Heroes: Musicians and Their Influences
Mar 10, 2009 Features
From our our archives, here’s an interesting item from June 18, 2004.
If you’re looking for a good read, pick up the July issue of Downbeat. It’s being promoted as the “70th Anniversary Collector’s Edition” and the focus is a feature called “Our Heroes” in which more than 70 musicians talk about their primary influences. Here are a few highlights:
Sonny Rollins on Coleman Hawkins: “I first saw him play on 52nd Street. I used to put eyebrow pencil on my lip to make a fake mustache so I could get in. We’d stand in the back, and it was like looking at a god playing.”
Joe Zawinul on Art Tatum: “He always sounded like two piano players. The story goes like this:
Tags: Antonio Hart, Art Tatum, Cannonball Adderley, Coleman Hawkins, Downbeat, Joe Zawinul, Sonny Rollins
Song For My Father
Sep 9, 2008 Jazz Memoirs
A Jazz Memoir By Al Perlman
Jazz was always in my life. It was my father’s great love. I grew up in a tiny first-floor garden apartment in Bayside, Queens, five of us with one bathroom, a small kitchen, two bedrooms, two closets, a living room and another family living in equally cramped quarters directly above us. There wasn’t much space and my mother made it even smaller by banning us from the living room. This was our “show” room to be kept in pristine condition and used only when we had guests: We weren’t permitted to sit in it or talk in it or eat in it or do anything in it. My mother kept plastic on the furniture and took it off only when there was company. The one exception was when my father was home and wanted to listen to jazz. That’s where he had his great big Fisher console with the hi-fi and radio.
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Tags: Art Tatum, Bill Evans, Billy Eckstine, Cannonball Adderley, Dave Brubeck, Horace Silver, Jimmy Smith, Lee Morgan, Sonny Rollins
eBay on A Summer’s Day
Jul 1, 2004 Blue Note, Jazz Vinyl, Jazz Vinyl on eBay, Prestige, Verve
I can’t believe it’s July 1 already. I’m definitely in summer mode. I took two days off and haven’t posted since Monday. I think that will happen fairly routinely this summer so keep checking the site to see if we’re up that day and what gems we might find for you on eBay. We’re following the market just as closely and we’ll make sure to keep the Price Guide and Latest Prices up to date regardless of whether we post new entries on the site each day. I hope this makes sense on at least some level.
In any case, we’re up on the web today and here are some of the items we’ve been watching on eBay. We start off with a nice collectible from the rare Imperial label:
Sonny Criss, Go Man!, Imperial 920. This was an original pressing in M- condition. It sold for $650.
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Tags: Art Tatum, Ben Webster, Fontana, Freddie Hubbard, George Wallington, Imperial, Jaro, John Lewis, Lee Morgan, Pacific Jazz, Ronnie Scott, Sonny Criss, Tubby Hayes