Search results for "Bill Harris"

Harry Babasin: These Foolish Things (Rating: 93/100) posted in Music September 09, 09

Throughout the 1940s, Harry Babasin performed with several luminaries of the jazz community including Charlie Barnet,...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: JAZZ CELLO

Can the cello swing? Can the cello be as melodically sophisticated as traditional jazz instruments? Is the cell...

Bill Evans: Solo - In Memory of His Father (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music January 12, 08

Two weeks before Bill Evans was scheduled to make a live recording at Town Hall, his father, Harry L. Evans, died sud...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: ESSENTIAL BILL EVANS

Bill Evans’s career as a jazz pianist started with little fanfare. His first leader date, New Jazz Conceptions fro...

Duke Ellington: Blood Count (Rating: 95/100) posted in Music November 07, 07

Billy Strayhorn wrote or co-composed with Duke Ellington some of the best-loved pieces in the Ellington band’s repert...

Woody Herman (featuring Sonny Berman): Your Father's Moustache (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music October 23, 08

"Your Father's Moustache" captures Herman's First Herd in full charge, and noticeably emerging out of the band's glor...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: TWELVE SONNYS OF JAZZ

Jazz Quiz: What do these names have in common? Saul Berman Herman Blount Conrad Yeatis Clark William Criss C...

Woody Herman: Goosey Gander (Rating: 97/100) posted in Music November 23, 07

This track takes its name from a nursery rhyme, but don't let Woody Herman's First Herd anywhere near the nursery. Tr...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: JAZZ FOR THE BIRDS

It's only fitting. Since birds inspire us with their songs, composers return the favor, dedicating music in every gen...

Woody Herman: Laura (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music January 12, 09

This track was the first recording made for the first session in Herman's contract for Columbia Records. Herman had l...

Woody Herman: Tenderly (Rating: 97/100) posted in Music October 04, 09

“Tenderly” is a fascinating song, originally written in three and often played in four. It has remained a standard al...

Woody Herman: Apple Honey (Rating: 99/100) posted in Music November 16, 07

In the mid-1940s, Woody Herman's fire-breathing Thundering Herd was the most exciting big band in jazz. Sparked by th...

Woody Herman: Woodchopper's Ball (1946) (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music November 21, 07

Woody Herman's "Woodchopper's Ball" (1939) was a natural hit for the native of Wisconsin, which even today is nearly...

Woody Herman: Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow! (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music January 11, 09

It consistently amazes me how arrangers could take a brand new song and create an interesting, original framework for...

Woody Herman: Wild Root (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music January 12, 09

Once upon a time, an alternate take of "Wild Root" was the more commonly heard performance whenever the title would b...

Sauter-Finegan Orchestra: Nina Never Knew (Rating: 95/100) posted in Music July 19, 08

Except for an instrumental midsection with solos by Travis (muted) and Harris, this recording features Joe Mooney bac...

Charlie Parker: Lover (Rating: 85/100) posted in Music November 21, 07

        Charlie Parker with Strings at Birdland (1951), photo by Marcel Fleiss Though bil...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: TWELVE GREAT LOVERS

Jazz has always relied on popular songs to connect quickly with an audience. In return, jazz has helped keep alive ...

Woody Herman (featuring Sonny Berman): Sidewalks of Cuba (Rating: 93/100) posted in Music November 28, 07

Sonny Berman was on the road as a jazz trumpeter at age sixteen and dead from a heroin overdose at 22. He worked wit...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: TWELVE TRUMPETERS YOU NEED TO KNOW ON A FIRST NAME BASIS

We all know about Dizzy & Miles, Louis & Wynton, Bix & Brownie. Some trumpeters are so famous, that even a single na...

Woody Herman: Ebony Concerto (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music November 05, 07

Emigrating to the U.S. during World War II, the world's foremost composer found himself financially strapped. Gratefu...

Benny Carter: Angel Eyes (Rating: 91/100) posted in Music September 17, 09

Back in 1954, Benny Carter was on the same label as another altoist you might have heard of: Charlie Parker. If Car...

Harry Skoler: Piazzolla (Rating: 92/100) posted in Music July 13, 09

Part of a sensitive, often poignant collection of ensemble and duo work featuring the all-too-often-ignored clarinet,...

Deborah Harry: Stormy Weather / Ill Wind (Rating: 92/100) posted in Music January 08, 08

In the mid-1990s, Debbie Harry picked up The Jazz Passengers for two CDs, and in 2002 gave them another lift for this...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: STORMY WEATHER

Ethel Waters induced "Stormy Weather" in 1933 at the Cotton Club, an oasis of prosperity in Depression- era Harlem wh...

Bill Henderson: Please Send Me Someone To Love (Rating: 89/100) posted in Music July 21, 08

"Please Send Me Someone To Love" was one of Bill Henderson's last recordings for Vee-Jay. Although recorded in a stud...

Bill Frisell: Rambler (Rating: 90/100) posted in Music February 14, 09

Bill Frisell refuses to be pigeonholed into a particular genre or style. For this adventure into ethnically inspired ...

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