantage destinée à être posée sur un pied, cette enceinte donnera les sensations d’une enceinte colonne sans en occuper le même volume. La nouvelle suspension en demi rouleau caoutchouc du haut-parleur de grave permet de garder une très bonne rapidité.
Conseillée pour une pièce de 15-30 m².

Sens aigu du Tweeter

Tweeter TZ 2500 : Le son naturel

Le tweeter occupe une place majeure dans l’histoire TRIANGLE. Ce haut-parleur a pour mission de retranscrire les sons aigus tels que les cymbales d’une batterie ou les cordes d’un clavecin. La performance du Tweeter TZ 2500 TRIANGLE repose sur l’utilisation d’un dôme titane allié à une chambre de compression qui favorise un haut rendement avec peu de distorsion et une directivité excellente. Les variations rapides de son appelées «transitoires» sont fidèles à la réalité et restituent une image «live» inimitable.

La restitution étonnante du médium

Le médium de la Comete Ex Esprit a la capacité de restituer les fréquences les plus audibles par l’homme. Il permet donc à l’oreille extrêmement sensible de percevoir tous les défauts qui déforment le son originel.

L’expérience TRIANGLE préconise l’utilisation de membrane en pulpe de cellulose pour sa légèreté et son faible apport de coloration.
Cette membrane associée à une suspension périphérique à petit plis permet une précision étonnante de la restitution de la voix.

La matière du grave

Grâce à une membrane en fibre de verre, il propose un excellent compromis entre rigidité et légèreté. Il est ajouré afin de dissiper plus rapidement la chaleur dégagée par la bobine.

A l’écoute, le grave est très net avec de la matière.

Le médium n’en ressort que plus transparent et plus naturel.

Diapason Esprit Comete EX

Triangle Haute Fidélité

ATOLL Pdf

Avis de l'amplification ATOLL

Cabasse Mercure MC 40 Caisson de Graves Pdf

Cabasse France

Chick Corea's Playlist For A Reunion Interview

2011-07-20T15:55:00.012+02:00

Tomorrow night, a reconstituted Return to Forever begins a summer tour of over three months across the U.S. and Europe. The band was a prime mover of jazz fusion in the 1970s, and after decades on hiatus, a new lineup is once again set to take the stage with old hits and new songs. (A "classic" version of the band toured in 2008.)

Keyboardist Chick Corea founded Return to Forever in the early '70s. While it's known best for its role in defining jazz fusion, Corea says the project is really defined by its stylistic versatility, and its principal players. "For me, Return to Forever in its essence is my collaboration with [electric bassist] Stanley Clarke," he said. "'Cause Stanley's been there with me through all the iterations of Return to Forever, and I don't think I would ever call a band Return to Forever without Stanley being there."

I recently asked Corea to select a five-song playlist for our Take Five series which would help illustrate the history of Return to Forever. We spoke about his picks over the phone — the slightly edited transcript of which follows.

1. Miles Davis, "Concierto De Aranjuez,"

from

Sketches Of Spain

(arranged by Gil Evans)

Patrick Jarenwattananon: The first thing you picked out is the piece from Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain, the "Concierto de Aranjuez." ... What do you remember about hearing this for the first time?

Chick Corea: Well ... it was on the heels of some other recordings that began with a recording called Miles Ahead, and that was the first studio recording that Miles did with Gil Evans' arrangements and the orchestra. And it was such a beautiful piece of music, and it was such a new and successful form too. It wasn't exactly a symphony orchestra, no strings, but very beautiful writing with Miles as a lyrical soloist. And it made a great impression on me as a composer, as an arranger. Of course, I'd been following and learning and loving Miles'. Everything that he did since I first came across him playing with Charlie Parker in 1947 when I was really a tot. But anyway, I thought, if I was to chose one thing from Miles that might be a nice one to play, which has Miles' great lyrical performance together with his orchestral concept, with the great Gil Evans. And plus, Miles is also where myself and Stanley [Clarke] and [drummer] Lenny White and most of the guys in Return to Forever draw their inspiration from.

PJ: Of course, you worked with Miles later on in your life. What do you remember listening to this as — I guess you must have been a teenager then? What was this impact on you? And especially with regards to the whole Spanish vibe to this recording — I know you've drawn on the music of Spain and of Latin and Iberian jazz in general.

CC: Yeah. Well, it just brought together a lot of strings of interest for me at the time because I was already really interested in working with the New York Latin musicians. In fact my first really good gig when I got to New York after high school was with Mongo Santamaria's band. We played Birdland a couple of times. And Birdland at that time on 52nd Street was a couple of bars down from the Palladium. And so on breaks from my gig with Mongo, I used to run over to the Palladium and hear Tito Puente's band, and Machito's band, and Eddie Palmieri's band. That was some hot inspiration for me. It was a great compliment to the more serious jazz that I was into with Miles and Ornette Coleman and Coltrane and so forth. So when Miles came with "Concierto de Aranjuez," it brought together both of those worlds actually. And also introduced me to another strain of Spanish music which was the actual Spanish classical music. 'Cause the great [composer Joaquín] Rodrigo was the one that composed the theme for Aranjuez.

2. John Coltrane, "Pt. 2, Resolution" from A Love Supreme

PJ: The next tune you've picked is the second movement of A Love Supreme. Classic John Coltrane recording. And as I'm looking at this list I'm sort of wondering why you picked it.

CC: Well, it's for very similar reasons why I picked the Miles piece. Which is because John Coltrane is ... a major influence and inspiration to Stanley [Clarke] and myself, and Lenny [White] too. And to us, when we listened to our own music or when we listened to Return to Forever, or when we play — when you have a mentor and a musical hero that has that much sway, and that much inspiration for you, it's something that never leaves your life, and it works its way into everything that you do. So I thought if we were making a list, I thought rather than play all Return to Forever music, I'd give the listeners an idea of where we come from.

PJ: What about it do you think that you've adopted into Return to Forever, or even any of your other work. I mean, what about this particular recording?

CC: That's really hard to put into words. It's hard to be logical about it. It's an inspiration of freedom, and freedom of expression, and the courage to try new things, and to delve into music, and to try and bring something that's real deep inside that you could say is your own very personal case in music or in art or in life, and try to bring that in some way to people who all have other kind of tastes and different tastes. And so you have to reach a communication point. I sometimes think to myself that if I were to play the music that only is within the relm of my personal tastes, probably no one would want to listen to it! But I do care about trying to get the things that I love across to people. And I think that Coltrane's music and Miles' music too have that expression of freedom that we all love.

PJ: Did you ever know Coltrane at all?

CC: Unfortunately, I was so shy when I went and was next to him in clubs. I went to hear him play a lot in the '60s in New York, and night after night listening to the great band. And I was just so shy, I never walked up to him and said how much I liked it.

Chick Corea performs in Melbourne, Australia in February 2011. Corea and a new version of his band Return to Forever tour the U.S. and Europe this summer.
(Martin Philbey Photo)

3. Chick Corea and Return to Forever, "Spain," from Light as a Feather

PJ: The next tune you picked is from the second Return to Forever record and the first as Return to Forever, the band. Take me back to 1972 a little bit. You've already been releasing records as a leader, you've worked with Miles Davis for a while now. You've worked in the band Circle. What prompted you to start this new project? What were you listening to at the time? What was the genesis of Return to Forever?

CC: Well, it was just a passion to want to pull together some aspects of music that I loved — that I felt I wanted to express. Like when I worked with Miles for the two-and-a-half years, and then with Dave Holland and Circle for like a year or two after that, I loved both of those experiences. I wouldn't trade them for anything. But what they lacked for me and what I wanted to delve into more was a groove music. A music that had a beat to it, that was in some way danceable and that you could feel and that had a sort of melodic-ness to it.

So that led me into writing. Actually I wrote some of the songs from the first record like "Sometime Ago" and "La Fiesta" — I wrote those songs while I was preforming with Circle. Actually Circle has some performances of "Sometime Ago." We used to play "Sometime Ago" with Circle. It was like a transition thing for me. So then when I came to New York and hooked up with Stanley, who we met playing with the Joe Henderson band. Stanley and I shared those kinds of tastes for groove and for melody, and for that kind of thing. And I also wanted to have a vocalist in my band. So all of those elements came together as we developed that first Return to Forever.

PJ: You've said before that you've wanted to communicate more with audiences in that music and I guess that's what you mean by having a groove?

CC: Absolutely! Sure! You put a beat to music, and people can understand it. I think it's a simple thing to observe. That a listener gets into a rhythmic rapport with a piece of music, and the message comes across a lot more fluently, it seems.

