Mary Lou Williams was not only the most important female musician in jazz history; she was a major force in the music’s development. For the past two decades, Deanna Witkowski has researched Williams’ life and music. Thomas Cunniffe reviews Witkowski’s new book on Williams’ life, and her new CD which features Williams’ music.
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Of the hundreds of concerts we may attend in our lifetimes, the ones we remember best are the ones with stories attached. Usually, the stories are exaggerated over time…unless the concert was recorded. In this month’s Retro Review, Thomas Cunniffe reviews newly issued vintage concerts by Ella Fitzgerald, Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, and Oscar Peterson, each attached to a unique story.
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The Red Rodney/Ira Sullivan Quintet was one of the most exciting bands of the early 1980s. Trumpeter Rodney and multi-instrumentalist Sullivan co-lead the house band at Chicago’s Bee Hive in the mid-1950s. They reunited 25 years later and fronted a quintet with a young rhythm section that explored contemporary jazz from a bebop foundation. In this extended Historical Essay, Thomas Cunniffe explores the collaborations of Rodney and Sullivan, encompassing nine LPs and six newly-discovered live recordings.
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The Red Rodney/Ira Sullivan Quintet was one of the most exciting bands of the early 1980s. Trumpeter Rodney and multi-instrumentalist Sullivan co-lead the house band at Chicago’s Bee Hive in the mid-1950s. They reunited 25 years later and fronted a quintet with a young rhythm section that explored contemporary jazz from a bebop foundation. In this extended Historical Essay, Thomas Cunniffe explores the collaborations of Rodney and Sullivan, encompassing nine LPs and six newly-discovered live recordings.
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Now appearing in abbreviated form due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Jazz History Online’s Concert Journal continues to cover the finest jazz concerts from the Eastern US. Thomas Cunniffe is your guide to the wide variety of jazz performed from Boston to DC.
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Hello, everyone, I hope that you’ve all had a lovely holiday season. As we enter 2022, there’s a lot of uncertainty about how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect our lives. As usual, none of the experts can agree, so we’ll just have to take this year as it comes, and hope that it’s much better […]
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2021 was a roller coaster of a year, filled with contradictions and false starts. However, there was great music performed live and on disc, plus excellent historical reissues and books. We note these accomplishments, and say farewell to those who left us in this year’s Summation.
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The tribute albums featured in this issue’s CD Reviews were created by artists living far away from the cultural centers of New York and Los Angeles. Jackie Allen and Hans Sturm salute musicians born in the Cornhusker State in “The Nebraska Project”, Anat Cohen and Marcello Goncalves explore the MPB songbook on “Reconvexo”, Cyrille Aimee, Adonis Rose and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra join forces to examine the cultural connections between New Orleans and France, and David Sanford’s big band pays homage to Dizzy Gillespie and Lester Bowie on “Prayer for Lester Bowie”. Thomas Cunniffe offers his reactions to these superb albums.
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When drummer Joe La Barbera was hired as the newest member of the Bill Evans trio in January 1979, he knew that Evans had a long-standing addiction to drugs. Evans died of his addiction just 19 months later, while La Barbera was still with the band. The triumphs and tribulations of that final edition of the Evans trio (with Marc Johnson on bass) are the subjects of La Barbera’s frank and touching memoir, “Times Remembered: The Final Years of the Bill Evans Trio” (University of North Texas Press). Thomas Cunniffe offers his reactions to the memoir in this month’s Book Review.
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Roy Eldridge and Norman Granz first met in 1942. Eldridge was already a star but Granz was still living on limited means. A few years later, Granz bolstered Eldridge’s stature by featuring him in concerts and recordings. In this Retro Review, Thomas Cunniffe examines a seminal collection of 4 collaborations between Eldridge and Oscar Peterson, produced by Granz, from a classic double-LP compilation, “Dale’s Wail”.
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Django Reinhardt is widely acclaimed as the first non-American jazz musician to develop a unique solo style. Yet, his earliest recordings with the Quintette of the Hot Club of France show that the guitarist was still learning jazz licks and grasping the concept of solo construction. Within five years, Reinhardt was indeed a master soloist, working within the jazz language without sacrificing the sound of his Roma heritage. Thomas Cunniffe traces Reinhardt’s development through a 12-song embedded playlist in this Historical Essay.
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Happy Holidays from Jazz History Online! For our annual feature, Music for a Cool Yule, Thomas Cunniffe and Marti Mendenhall offer capsule reviews of the best in holiday jazz, both new and classic. We have received far less holiday discs for review this year, so we hope that you will look through the entire list to find a new holiday favorite, regardless of whether it is a new release, or one from years past.
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In mid-November 2021, Thomas Cunniffe and a long-time friend from Colorado attended a series of 7 concerts spread over 10 days. The experience illustrated the culture deeply embedded in the Northeastern US. In this extended Concert Review, Cunniffe discusses all of the concerts in the tour.
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Editor Thomas Cunniffe’s column, featuring notes and comments about this issue’s reviews and articles, plus updates on the website and ways to get involved!
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