Author: Al

Podcast: Digging Deeper into the Great American Songbook

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This week’s theme: Another show wherein I play a jazz vocal from the Great American Songbook, followed by a jazz instrumental of the same song. Featured artists include Rosemary Clooney, Stan Getz, Eddie Jefferson, Nat King Cole, Harry Sweets Edison, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Kenny Clarke, Anita O’Day, Hank Mobley, Sonny Clark, Marshall Royal, Chet Baker, Sonny Rollins, LaVern Baker, Sonny Stitt, Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, and many more.

Podcast: Desmond Cannonball

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This week’s theme: Juxtaposing some nice Paul Desmond with some nice Cannonball Adderley. Featured artists include Paul Desmond, Cannonball Adderley, Jim Hall, Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Percy Heath, Connie Kay, Wendell Marshall, Gene Cherico, Nat Adderley, Junior Mance, Sam Jones, Jimmy Cobb, Wynton Kelly, Vic Feldman, Louis Hayes, Dave Brubeck, Joe Morello, Joe Zawinul, Vic Gaskin, Roy McCurdy, and more.

 

Podcast: Sonny & Trane, Trane & Sonny

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This week’s theme: Alternating favorite tracks between John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. Featured artists include John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, Shelley Manne, Ray Brown, Barney Kessel, Hampton Hawes, Wynton Kelly, Max Roach, Jimmy Cobb, Ray Bryant, George Morrow, and more.

Podcast: Bird, Bop, Dex, With a Twist

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This week’s theme: Contrafacts, aka a vocal of the original pop song, such as How High the Moon, followed by a bopified version, such as Ornithology. Other examples: Sweet Georgia Brown/Bright Mississippi; I Got Rhythm/Moose the Mooche; It Could Happen to You/Fried Bananas; Embraceable You/Quasimodo; All the Things You Are/Boston Bernie; Indiana/Donna Lee; Cherokee/Koko. You get the idea. Featured artists include Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O’Day, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Rouse, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, Clifford Brown, Max Roach and many, many more.

Another mini-adventure in Jazz Collecting

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I have a bunch of things to catch up on, including a mini-adventure in Jazz Collecting from earlier this year. Let’s start with the mini adventure and then do a separate post later on all of the other stuff. Because I’ve been doing the Jazz Collector site for about 20 years, I come up very high on Google searches for anyone looking to do anything with jazz collectibles. Over the years, I’ve gotten some weird and fascinating inquiries. I’ve also been able to buy some collections, such as the one from Irving Kalus back in  2012, 13 years ago, believe it or not. If you’re new to Jazz Collector and never read that story, check it out. It’s a fun read. To give you a little tease, the graphic accompanying this post is from back then. I would say I average one or two inquiries a week, and most of them turn out to be nothing. This latest one turned out to be something, although I’m still not sure what. It started, as they all do, with an email. The subject line read: “Donation of a collection.” Here was the text: “My brother passed away. He had a collection of well over 1,000 Jazz CDs, many unopened. I am not a fan, so I would like to donate the collection to someone who would enjoy it. I’m in White Plains, NY. Please find someone to take it, I would hate to send it to recycling. Thank you.” Read more

Podcast: Bird, Dex, Dial, Savoy

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This week’s theme: Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon in the studio for Dial and Savoy, 1945 to 1948, with a little Lester Young thrown in for good measure. Musicians include Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, J.J. Johnson, Max Roach, Dyke Jordan, Tommy Potter, John Lewis, Curly Russell, Count Basie, Walter Page, Jo Jones, Todd Dameron, Art Blakey, Leo Parker, Leonard Hawkins, Bud Powell.

Podcast: Another Dash of Duke

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This week’s theme: Songs from the Ellington Songbook, vocal and instrumental versions. Songs include Cottontail, Lush Life, In a Sentimental Mood, In a Mellowtone, Come Sunday, Take the A Train, Just Squeeze Me, and more. Artists include John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O-Day, Johnny Hartman, Mahalia Jackson, Dizzy Gillespie, Wes Montgomery, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones, Coleman Hawkins, Clark Terry and more.

A Bird Signature?????????

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Don-Lucky, if you are out there,  we need you. Or any other autograph experts. I was just perusing eBay on this lovely but chilly Sunday morning in the beautiful Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts and I came upon this listing: Rare Signed By Charlie Parker + Coleman Hawkins 1947 Norman Granz #6 78-RPM Set. And when you open this listing there, indeed, are signatures bearing the names Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins. They are clearly signed with the same pen at the same time. The question is: Do they seem legitimate? I’m not expert enough to know. The reality is, I think, for the seller and any potential buyer, it would be very difficult to authenticate something signed before Bird died in 1955 if it hasn’t been authenticated already. Plus, this is not a program from the JATP at which they were both in attendance, but a pair of signatures on the record, which came out many months later. So, someone would have brought this record to a concert or club where both Bird and Hawk were at the same time, and would have gotten them both to cooperate for an autograph signing. I don’t have the expertise of Don-Lucky, but color me skeptical. In any case, the seller has an asking price of more than $2,400 and the auction closes later today. My guess is that even if the signatures were fully authenticated, that would still be a price beyond market value, although, I have to admit, if the signatures were authenticated, it would be an item of interest to me personally. A real Bird autograph, actually signed by Bird. Yeah, I could enjoy having that in my collection. Read more

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