PJ: I'm wondering, a tune like "Spain" was so growing and eposodic, do you feel that the Sketches of Spain album or even just the Concierto had any influence on this piece?

CC: Well, not only an influence but it became a part of the piece. ... There's three movements to [Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez]. And the second movement is the movement that's arranged into the Sketches of Spain. And it was the movement that, that melody that I began to experiment with. Out of my experimentation with that melody came the rest of the arrangement which became the song "Spain." So when we would perform it live, I would always play that theme, that Aranjuez theme as an introduction to "Spain," and they became locked together as a performance. I still do it, when people ask for "Spain" in concert I play [hums opening salvo of "Concierto de Aranjuez"] and people know what's coming up.

4. Return To Forever, "The Endless Night," from Musicmagic

PJ: The next tune you've picked is from, I guess, what is the last Return to Forever album, it's called Musicmagic and it's a tune called "The Endless Night." And listening to it, this is, what, five years after the first Return to Forever recordings. This band has changed a lot.

CC: Oh yeah, It was a brand new ensemble. It was like a whole new idea that Stanley and I had been thinking about. Both of us were becoming more and more interested in orchestration, and I had already made the recording, The Leprechaun, which was with strings and brass and so forth. So this was our attempt to put our compositions in an orchestral setting. I thought "The Endless Night" was a good choice because it not only has the orchestration in it so you can hear the band, but its got some nice little sections with Stanley and Gayle [Moran, Corea's wife] singing the melody together.

PJ: You know, what I hear when I listen to this tune is the sort of influence of progressive rock, if that was anything that you were listening to at the time — this very organized, heavily orchestrated, lush, long ...

CC: Yea. You know, I didn't until way later start to listen to bands like Yes and so forth who preformed that way. Emerson, Lake and Palmer and so forth made some great music. Actually even, you know who I'd put in that category also was the Beatles with their orchestrations and so forth. No, this kind of orchestration came more from the end of classical music I would say. Bach and Mozart and Debussy and Bartok kind of having a traffic incident with Sly and the Family Stone and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

5. Mahavishnu Orchestra, "Smile of the Beyond," from Apocalyse

PJ: And so that brings us to Mahavishnu John McLaughlin. You picked a tune from the album Apocalypse — it's called "Smile of the Beyond."

CC: The reason why I put Mahavishnu in there and John especially — if we had had more tracks, I would have added something by Herbie Hancock, I would have added something by Weather Report to kind of see the way all of my friends, and what directions they were going with their writing in the '70s — but this is just one instance of where a bunch of forces come together that is on the line of what we're doing these days.

First of all, the producer of this recording is George Martin. And Gayle [Moran] is my wife — she's singing on this track — so she's told me many times what the experience of recording this track was, in the studio in London, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and John McLaughlin. Now, in the John McLaughlin group was Jean-Luc Ponty at that time, who's now playing with us, and also Michael Narada Walden, who I just saw play with Jeff Beck the other night and he played the drums like a god. He was incredible. And also all of the things that Narada has done since playing drums with John McLaughlin, he went ahead and produced some of the best pop music ever. Plus my wife Gayle who has this georgeous voice.

And all of these elements came together on this piece called "Smile of the Beyond." It's got this georgeous beautiful composition of John's, one of my favorites of John McLaughlin's melodies. Of course, John and the Mahavishnu orchestra particularly were a real catalyst to Stanley and I back in the '70s in making our transition from Return to Forever I to Return to Forever II, which was the electric version of Return to Forever. I know it was [for] me, John's influence and the way he took the electric guitar and was the first time I had ever heard it played that way, and it was very inspiring. So I thought it was apropos we put a track of Mahavishnu in here.

PJ: Return to Forever was together for a fairly brief time, say, five or so years. What lead to the breakup to that band at the time, and why are you guys getting back together?

CC: I think we had taken it to a point where everyone's solo ideas were just at the forefronts of everyone's minds. Stanley had already made several of his own records, Lenny and Al [di Meola] as well. And me, I was making Leprechaun and My Spanish Heart, and we had more musical terrain that we wanted to experiment with. At that time anyway, the musical terrain of Return to Forever seemed limiting to us, to me anyway. It seemed like it didn't have enough variety in it for me to explore the things that I wanted to do. So we went ahead and did all of those things that we wanted to do. It just took a few decades to get back together again.

rtf4

The latest reincarnation of Return to Forever, which calls itself Return to Forever IV. L-R: Jean-Luc Ponty, Lenny White, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Frank Gambale.

PJ: Why bring it back now? What inspired you to put it all together?

CC: A lot of the prompting actually came from the consistency of fans out on the roads, mentioning and requesting Return to Forever. When I go out and play, when Stanley goes out and plays, when Lenny goes out and plays, the band's name comes up a lot, and in that way it keeps it fresh in our minds. And we talk about it when we speak and so forth, and it helps us think about it and review it and see that this possibly could bring some pleasure to the fans of Return to Forever ... That was a major reason actually for bringing Return to Forever back together again.

And then that framework, of course, that we planned with one another, we could create practically anything. We're going to play some of the "hits" from all of the Return to Forever repertoire, as well as from our individual solo repetoires. For instance, we're doing "School Days," which is Stanley's tune. We're writing new music and were going to play some acoustic songs on the tour as well, so it should be a great pleasure.

Pink Floyd Live at Pompéi HD

2011-07-18T23:08:00.008+02:00

Roy Hargrove Quintet : Live At The Village Vanguard

2011-06-04T07:14:00.005+02:00

There's no one standard model of jazz, but there are standards.

There's a standard repertoire, for sure; also, standard conventions of instrumentation, group interaction, overall "sound."

Trumpeter Roy Hargrove, when he commits to playing straight-ahead jazz, leads a quintet that is very comfortable with those standards.

If you're new to jazz, it would seem distantly familiar, like how you might imagine jazz to be. If you aren't new to jazz, you might just find it proves how satisfying those standards remain, and how much room for self-expression is in them.

At the Vanguard, he started the set off with a number of tunes by mentors —

Cedar Walton, Walter Booker, John Hicks, so forth — and standards.

(He even took a vocal turn on "Never Let Me Go.")

The second half brought more original compositions, including the funky signature "Strasbourg/St. Denis."

Hargrove stood aside one peer, alto saxophonist
Justin Robinson, and in front of a younger rhythm section — his working band.

Set List

"The Lamp Is Low" (de Rose/Shefter)

"Hindsight" (Cedar Walton)

"After The Morning" (John Hicks)

"Book's Bossa" (Walter Booker)

"Mr. AT" (Walter Bolden)

"Rouge" (Hargrove)

"Never Let Me Go" (Livingston/Evans)

"Like That" (Hargrove)

"Strasbourg/St. Denis" (Hargrove)

"Bring It On Home To Me" (Sam Cooke)

Roy Hargrove is 41 now, decades after his talent was "discovered" at a Dallas, Texas, arts magnet high school by Wynton Marsalis.

He became something of a teenage prodigy, touring Europe and Japan before age 17 and playing with jazz legends before he could legally drink.

Hargrove's early studio efforts focused on his jazz playing — since then, he's also explored Afro-Cuban music with an ensemble called Crisol and started a funk and soul fusion band called the RH Factor.

(He's also been tapped to play behind Erykah Badu, Common and D'Angelo as a sideman.)

Personnel

Roy Hargrove, trumpet/vocals

Justin Robinson, alto saxophone

Sullivan Fortner, piano

Ameen Saleem, bass

Montez Coleman, drums

Tutu Revisited Marcus Miller Marcus & Miller Photography

2011-05-16T23:32:00.020+02:00

Miles Davis fut l'homme de toutes les révolutions musicales,
et "Tutu", sa création millésimée "1986", n'échappe pas à cette règle.

Le trompettiste est alors fasciné par l'électronique, les sons synthétiques, la rythmique funk et le travail d'un Prince, lutin génial de l'électro-funk.

Pour "Tutu", album largement inspiré par la personnalité de Nelson Mandela, Miles Davis s'est entouré de partenaires de renom (George Duke, Omar Hakim...), mais surtout de

Marcus Miller,qui fut pendant une certaine période (1986-90)son éminence grise.

"Tutu" fut ainsi en grande partie "préparé" par Miller, qui arrangea ensuite les parties de Miles Davis.

On y déniche un jazz racé et rythmé, dont la suite s'intitula "Amandla", en 1989, que certains fans peuvent préférer pour son côté moins " électrique "...

« Quand j’ai écrit la musique de Tutu début 1986, je ne pouvais pas savoir que je la revisiterai vingt-trois ans plus tard.

