Montreux Jazz Festival Celebrates 50th Anniversary
It’s been a while since my last visit to beautiful Montreux in Switzerland. For about 15 years, this prestigious festival had been on my calendar. I have met so many artists over there and saw outstanding and unique concerts, not to forget the numerous get-togethers at the chalet of founder and director Claude Nobs r.i.p….
Songs In The Key Of Life Comes To London
Stevie Wonder has been playing everyone’s favorite album (including mine), “Songs In The Key Of Life” from 1976, in its entirety on a successful, sold-out US tour. He is now bringing the three-hour show to Europe and will play London’s Hyde Park on July 10th. The tour has run for 18 months in the US…
Al Green At 70
There are soul singers, soul preachers, soul crooners, and then there is Al Green. The wonder that is “Let’s Stay Together”, his number 1 hit from 1971, is still intoxicating and enthralling over 40 years later. Pieces like “”I’m Still In Love With You” (1972) or “Here I Am” (1973), “L-O-V-E” (1975) or “Keep Me Cryin’”…
Leon Haywood 1942-2016
As a music fanatic growing up in the late 70s/early 80s (mostly listening to the entire Stevie Wonder catalog) and soon exploring the bars, clubs and discos of Cologne, a perfect night-out always depended on the best music mix: the cherished disco classics combined with seldom-heard pieces and new discoveries. In those “formative” years, I’ve heard…
Bill Henderson – R.I.P.
It was Bill Henderson who recorded Horace Silver’s “Senor Blues” for Blue Note Records in 1958. Bill also worked with Wynton Kelly, Yusef Lateef, Ramsey Lewis, and started to release several albums in the late 50s on Vee-Jay Records. In the 60s, Bill worked with Eddie Harris, Oscar Peterson, and Count Basie and after settling…
Gato Barbieri – R.I.P.
The passion and fire of tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri‘s playing and writing certainly had its artistic and commercial peak with his score for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango In Paris” from 1973, where the Argentinian musician, who was born into a very musical family, merged both his Latin and his jazz influences into a unique style….
Roland Kirk Documentary Streaming
Legendary saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk, who was certainly more than a blind musician who could play three horns at once, is the topic of a documentary called “The Case Of The Three Sided Dream”. The streaming of the movie and the download on vimeo on demand will be available on May 1st, with iTunes coming later…
NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will produce the Jazz Masters Tribute Concert on Monday, April 4th at 8pm ET. This year’s recipients are vibraphonist Gary Burton, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, saxophonist Archie Shepp, and musicians’ advocate Wendy Oxenhorn. Participating musicians are Randy Weston, Jimmy Heath, Ambrose Akinmusire, Lakecia Benjamin, Stefon Harris, Justin Kauflin, Rudresh Mahanthappa,…
Sending Sarah Vaughan
Legendary singer Sarah Vaughan‘s image will grace postcards and envelopes in the form of a “Commemorative Forever Stamp” beginning March 29th, two days after what would have been her 92nd birthday. Thus, the U.S. Postal Service honors the famous singer with an unveiling ceremony at the Sarah Vaughan Concert Hall at Newark Symphony Hall in…