Jazz

Frank SInatra made two studio sessions with the Count Basie Orchestra in the ’60’s.  The first of these, Sinatra-Basie: An Historic Musical First, recorded in 1962, was arranged...

 Today is Frank Wess’s 95th birthday anniversary. He died just over three years ago, October 30, 2013, and since then his colleagues Clark Terry and Joe Wilder have also passed on. They’d...

George Cables posted a note on Facebook today in which he said, “I’m having a great time at Birdland this week with Frank Wess, who’s celebrating his 91st birthday today, but you’d never know it! In addition,...

I’ve been paying memorial tribute to Frank Wess since news of his death arrived on Thursday.  The great saxophonist and flute player, a pioneer of that instrument in jazz, died on October 30 at age...

How the Idle Mention of a Word in The New Yorker Resounds to a Few Links in the Jazz Chain Port of Harlem Jazzmen: Frankie Newton and Sidney Bechet I wrote about George Frazier last summer...

I was surprised at how sensational I found this performance of “The Lady Is a Tramp” by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga to be.   I see Bennett at every chance, most recently in Montreal in July,...

A Conversation Rich in History and Humor Kudos to Gary Smulyan, who was deputized by Vandoren, the Parisian manufacturer of woodwinds, mouthpieces, and reeds, to host a conversation with Jimmy Heath...

© hansspeekenbrink.nl All rights reserved The Northampton Jazz Workshop has been going strong for nearly six years with an amazing array of guest soloists, none more impressive than Gary Smulyan, who...

There is surprisingly little filmed footage on Gene Ammons, whose 91st birthday anniversary was April 14. Ammons was one of the most revered tenor saxophonists in modern jazz, a colleague of Charlie Parker...

I know Gene Norman’s voice best from his introduction of Max Roach and Clifford Brown at a Gene Norman Presents (GNP) concert in Hollywood in 1954.  Norman was out front in presenting Max and Brownie’s...