Quand je l’ai enregistrée avec Miles Davis, c’était la musique de son temps.

Bien que j’ai joué la plupart des instruments sur cet album, il était primordial que la trompette de Miles soit au centre de la musique.

J’ai essayé de trouver des mélodies à la hauteur de sa fabuleuse sonorité.

Lors de la tournée Tutu Revisited, nous avons remplacé les sons “super électros”, mais l’essence cool de Miles était toujours là.

Les gens la ressentent, même vingt-cinq ans après, au même titre que les musiciens.

Quand j’ai été approché pour revisiter cette musique en concert, j’ai hésité…

Parce que s’il y a une chose universellement admise à propos de Miles, c’est qu’il ne regardait jamais en arrière.

Pourtant, l’idée de saluer Miles m’a attiré, et j’ai commencé à réfléchir à la façon dont je pourrais présenter cette musique dans un contexte nouveau.

Je me suis dit que le meilleur moyen serait de le faire avec des jeunes musiciens. »

Pour ça, Marcus avait un atout majeur dans sa manche :

la nouvelle sensation de la trompette, le néo-orléanais Christian Scott – un musicien avec seulement quatre albums à son actif mais une assurance, une confiance et un style qui reflètent le passé tout en évoquant le futur.

À la batterie, l’explosif Ronald Bruner Jr., qui vient d’enflammer les foules aux côté de Stanley Clarke et de George Duke.

Aux claviers, Federico Gonzalez Peña, un musicien expérimenté et au goût sûr qui a laissé une marque indélébile dans l’exceptionnel groupe de Meshell Ndegeocello.

Au saxophone alto, une vraie découverte de Marcus, Alex Han, qui l’avait éblouit lors d’une masterclass à la Berklee College of Music de Boston.

Comme au delà du mondialement (re)connu album Tutu, le groupe de Marcus explore en profondeur chaque titre :

Tomaas, Full Neslon, Portia ou le méchamment funky Splatch.

Hannibal, extrait de l’album suivant de Miles, Amandla (1989), est également revisité.

Ainsi que quelques titres du début des années 80, tel la célébrissime comptine Jean-Pierre de We Want Miles.

Lors des premières répétitions, ces jeunes loups jouaient pratiquement l’album note pour note, Marcus les a alors imploré de trouver leur propre voix à travers la musique.

Et bien que Marcus soit désormais un vétéran de l’époque du comeback de Miles Davis – lors des tournées de 1981 et 1982, il n'avait que 21 ans –, l’année de la sortie de Tutu, il ne faisait plus parti du groupe de Miles.

C’est donc la première fois qu’il rejoue live la musique de ce disque !

Concert North Sea Jazz 2010

& Maucus Miller Photography

North Sea Jazz 2007

S.M.V Tour 2011

Concert North Sea Jazz Festival 2010

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Chick Corea, Roy Haynes, Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride at North Sea Jazz Festival 2010

2011-05-12T03:51:00.002+02:00

Together with Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarret, Chick Corea is one of the greatest jazz pianists alive. In the early 1960s, he played for Herbie Mann and Stan Getz.

In 1968 he recorded Now He Sings, Now He Sobs with Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes, a jazz album that has since become a classic.

Famous is his collaboration with Miles Davis around the time of Bitches Brew, when he also started working with guitarist John McLaughlin.

In 1971 Corea reached another zenith with Return to Forever, generally recognized as one of the most influential jazz-rock formations.

With McLaughlin he became successful again last year, in the Five Peace Band, with which he recorded a live album that earned him his 55th nomination for a Grammy Award.

An all-star crew, including bassist Christian McBride, drummer Roy Haynes and saxophonist Kenny Garrett, will join Corea this festival.

Kenny Garrett

Roy Haynes

Christian McBride

Freedom Band

Chick Corea, Roy Haynes, Kenny Garrett,

Christian McBride.

Fusion - Jazz-Rock

Kenny Garrett (saxophone)

Chick Corea (piano)

Christian McBride (bass)

Roy Haynes (drums)

Booker T. Jones & Hammond B3 organ

2011-05-08T09:45:00.012+02:00

Michael Bruckner photo

Tiny Desk Vidéo BOOKER T. JONES

Erik Truffaz Group & Ed Harcourt & Marcello Guiliani Bass

2011-04-25T11:21:00.008+02:00

Spaces Revisited de 1997 Larry Coryell,Richard Bona,Billy Cobham :"Morning Of The Carnival" & Richard Bona

2011-04-12T01:39:00.004+02:00

FILIPEK FOTO SHOOT Bordeaux, 16 mars 2010

Et Richard Bona Chez F.Teddei la seule émission buvable & ouverte.

Richard l'Ange de la Basse et du Son de ses origines.

Ben Allison In Concert : Newport Jazz Festival 2010

2011-04-07T11:54:00.004+02:00

Erik Jacobs

Bassist and bandleader Ben Allison has developed the ability to write music with the sound and electric attack of rock 'n' roll, as well as the sophistication and improvisational frames of jazz.

His constant search for new timbres and combinations has made him one of the most engaging composers today. At the CareFusion Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, R.I., his band blasted in full force.

Personnel: Ben Allison, bass; Shane Endsley, trumpet; Jenny Scheinman, violin; Steve Cardenas, guitar; Rudy Royston, drums.

Set List

"Green Al"
"Respiration"
"Broke"
"Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Godzilla"
"Roll Credits"
"Man Size Safe"

Herbie Hancock & Dave Holland : Lights It Up At Newport

2011-03-21T21:37:00.007+01:00

Douglas Kirkland Photo

After winning the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, keyboard giant Herbie HancockNewport Jazz Festival is one of the last of that tour.

The August afternoon sun aims rays at the scene, and — with the help of Dave Holland on electric bass and former Sting drummer Vinnie Colaiuta — Hancock's set takes off with "Actual Proof."

He first recorded it on his 1970s funk LP Thrust.

Chris Potter plays a "happenin' " sax solo (to quote Hancock).

His intense guitarist, Lionel Loueke, opened for Hancock at the 2008 JVC Jazz Fest in New York at the beginning of this tour.

Sonya Kitchell and Amy Keys join to sing "River," from the big Grammy-winner River: The Joni Letters.

Hancock first heard Kitchell at a Sonoma Jazz Festival and invited her onstage, then into the studio and on the road. Kitchell compares improvising with Hancock to dancing.

The set continues with a Leon Russell classic that Donny Hathaway used to sing. "He owned it," Hancock says, "but wait 'til you hear Amy Keys' version of 'A Song for You.' "

The closer is "Cantaloupe Island," cousin to Hancock's hit "Watermelon Man."

From jazz to funk to fusion to various collaborations and mergers, Herbie Hancock pushes music forward through his keys, and he remains a virtuoso and an ingenious provocateur.

Dave Holland :

Le Bassiste

John Hammond

2011-03-19T11:36:00.013+01:00

Brian Blauser

John Hammond

Though he often performs solo and acoustic, veteran bluesman John Hammond appears here plugged-in with a full band, performing songs from his most recent studio record Push Comes to Shove.

Hammond's bass player (Marty Ballou) was still on a plane in Washington, D.C., when the band took the stage, so Mountain Stage bassist Steve Hill filled in, flanked by Stephen Hodges on drums and Bruce Katz on piano and organ.

Hammond performs a set of fresh pieces here.

He combines the new and the classic in "I'm Tore Down," which features a refrain by '40s and '50s bandleader Sonny Thompson with additional lyrics by Push Come to Shove producer G. Love.

Hammond tells the story of meeting Dion Dimucci (of late-'50s group Dion and the Belmonts) before covering Dimucci's 2008 song "If You Wanna Rock and Roll."

SET LIST

"Push Comes to Shove"
"Come On in This House"
"I'm Tore Down"
"If You Wanna Rock and Roll"

At 19, John Hammond hitchhiked to Los Angeles to start his career — and, in part, to remove himself from the long shadow of his father, John Henry Hammond.

A well-known A&R executive, Hammond's father brought Bessie Smith, Big Joe Turner and Bob Dylan, among many others, to the forefront of American music.

Now, 40 years and more than 4,000 gigs later, John Hammond has influenced and inspired many young blues artists, just the way he himself was inspired by greats like Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon.

A great interpreter of classic blues, Hammond has recently begun penning his own songs.

In his long career, he's built a repertoire that spans decades and generations, and has helped to preserve and perpetuate the blues tradition while building up a legacy of his own.

He performs two of his own songs, "Heartache Blues" and "You Know That's Cold," here on Mountain Stage, and he also pays tribute to Guitar Slim in "Mean Ol' Train."

Hammond also revisits one of his most popular phases with "Get Behind the Mule," a song written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan and included on the seminal Hammond record of Waits material, Wicked Grin.

To round out the set, Mountain Stage pianist Bob Thompson performs Duke Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood."

This segment originally ran Oct. 24, 2008.

SET LIST

"Mean Ol' Lonesome Train"
"Heartache Blues"
"Get Behind the Mule"
"You Know That's Cold"

"In a Sentimental Mood" *

* Performed by Bob Thompson on piano

Eric Clapton I'm Tore Down Live

Eric Clapton Someday After a While

. The Classical Guitar Perfection of David Russell .

2011-02-28T23:35:00.013+01:00

David Russell

David Russell is one of the most prolific — and acclaimed — classical guitarists performing today.

He records about an album a year and tours the world regularly.

He's received too many awards to mention.

He's even had a concert hall and a street named for him in Spain, where he lives.

For each one, he concentrates on one composer:

Bach, Giuliani, Rodrigo, Barrios — or one style:

Baroque, Renaissance, even a CD of Celtic music.

His latest, Sonidos Latinos, features guitar music from Latin America.

As with all of his other projects, Russell spent a year immersing himself in the music and culture of his chosen subject.

Classical

Indeed, part of Russell's "sound" is actually silence.

"The guitar can be a very noisy instrument," he says.

So Russell has perfected his technique, working tirelessly on fingerings that eliminate those squeaky sounds of fingers sliding over frets.

Russell got his Scottish accent and his love of the guitar from his parents.

He was born in Glasgow, but moved to Minorca in Spain as a child, when his artistic parents loaded up the van and headed for warmer climes.

His first lessons were from his father, an amateur guitarist and full-time painter.

Russell says that after a while, he realized he could play better than his dad, and that's when he decided "to become the guitarist in the family."

On tour in support of his new album, Sonidos Latinos, Russell dropped by the NPR Music offices to play a few classics of the guitar repertoire.

Listen to the exquisite rippled notes as they spin by in his first piece by Barrios, while in Couperin's "Les Silvains," two separate melodies intertwine like clockwork.

And then there's Russell's signature warm tone in Albeniz's "Granada," the classic which capped off the concert.

Tiny Desk Concert

Set List

Augustin Barrios: "Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios"

Francois Couperin: "Les Silvains"

Isaac Albeniz: "Granada"

Listen Tiny Desk Concert Here

. Pat Metheny, Christian Mc Bride ContreBasse, Antonio Sanchez Drums : Live in Marciac 2003 .

2011-02-26T23:05:00.010+01:00

Pat Metheny

Pat Metheny Trio " Love theme from Cinema Paradiso"

Antonio Sanchez

Christian Mc Bride

. Miles Davis : "Someday My Prince Will Come" & Kind of Blue .

2011-02-17T15:57:00.011+01:00

Miles Hulton Archives

"Someday My Prince Will Come," from the 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, has been recorded by many, many great jazz artists.
(It can also be found on the Brubeck recording above.)

One of the best-known and loved versions is this one, performed by the all-star cast of
Miles Davis on trumpet, John Coltrane and Hank Mobley on tenor sax, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums.

The musicians maintain some of the wistful feeling Snow White sang in the film version of the song, but the group's instrumental version exudes more depth and complexity.

Miles Davis 1959 Don Hunstein

Miles Davis Kind Of Blue

"E.S.P." is the title track from the eponymous 1965 LP.

The record is the first studio album to feature Miles Davis' so-called "second" great quintet, pairing the great trumpeter with the advanced harmonic and rhythmic ideas of a younger generation of musicians.

Featured are Wayne Shorter (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums).

Round Midnight

. Charles-Eric Charrier : The French multi-instrumentalist layers Jazz, Noise and Melody to make an intriguing Parfait of Sound .

2011-02-10T21:29:00.018+01:00

Charles-Eric Charrier is a multi-instrumentalist who lives and works in Nantes, France, and says he's recorded nearly two dozen albums.

For his latest work, Silver, Charrier played most of what's on the record:

Bass, piano, trumpet, metallophone, charango and what he calls "breath." Longtime collaborators Ronan Benoit and Cyril Secq also sat in on the sessions: Benoit covered percussion while Secq handled guitar, organic synthesizer and additional metallophone and charango.

As far as how long the three have worked together, Charrier says, "[I] don't remember well, because I've got this fabulous impression to [have] known them since a very long time, maybe before Jurassic."

Perhaps that's why the album's recording process wrapped in just four sessions — that's one week total.

That sort of obsessive commitment and well-rounded instrumentation is what makes Silver resound.

It starts as a faint glow, growing in brightness with each sparse snare-drum strike.

Slow, Nancy Sinatra-esque guitar cuts through the psychedelic, seductive rhythms of the opening track.

Unfathomably, those same slap-backed strings assimilate into the wall of emotive sound.

Classic brush-drumming is paired with ambient samples in the following track, "12 From," catapulting the sound into space-jazz territory.

Charrier says he listened to a lot of African and Arabian records during the Silver sessions.

Those influences are evidenced in the subtle warbling of "9 Moving," with its strings rising wildly before coiling into an exhausted heap.

Listen "21 Echoes Short "

Filipek Zenfolio Charles-Eric Charrier

. Eric Clapton Part.1 : Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N' Roll: Clapton After 'Cocaine'

2011-02-02T14:11:00.007+01:00

14th January 1973: British blues-rock singer and guitarist, Eric Clapton, in concert at the Rainbow Rooms. (Photo by Express/Express/Getty Images)

Eric Clapton released a version of the J.J. Cale song "Cocaine." At the time, Clapton was consuming copious amounts of cocaine — and alcohol — and had only recently kicked a heroin habit.

Now 62, the legendary guitarist looks back and wonders how he survived his decades of drug and alcohol addiction. Sober for 20 years, Clapton is the father of three young daughters, ages 6, 4 and 2.

Clapton writes about his many years of addiction in his new autobiography, Clapton. He calculates that he was spending the current equivalent of 8,000 pounds — about $16,000 — a week on heroin.

Drug-Filled Days, Nights

"Financially, it was ridiculous," Clapton tells Melissa Block in the second of a two-part interview.

"The thing about that kind of addiction that's pretty funny, on reflection, is that I always thought, 'I'm handling this. I can handle it. I can stop anytime. I just don't want to stop right now,'" he says.

During the three-year period that he was most deeply involved with heroin, Clapton says he stayed home a lot and did not perform live very often.

Later, when he had overcome his heroin addiction but was still battling alcohol abuse, he once performed lying down on the stage.

"It didn't seem that outlandish to me, and in fact, probably was all I was capable of. It was either that or just laying down somewhere else. The fact that I was laying down on stage means at least I showed up," Clapton says.

He characterizes the mid-1970s as a time that was "extremely casual and crazy … when anything was possible."

"I think in the book I did refer to the fact that there were people who were moving through that period with respect and dignity, and I just didn't run into them that often," he continues.

Music as Salvation

Even during these dark days, the music kept him going.

"The presence of music in my life has always been the salvation element of it. Not necessarily the playing, as much as just being conscious of it, listening to it, has kept me moving," Clapton says.

Clapton says he doesn't think his music suffered that much as a result of his addiction — he thinks if it had, it would have brought him to recovery earlier — and he expresses mixed emotions about his past.

"I don't know that I can honestly regret any of it safely, because it's brought me to where I am. My life would not be the same, and I would not have what I have today, were [it not] for the fact that I went through all this stuff," Clapton says.

"But I suppose if I do have any regrets, it is that musically I lost something there."

Life After Drugs

Sobriety brought its own challenges.

Making music without drugs and alcohol was very difficult initially — everything sounded so loud and rough to him — as was sex.

"It was funny because both [of] those things were things that I took for granted. And yet, without alcohol, both of them became very, very difficult and unmanageable," Clapton says.

He says that his earliest experiences with women were always fueled by alcohol.

"And so when you took it away, I just didn't know what to do and actually was, for quite a while, physically impotent. I was terrified. I would be paralyzed with fear. And I think, musically, it was the same," he says.

Despite his age, Clapton says he plans to continue touring ("It's something I will ways need"), although the days of huge tours are probably behind him.

"I don't think those big world tours are possible for me anymore, nor are they desirable, because there's somewhere else I'd rather be — with my kids and my wife. The home life has a lot of power for me now, and it's where I get most of my satisfaction," Clapton says.

. Eric Clapton : Life Part. 2 : Eric Clapton Looks Back at His Blues Roots .

2011-02-02T13:55:00.007+01:00

Eric Clapton 1967 NYC Band Cream

Eric Clapton has been reinventing himself musically for more than 40 years. But the strong pulse of the blues has powered his guitar playing since the beginning: from the Yardbirds when he was 18, through his stints with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Cream, and Derek and the Dominoes, to today.

Now 62, the legendary guitarist is the author of a new autobiography, Clapton.

In the first of a two-part interview, Clapton talks to Melissa Block about his musical influences as a young man.

'Uncle Mac' and the Blues

His first guitar, which he got when he was 13, was a steel-string Hoyer made in Germany. It was about as big as he was, Clapton recalls.

"It was a very cheap guitar. And most cheap guitars, as anyone will tell you who tries to play a cheap guitar … they hurt to play," Clapton tells Block.

"It sounded nice, but it was just such hard work, I gave up. So I started when I was 13 and gave up when I was 13 and a half," he says.

Clapton's introduction to the blues — the music that would forever influence his own work — came from an unlikely source: a children's radio show in the 1950s and '60s hosted by "Uncle Mac" (aka Derek McCulloch).

The show's usual fare was novelty children's music, such as "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?"

But every now and then, Clapton says, Uncle Mac would slip in some blues.

"I don't know what this guy was on; I can't imagine how it would get snuck in, whether it was his taste or someone else's, his wife, who knows?" Clapton says.

I Got What They Were Trying to Do'

Clapton even remembers the first blues song he heard on the show: "Whoopin' the Blues" (full song audio) by harmonica player Sonny Terry and singer and guitarist Brownie McGhee.

"That's where it started for me," he says.

"It got to me on a level that nothing else did. I got what they were trying to do," Clapton says.

"I think the purity of what they were trying to do undercut everything else that you could hear on the radio. Aside from great classical music or great opera, there was a seriousness about it that none of this other music had."

Listening to, Learning from the Greats

Other guitarists that Clapton listened to — and learned from — in those early years include Big Bill Broonzy and Muddy Waters.

Broonzy was "just an extremely good technician" and a "great player."

As he listens to a recording of Broonzy's "Hey Hey" (full song audio), Clapton notes the audible sound of the guitarist's foot tapping.

"His rhythm — it's absolutely perfect," Clapton marvels.

Waters' Playing Acted as 'Milestone'

Perhaps the blues guitarist who influenced Clapton the most is Muddy Waters.

"Muddy was there at a time when, really, the music was getting to me. I was really trying to grasp it and make something out of it," Clapton says.

Clapton says he would listen to a Waters' song such as "Honey Bee" (song clip audio) and try to emulate the guitar great's technique and the effect he created with his playing — in this instance, the chime-like sound of a bell.

"It was a hook to me. And I made this as a sort of milestone for me, for my learning capabilities," Clapton says.

"If I can get that, I'm one rung up the ladder. And I did, finally, manage to do it one day, and I thought, well, you know, I think I can probably do this."

A Mentor and Friend

The two guitarists played together later and became very close. In his book, Clapton describes Waters as "the father figure I never really had." Until his death in 1983, Waters was a part of Clapton's life.

Even so, Clapton says he was not comfortable enough — and perhaps too proud — to ask Waters technical questions about his playing.

"I wish I had," he says now.

But there was more than just professional pride at work.

"When I got to know Muddy, unfortunately, my drinking career was in full sway," Clapton says.

"He liked to drink, too, he wasn't really down on it or anything, but I was definitely not really there as much as I wish I had been."

Clapton Eric Norman Watson

. Funky Bass with Maestro Victor Wooten .

2011-01-19T08:13:00.006+01:00

Steven Parke Photography

Renowned bass guitarist Victor Wooten has music in his genes.

The youngest of five in a musical family, Wooten began touring with the Wooten Brothers Band when he was 5 years old.

In adulthood, Wooten first made a name for himself as the bass player in the bluegrass/jazz fusion group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and through countless collaborations and solo projects.

Wooten's talents have won him five Grammy Awards as well as Bass Player magazine's "Player of the Year" title three years in a row.

Listen Victor Wooten

. Richard Bona & Mike Stern : Merveille de Virtuosité .

2011-01-09T07:17:00.007+01:00

Filipek Foto Shoot

Richard Bona : l'Ange de la Basse

. Mike Stern & Richard Bona / Dennis Chambers & Bob Franceschini . Live in Paris.

2011-01-09T06:47:00.006+01:00

Bob Franceschini

. New Orleans On JazzSet : Jon Cleary, Henry Butler, Allen Toussaint . Live at Kennedy Center W.Dc .

2011-01-06T14:40:00.007+01:00

Kennedy Center Salle Jazz en 3D
K C JAZZ CLUB

New Orleans is not only the cradle of jazz. It's also the birthplace of great jazz piano, dating back to the early 1900s, when Jelly Roll Morton tickled the ivories. Hear three pianists who are upholding that great tradition — Jon Cleary, Henry Butler and Allen Toussaint — onstage at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with Keys to New Orleans.

Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen performing at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on May 3, 2009 .

Clayton Call Photo

Jon Cleary was born in England and came to New Orleans at age 17 to immerse himself in the city's music and culture.

He arrived as a guitarist without his axe, moved into a house with a piano and changed instruments.

Now, he's one of the most soulful R&B keyboard men in town. He's gigged with such Bayou blues luminaries as Earl King (1934-2003) and Walter "Wolfman" Washington, Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt and John Scofield.

On JazzSet, Cleary leads off with Crescent City composers and originals.

Photos by Jerry Moran

The next man up is New Orleans native Henry Butler, a classically trained musician who studied jazz with master pianists Harold Mabern, George Duke and Sir Roland Hanna.

In recent years, he's broadened his scope to work with bluesman Corey Harris and guitarist Leo Nocentelli of The Meters.

Butler opens his segment with an original that captures the feeling of home: "Orleans Inspiration.

" When he moves on to "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" and Toussaint's "Workin' in a Coal Mine," your hair may go perpendicular.

Then Toussaint steps on the stage and says, "Henry left a few keys."

The Recording Academy recently honored Toussaint with a lifetime-achievement Grammy for his contributions as a singer and songwriter, pianist, arranger and producer.

From his 1950s work with Fats Domino and Lee Dorsey to his chart-topping 1970s hits (short list: "Lady Marmalade" by Patti LaBelle, The Pointer Sisters' "Yes We Can Can," Bonnie Raitt's "What Do You Want the Boy To Do?" and Glen Campbell covering "Southern Nights") to present-day collaborations with Elvis Costello, Toussaint has created a unique, rich legacy.

Singing at the piano, he shares some of it here.

Set Lists

Jon Cleary

"Chartres Street Boogie" (Cleary)

"Just Telephone Me" (Sweet Emma Barrett)

"Been and Gone" (Cleary)

"Farewell to Storyville" (Clarence Williams)

"Pops Dilemma" (James Booker)

Henry Butler

"Orleans Inspiration" (Butler)

"Dock of the Bay" (Otis Redding)

"Coal Mine" (Allen Toussaint)

Allen Toussaint

"We Are America" (Unknown)

"Yes We Can Can" (Toussaint)

"Mama You Been On My Mind" (Bob Dylan)

"Mr. Mardi Gras" (Toussaint)

"Southern Night" (Toussaint)

Originally recorded Nov. 7, 2008

. Wes Montgomery .

2011-01-02T13:26:00.006+01:00

The jazz guitar of Wes Montgomery, deemed "the biggest, warmest, fattest sound on record," still reverberates today, nearly forty years after his death.

The most influential, widely admired jazz guitarist since Charlie Christian's heyday, Wes re-invented the instrument with his thumb-plucking technique, his innovative approach to playing octaves, and his inventive, masterful execution of complex lines. In the short span of a 9 year recording career as a leader, his name became synonymous with the jazz guitar.

Despite the sophistication of his technique, Wes had no formal musical education.

Born on March 6th, 1923 in Indianapolis, Wes grew up making music with his brothers, several of whom also became professional musicians.

Electric bass guitarist Monk Montgomery recalls buying his brother his first guitar, a four-string tenor, on which 12-year-old Wes demonstrated immediate proficiency.

Wes learned by jamming with his brothers and by emulating Charlie Christian, who inspired Wes to pursue jazz guitar professionally.

Wes Montgomery's first record as a leader was the result of two trio sessions in October 1959 (with Mel Rhyne, organ and Paul Parker, drums).

Among the highlights are this Jerome Kern number, where a relaxed groove masks the subtle intricacy of Montgomery's solo lines and the supple warmth of his tone.

After his first big-time gig, touring with Lionel Hampton's band, Wes returned home to Indianapolis, where he worked days to support his growing family and played guitar in local bars all night.

Meanwhile, Wes' brothers were enjoying some degree of success with their group, the Mastersounds, and they invited Wes to record with them to gain the gifted guitarist greater exposure.

Sure enough, word spread and soon musicians like Cannonball and Nat Adderley were flocking to the Missile Room to witness the new sensation.

Riverside Records producer Orin Keepnews was blown away by Wes' virtuosity and signed him on for 25 sessions.

Wes' second album, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, earned him Downbeat magazine's "New Star" award in 1960.

Wes' lush, inimitable sound was a product of his unusual stylistic approach.

Guitarist Lee Ritenour explains how Wes played with his thumb as opposed to a pick, freeing himself from rhythmic constraints and typical phrasing.

According to Wes, thumb-plucking and his technique of "playing two notes at the same time an octave apart" were both accidental revelations.

While Wes was not the only guitarist to utilize the octave approach, he did so with incomparable "freedom and fluidity," and the technique "became one of his trademarks."

When Riverside Records folded, the Verve label took Wes Montgomery onto their roster.

It proved a wise move: some of his best performances on record were Verve releases.

This 1964 big band rendition of the Juan Tizol/Duke Ellington standard features Montgomery's resonant chords particularly well, not to mention his facility and energy at fast tempos.

When Riverside Records went bankrupt, Creed Taylor of Verve Records signed the acclaimed guitarist, steering his career in a different direction.

Although Wes recorded a few straight jazz albums with Verve, including his triumphant Smokin' at the Half Note, Taylor sought to bring Wes' music to a broader audience, convincing him to cover the R&B hit, "Goin' Out of My Head."

The album, which earned Wes a Grammy Award, was his ticket to "crossing over" and made a name for him on the pop scene, enabling him to support his wife and seven children.

To the chagrin of jazz purists, Wes did not record another jazz album after 1965.

However, in concert, as critic Gary Giddins attests, Wes continued to improvise stunning solos until his death of a heart attack in 1968.

In a remarkably brief time frame, Wes Montgomery, a kind, modest man and a magnificent musician, left a legacy of enormous distinction to the jazz community

Wes Montgomery had his best-selling records with what were, by his own description, pop tunes.
Encouraged by producer Creed Taylor, he waxed several such discs for Verve and A&M in the mid-late 1960s.

However, he always maintained a jazz sensibility to his solos, as evidenced in this much-anthologized 1965 recording (featuring Oliver Nelson's orchestra).

Watch 'Jazz Icons' Trailer :

This DVD chronicles several of Montgomery's live 1965 performances in Europe. Note: QuickTime required

Jazz Icons Wes MONTGOMERY 1965

. JACO PASTORIUS LESSONS . Modern Electric Bass . 1 à 5 .

2010-11-21T09:18:00.004+01:00

. JACO LESSON . 1 .

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. JACO LESSON . 5 .

. JACO PASTORIUS .

JACO PASTORIUS SITE

. JACO PASTORIUS LESSONS . Modern Electric Bass . 6 à 10 .

2010-11-21T07:15:00.017+01:00

. JACO LESSON . 6 .

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. Chick Corea,Stanley Clarke and Lenny White at the Monterey Jazz Festival .

2010-10-31T18:08:00.014+01:00

Cole Thompson

Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

At the 52nd Monterey Jazz Festival, three-quarters of the stellar fusion band Return to Forever shared a single stage.

They are Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White on piano, bass and drums, respectively.

In 1968, Corea (born 1941) recorded the trio classic Now He Sings, Now He Sobs with bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Roy Haynes.

It has become a much-taught trio album, and Corea's spinning blues choruses in the opening track, "Matrix," are part of a pivotal moment in jazz piano.

A great career begins here.

Corea and drummer Lenny White (born 1949) both played on the Miles Davis double electric LP Bitches Brew (1970).

Host Dee Dee Bridgewater says that White is one of her favorite drummers ever, while Corea says that when he plays "On Green Dolphin Street," he always thinks of Miles Davis. And Corea's choice of "Waltz for Debby" honors Bill Evans, who worked with Davis a decade prior to Chick Corea.
Just after Bitches Brew, bassist Stanley Clarke (born 1950) moved from Philadelphia to New York, and right away, he too was working with the name players.

Prior to 1976's School Days, it was practically unheard of for a bassist to release an album as a leader, but Clarke's tone and technique — also present in this trio — are not meant for the background.

Now, as then, these players create an irresistible flow.
Then it was electric, but at Monterey on Sept. 20, 2009, it's acoustic and highly charged.

Credits

Recording by Ron Davis, A Wing and A Prayer. Surround Sound re-mix by Duke Markos.

Set List

"Green Dolphin Street" (Kaper, Washington)

"Waltz for Debby" (Bill Evans)

"No Mystery" (Corea)

"Cancion de Sophia" (Clarke)

"Solo Bass Improvisation" (Clarke)

"Five Hundred Miles High" (Corea)

"Bud Powell" (Corea)*

. Bill Callahan : Tiny Desk Concert . Voix et Profondeur .

2010-10-10T18:33:00.006+02:00

It's a high compliment to suggest that these three Bill Callahan songs may well implant themselves in your brain, lay eggs and sprout horrifically disturbing dreams at that point when you're banging on the snooze alarm in a state of anguished early-morning half-sleep.

After Callahan — a.k.a. The Artist Formerly Known As Smog — performed at the NPR Music offices, my own slumber was absolutely haunted by at least one line from each piece he played.

From "Jim Cain":

"I used to be darker / Then I got lighter / Then I got dark again."

From "Rococo Zephyr":

"I used to be sorta blind / But now I can sorta see."

From "Too Many Birds":

"If you could only stop your heartbeat for one heartbeat..."

All three songs are highlights from Callahan's magnificent new album, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, and all three are rendered here in faithful detail by Callahan and his crack team of backing players.

The singer is, for obvious reasons, the driving force in these performances — every sound orbits around his deep, detached voice — but all those strings and guitars exude subtle warmth to match Callahan's sly but sneakily empathetic words.

The result is a Tiny Desk Concert that's more serious than most, and at times almost eerily transfixing.

Immerse yourself in it, and you may just re-live it in your darkest dreams.

Bill Callahan TINY DESK

Podcast Download NPR . Bill Callahan : Tiny Desk Concert

Set List

"Jim Cain"
"Rococo Zephyr"
"Too Many Birds"

. Esperanza Spalding Tiny Desk Concert : Bass & Voice .

2010-10-09T08:28:00.011+02:00

Esperanza Spalding has phenomenal hair.

If you meet her in her street clothes, you may not notice it; she keeps it tucked inconspicuously away, miraculously to be honest, under a knit cap.

But right before she took the "stage" at NPR Music's Tiny Desk, she doffed her piece to unveil a massive, overflowing 'fro. More than one of us wondered from which secret hiding place it all emanated.

Spalding stows a lot of talent in small packages. She's not a very tall person — diminutive, really — but has made a career of playing the imposing double bass with jazz giants.

She sings, too, with a high-pitched but husky flavor, making it easy to wonder how she generates the lung capacity for her acrobatic, high-wire feats.

For reference, spend time with the middle tune here, the standard "Midnight Sun."

She goes at it solo, just bass and voice, and generates plenty of horsepower.

But it's not sheer musical talent that makes her a winning (and bread-winning) performer — after all, there are plenty of chops to go around in jazz.

Spalding has a certain poise, a way of engaging a crowd, of controlling a room. It's usually seen as a large-scale projection, a friendly demeanor greeting a festival or performing arts center crowd of thousands. In this most awkwardly cramped of stages, her deep conviction was a dominant force.

For her Tiny Desk Concert, she mostly called original tunes from Chamber Music Society, her new album pairing a jazz rhythm section with a three-piece string trio.

The two tunes bookending her set alternated the gossamer with the rich and darkly hued: the album opener "Little Fly," her setting of a William Blake poem, and "Apple Blossom," featuring her regular guitarist, Ricardo Vogt.

Spalding conceived of Chamber Music Society as an intimate experience, a close musical exchange between a small group of friends.

If it was intimacy she wanted, she got her wish: The constraints of Bob Boilen's workspace ensured that all the players were nice and cozy.

We liked what she had in mind.

Set List

"Little Fly"

"Midnight Sun"

"Apple Blossom"

Personnel

Esperanza Spalding (bass and vocals)

Ricardo Vogt (guitar)

Sara Caswell (violin)

Lois Martin (viola)

Jody Redhage (cello)

Podcast Download NPR M4V TINY DESK CONCERT LINK

. Concert Stanley Clarke : North Sea Jazz 2010 .

2010-10-03T14:55:00.002+02:00

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. Sonny Rollins : The Saxophone Colossus Turns 80 .

2010-09-12T21:51:00.004+02:00

Valery Hache/AFP

It's hard to overstate Sonny Rollins contribution to jazz.

As the groundbreaking saxophonist celebrates his 80th birthday on Sept. 7, he can look back on a performing and recording career that spans more than 60 years and has influenced generations of jazz players.

And, of course, the good news is that he's still recording, performing and living up to the name of his magnificent 1956 recording, Saxophone Colossus.

As a way of wishing Rollins a happy 80th birthday, here are five classic examples of his extraordinary sax work.

.......................................

Sonny Rollins: The Saxophone Colossus Turns 80

Artist: Miles Davis & Modern Jazz Giants
Album: Bags' Groove

Although Sonny Rollins began recording as a sideman in 1949 and as a bandleader in 1953, he really came into his own in his work with Miles Davis from 1951 to '54.

On Davis' 1954 Bags Groove, Rollins contributes three of his own compositions and great bop chops. All three have gone on to become jazz standards:

"Airegin," "Doxy" and this song, "Oleo."

Along with Sonny and Miles, this band also includes Horace Silver (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Kenny Clarke (drums).

Artist: Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet
Album: At Basin Street

In 1955, in addition to working on his own musical projects, Rollins teamed up with the band led by Clifford Brown and Max Roach.

Everyone plays masterfully on these recordings, and the band might have gone on to create a great body of work.

But after Brown's death in 1956, Rollins would continue to record almost exclusively as a bandleader, creating his own unparalleled body of work.

Artist: Sonny Rollins
Album: Saxophone Colossus

Rollins' 1956 album Saxophone Colossus was perhaps his first classic recording as a leader.

It was also the album that provided him with the sobriquet he'd own from then on:

"The Saxophone Colossus."

His recording of "St. Thomas" is taken from a traditional calypso melody from the Virgin Islands, which his mother sang to him as a boy. With the help of drummer Max Roach, pianist Tommy Flanagan and bassist Doug Watkins, the song has since become yet another Rollins-inspired jazz standard.

Artist: Sonny Rollins
Album: The Bridge

Between 1956 and '58, Rollins was on fire creatively: He recorded 16 albums, including Saxophone Colossus, Tenor Madness (with John Coltrane), Way Out West and Freedom Suite.

That's why the jazz world was stunned when Rollins decided to take what would turn out to be a three-year sabbatical from performing and recording. During that time, he practiced his playing relentlessly, often playing solo on New York's Williamsburg Bridge, trying to break through what he perceived as his musical limitations.

When he returned in 1962, he recorded The Bridge with guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Ben Riley; it remains one of his best-selling albums.

Artist: Sonny Rollins
Album: Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert

After 50 years of making excellent recordings, Rollins won his first Grammy in 2001 for This Is What I Do.

Later that year, on Sept. 11 -- four days after his 71st birthday -- he had to evacuate his downtown New York apartment, which was just blocks from the World Trade Center.

All he took with him was his saxophone. Five days later, he played a concert at the Berklee School of Music in Boston.

The recording of that concert was released in 2005, and it earned Rollins his second Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, for the song "Why Was I Born?"

Sonny Rollins is a true jazz legend, a sax player with a six-decade career and a giant who's outlasted the giants he played with:

Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell.

Rollins' career spiked in the 1950s with a series of acclaimed recordings, including perhaps his best-known song, "St. Thomas," which experimented with calypso rhythms.

But his career has also had its downturns.

In 1959, he retired from playing gigs and became famous for practicing alone on the Williamsburg Bridge in New York.

He has also battled health problems.

Rollins is taking his career into his own hands.

He's started his own record label, launched a

new Web site, and continues to tour and record.

Sonny Rollins' record is called Sonny, Please.

2006 Nov.

. Elvis Costello And Allen Toussaint: City of Hope .

2010-08-27T17:33:00.047+02:00

Allen Toussaint

Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint have come together to write and record a warm, hopeful new album. The two chose to make The River in Reverse in Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans as a gesture of hope.

Most of the album's 13 tracks were recorded as free-flowing jam sessions.

A rock 'n' roll chameleon known for his ability and willingness to work in any genre of music — from classical to punk to R&B — Costello has proved his ability to adapt once again.

Toussaint is also an enormously talented and versatile musician, songwriter and producer, and he remains one of the most influential artists in jazz, blues and even country music.

It's only fitting that he should make this soulful album for his New Orleans hometown.

Elvis Costello

Set List

"Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?"
"Freedom for the Stallion"
"Ascension Day"
"The Sharpest Thorn"
"Nearer to You"

. Remembering Jazz Photographer Herman Leonard .

2010-08-19T05:15:00.004+02:00

Charley Gallay/Getty Images

Herman Leonard in 2008.

. August 16, 2010 .

Leonard died Saturday in a Los Angeles hospital, according to his official website. No cause of death was listed.

Herman Leonard's life was an example of the phrase "everything in its time."

Shortly after earning a fine-arts degree in photography in the late 1940s, Leonard was making a living as a commercial photographer during the day and hanging out in jazz clubs in New York at night.

Leonard focused his camera's lens on young musicians who would go on to become jazz legends: Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, to name just a few.

HERMAN LEONARD Ella Fitzgerald with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Richard Rogers, Downbeat, New York 1949

HERMAN LEONARD DIZZY GILLESPSIE ROYAL ROOST N Y C 1948

HERMAN LEONARD Dexter Gordon, Royal Roost, New York City, 1948

HERMAN LEONARD Ray Brown, NYC, 1948

"You could look at his photos and almost hear the music," says John Edward Hasse, curator of American music at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

"He used light, shadow and smoke, and he made indelible the faces of many of the greatest American musicians of the 20th century."

While many of his subjects became his good friends, only a few of his photos were used on album covers. He gave many away to jazz clubs for promotional purposes.

Mostly, the negatives sat in boxes.

Meanwhile, Leonard's career took him to Paris, where he worked as a fashion and commercial photographer for almost three decades. After taking a break from photography, the Leonard family eventually landed in London.

HERMAN LEONARD Nat King Cole, NYC 1949

HERMAN LEONARD Ella Fitzgerald with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Richard Rogers, Downbeat, New York 1949

HERMAN LEONARD Charlie Bird Parker with Metronome All Stars, NYC 1949

HERMAN LEONARD Tony Bennett, New York City, 1950

His daughter Shana Leonard remembers it being a tough time.

"He was in his 60s at this point," she says.

"I can't imagine when you're in your 60s and you have no money ... he was pretty lost at that point."

For direction, he returned to those early jazz negatives. "I would very comfortably say that these jazz negatives saved his life," Shana Leonard says.

Herman Leonard published his first book of photographs in 1985, more than three decades after he made his first images. After being turned down by the major London galleries, his first exhibit took place in a small space in 1988.

More than 10,000 people visited the show in its first month.

What those people saw was what Leonard saw through his viewfinder sitting in the front row of jazz clubs so many years before, as he explained in a 2007 interview with NPR's Michele Norris.

"Well, that's where I could hear the music," Leonard said.

"And that's where it happened. It happens in the clubs. It doesn't happen in a photo studio. And I wanted to record image-wise to make a visual diary, if you wish, of what I was experiencing."

Leonard died Saturday in a Los Angeles hospital .

Herman Leonard Sonny Stitt N.Y.C 1953

HERMAN LEONARD CHET BAKER N Y C 1956

HERMAN LEONARD Art Blakey, Paris, 1958

HERMAN LEONARD DUKE ELLINGTON, Paris 1960

Louis Amstrong Newport Jazz Festival, 1955 Herman Léonard.

And 155 of his prints are in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

They share space there with many jazz items, including the trumpet of his old friend, Dizzy Gillespie.

Armstrong Louis , Herman leonard

Billie Holiday and her dog , kitchen N . Y . C 1949 Herman Leonard

Billie Holiday Shoes HERMAN LEONARD 1955 N.YC.

Elington Duke Olympia Theater 1958 Herman Leonard

HERMAN LEONARD MILES DAVIS 1989

THE PICTURE SHOW Herman Leonard's Vision Of Jazz : NPR :

. Rafael Saadiq . Cool, Soul R&B JazzMan .

2010-08-04T07:13:00.009+02:00

It's been a good couple of years for hip-hop and soul producers to step out from the boards and record their own music.

Mark Ronson released the stylish Version and Timbaland put out the interesting, if uneven, Shock Value.

Raphael Saadiq has been in the R&B scene for 20 years as a singer for groups like Tony! Toni! Tone!, but most notably spends his time in the producer's chair.

He's helmed recordings for artists such as John Legend, Joss Stone and The Roots.

His new solo album, The Way I See It, is an authentic standout within the recent '60s soul resurgence.

In this interview, Saadiq discusses his early bonds to The Temptations and the Dick Cavett Show, and reveals the advice he received from Stevie Wonder.

Raphael Saadiq: Tiny Desk Concert

Raphael Saadiq

The Tiny Desk

15/03/2010

Looking sharp in his tailored suit, the Grammy-nominated R&B artist performed three acoustic interpretations of his soul-inspired tunes.

He was joined by guitarist Rob Bacon in this intimate performance at Bob Boilen's desk.

I'm not sure how I expected Raphael Saadiq to translate his old-school soul and R&B to the acoustic confines of the Tiny Desk, but I know I hadn't imagined two acoustic guitars.

In the late '80s and '90s, under the name Raphael Wiggins, Saadiq played bass in the multi-platinum band Tony! Toni! Tone!

More recently, he reinvented himself as a successful producer and released last year's Grammy-nominated solo album The Way I See It, which features collaborations with Joss Stone, Stevie Wonder and Jay-Z.

For his Tiny Desk Concert, Saadiq brought a remarkable accompanist in guitarist Rob Bacon.

The two had just gotten off a plane, but in their impeccably tailored suits and their grand smiles, they looked fresh and played an inspired acoustic performance.

As you watch, keep an eye on Saadiq's guitar work: You'll see how his years as a bassist influences many of his licks on his Taylor acoustic. You're in for a real treat.

SET LIST

"Love That Girl"

"100 Yard Dash"

"Sure Hope You Mean It"

Raphael Saadiq.npr-podcasts.m4v

Raphael Saadiq Site

. All You Need Is Love (And Peace):The Beatles In Jazz ( by Lara Pellegrinelli) .

2010-07-30T08:01:00.014+02:00

Express Newspapers/Hulton Archive

Ringo Starr's gold-plated snare drum will be on display at New York's Metropolitan Museum until December.

"What a drag it is getting old" might be a sentiment appropriate for Mick Jagger's birthday, but Beatles drummer Ringo Starr celebrated his 70th with boyish enthusiasm earlier this month.

Starr asked fans around the world to join him at noon by saying the words "peace and love," the only gift he wanted, and he was honored by New York's Metropolitan Museum, where his gold-plated snare drum — a present from the Ludwig Drum Company during the Beatles' famed 1964 U.S. tour — will be on display until December.

The Beatles have lived as long as many composers of the so-called American popular song (Gershwin, Porter, Loesser).

And the band's works, now tried and true, have also found a place in the jazz repertoire, even if arrangements of Ringo's "Octopus's Garden" remain scarce (check George Benson's The Other Side of Abbey Road for the only one we know).

Last September, Take Five presented listeners with a Beatles list, using it to trace how jazz musicians have absorbed popular music that post-dates the British Invasion.

This time, for the drummer, is just for kicks. Happy Birthday, Ringo! Peace and love.

All You Need Is Love (And Peace): The Beatles In Jazz

CHARLIE HUNTER

Playing a custom Novax eight-string, Charlie Hunter manages to handle all the usual guitar duties, while grabbing bass notes and keeping time as well as any drummer with textured strumming and slapping.

So much for a little help from his friends. Hunter's car might just be a motorcycle.
And, no, you can't drive it.

"Drive My Car"
Album: Come Together: Guitar Tribute to the Beatles, Vol. 2
Artist: Various Artists
Label: Nagel-Heyer
Released: 1995

..............................................................................................................................................................................

BRAD MELDHAU

On the last Take Five Beatles list, we failed to include pianist Brad Mehldau, a contemporary pioneer when it comes to bridging the gap between jazz and pop music.

You noticed; point taken. When Mehldau hasn't been too busy playing songs by Radiohead, he's performed a number of Beatles gems, including "Blackbird," "She's Leaving Home" and a solo version of "Martha, My Dear" fantastical enough to warrant comparison to legendary pianist Art Tatum.

Here, in honor of Ringo Starr, we opted for something more straightforward with a little backbeat.

Album: Largo
Song: Dear Prudence

......................................................................................................................................................................

MEDESKI / SCOFIELD / MARTIN / WOOD

Medeski, Martin and Wood represent the happy place where jazz gets made into jam.

Guitarist John Scofield, a masterful improviser who knows how to rock out, makes for their perfect partner in crime.

While the trio-plus-one spends most of Out Louder pushing the groove envelope, "Julia" finds them at their mellow best.

It's more pulsing texture than melody, with a haunting edge. Lovely, lovely melancholy.

Album: Out Louder
Song: Julia

......................................................................................................................................................................

CHRIS POTTER

"Yesterday" is one of the most frequently covered Beatles songs, at least where jazz musicians are concerned, and this might be its most gorgeous arrangement.

Ballads - wistfully nostalgic and otherwise - don't come with the same expectations for improvisational flights as up-tempo tunes, but they depend on a soloist gracefully embellishing the melody nonetheless.

Here, saxophonist Chris Potter keeps the tune simple and instead expands the harmony.

When he gets to the bridge ("Why she had to go..."), it just blossoms.

Album: Underground
Song: Yesterday

......................................................................................................................................................................

BOBBY Mc FERRIN

At least one person is bound to write in to say something like, "Bobby McFerrin isn't a jazz musician."

It might be poor manners on my part, but I'm preemptively going to say that that's complete nonsense.

McFerrin worked for years with Jon Hendricks, the Godfather of Vocalese, and he's held his own in duos with Chick Corea (in fact, here's a full concert).

He can do anything.

Album: Spontaneous Inventions
Song: From Me to You

. Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Zakir Hussain: Tiny Desk Concert .

2010-07-27T05:54:00.011+02:00

Wayne Huang/NPR

Individually, Fleck, Meyer and Hussain are world-class masters of the banjo, the bass fiddle and the tabla, respectively.

Playing together in the offices of NPR Music, the three demonstrate the way musical mastery can be transformed into an exercise in wordless communication.

"Beyond category."

That's what Duke Ellington used to call musicians who were simply the best at what they do.

And that's certainly the case for Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain.

Individually, they're world-class masters of the banjo, the bass fiddle and the tabla, respectively.

They conquered mere technical prowess long ago.

All three now are at a place where music truly becomes so intuitive that a simple rehearsal — as we got to see before this Tiny Desk Concert in the offices of NPR Music — is an exercise in wordless communication.

Just before we rolled tape, the trio worked on a section of one of the songs that involved some unison playing, and I was caught off guard, thinking they didn't really nail it when they tried it three times in a row.

Then, when it came time to perform for an audience, they, of course, performed it flawlessly.

Ellington had no idea that his words would eventually be applied to a banjo player, a bass fiddle player and an South Asian percussionist.

But sit back and enjoy these two pieces from The Melody of Rhythm, and you'll see how right Ellington was.

Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer have collaborated
on a new album,

The Melody of Rhythm.

Set List

"Bubbles"
"Bahar"

IN VIDEO LINK :

NPR Podcasts. Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Zakir Hussain: Tiny Desk Concert m4v

. Mose Allison: The Piano Man Returns .

2010-07-19T21:44:00.006+02:00

Mose Allison is an American music icon — truly one of this country's artistic treasures.

Back in the 1950s, Allison created a style all his own by coupling his talents as a pianist and lyricist and applying them to the elements of jazz and blues.

His piano playing featured hints of both bebop and boogie woogie.

Then, over the music, he added his one-of-a-kind, half-spoken, half-sung vocals, and a new, hip noise was born.

It was music that was bluesy with a cool, laid-back swing, coming from a polite Southern gentleman who had a sharp, biting wit.

Allison released his first album as a leader in 1957, and has dozens more under his belt.

Surprisingly, it had been 13 years since we last heard a studio album of new recordings, but that silence ended earlier this year when he released his latest album, The Way of the World.

We have producer Joe Henry to thank for getting the reluctant 82-year-old legend back into the recording studio to lay down new songs.

After years of poor record sales, Allison felt that nobody cared to hear him any longer. Fortunately, he was wrong.

It was an honor to meet and chat with Allison, and to watch him play before my own eyes — and, now, your ears.

Iconic pianist Mose Allison visited WFUV in New York City for an interview and live performance.

. Mose Allison : Extraits & Liens .

2010-07-19T20:50:00.045+02:00

3 EXTRAITS / SOURCE NPR

LIENS :

Mose Allison Site and Photo Gallery

Catalog View "The Way of the World "