|
Charred Earth
''Charred Earth'' is a live album by drummer Sunny Murray. It was recorded in January 1977, and was released later that year by Kharma Records. On the album, Murray is joined by members of the group known as The Untouchable Factor: reed player Byard Lancaster, pianist Dave Burrell, and bassist Bob Reid. Reception Writing for ''Bells'', Henry Kuntz stated that the album "shows urrayin fine form, especially on the title track. It is closer in spirit to his work with Albert Ayler... though more fluid now, less subtle, and rolling more from the bottom of his drum set, making greater, more obvious use of the high-hat, and going to the top cymbals mainly for accents (as opposed to the drone-like function they served in much of his earlier work)." However, Kuntz cautioned: "The band... leaves much to be desired... the record's main interest is as a contemporary document of Murray's drumming. In an article for ''Avant Music News'', Tom Orange called the album a "standout," and praised "Ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sunny Murray
James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray (September 21, 1936 – December 7, 2017) was an American musician, and was one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming. Biography Murray was born in Idabel, Oklahoma, where he was raised by an uncle who later died after being refused treatment at a hospital because of his race. He began playing drums at the age of nine. As a teen, he lived in a rough part of Philadelphia, and spent two years in a reformatory. In 1956, he moved to New York City, where he worked in a car wash and as a building superintendent. During this time, he played with musicians such as trumpeters Red Allen and Ted Curson, pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith, and saxophonists Rocky Boyd and Jackie McLean. In 1959, he played for the first time with pianist Cecil Taylor and, according to Murray, " r six years all the other things were wiped from my mind..." "With Cecil, I had to originate a complete new direction on drums." Murray stated: "We played for about a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ..., bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century music. Born and raised in North Carolina, Coltrane moved to Philadelphia after graduating high school, where he studied music. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of Modal jazz, modes and was one of the players at the forefront of free jazz. He led at least fifty recording sessions and appeared on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. Over the course of his career, Coltrane's music t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horace Silver
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at school in Connecticut, Silver got his break on piano when his trio was recruited by Stan Getz in 1950. Silver soon moved to New York City, where he developed a reputation as a composer and for his bluesy playing. Frequent sideman recordings in the mid-1950s helped further, but it was his work with the Jazz Messengers, co-led by Art Blakey, that brought both his writing and playing most attention. Their ''Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers'' album contained Silver's first hit, " The Preacher". After leaving Blakey in 1956, Silver formed his own quintet, with what became the standard small group line-up of tenor saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, and drums. Their public performances and frequent recordings for Blue Note Records increased Silver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peace (Horace Silver Song)
"Peace" is a composition by Horace Silver that was first recorded on August 29, 1959. It has become a jazz standard.Huey, Stev"Horace Silver / Horace Silver Quintet – Blowin' the Blues Away" AllMusic. Retrieved January 18, 2016. Silver also wrote lyrics for the tune. Composition According to Silver, "I was doodlin' around on the piano, and it just came to me, but I also had the impression that there was an angel standing over me, impressing my mind with this beautiful melody and harmony." Unusually for popular Silver compositions, "Peace" is a slow ballad. It has a ten-bar structure. Ted Gioia observed that "You won't find a single catchy melodic motif here, no surprising interlude, no harmonic shift that takes the piece in an unexpected direction. Instead the soloist cycles through a series of gentle resolving chords, mostly following a familiar ii-V formula, before settling unobtrusively into the tonic key of B flat." Recordings The piece was first recorded on August 29, 1959, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz. Born in Alton, Illinois, and raised in East St. Louis, Davis left to study at Juilliard in New York City, before dropping out and making his professional debut as a member of saxophonist Charlie Parker's bebop quintet from 1944 to 1948. Shortly after, he recorded the ''Birth of the Cool'' sessions for Capitol Records, which were instrumental to the development of cool jazz. In the early 1950s, Davis recorded some of the earliest hard bop music while on Prestige Records but did so haphazardly due to a heroin addiction. After a widely acclaimed comeback performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, he signed a long-term contract wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Feldman
Victor Stanley Feldman (7 April 1934 – 12 May 1987) was an English jazz musician who played mainly piano, vibraphone, and percussion. He began performing professionally during childhood, eventually earning acclaim in the UK jazz scene as an adult. Feldman emigrated to the United States in the mid-1950s, where he continued working in jazz and also as a session musician with a variety of pop and rock performers. Early life Feldman was born in Edgware on 7 April 1934. He caused a sensation as a musical prodigy when he was "discovered", aged seven. His family were all musical and his father founded the Feldman Swing Club in London in 1942 to showcase his talented sons. Feldman performed from a young age: "from 1941 to 1947 he played drums in a trio with his brothers; when he was nine he took up piano and when he was 14 started playing vibraphone". He featured in the films ''King Arthur Was a Gentleman'' (1942) and '' Theatre Royal'' (1943). In 1944, he was featured at a con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seven Steps To Heaven (composition)
"Seven Steps to Heaven" is a 1963 jazz composition by Victor Feldman and Miles Davis. Different lyrics to it were written much later by Cassandra Wilson and Jon Hendricks. This iconic jazz standard was introduced in 1963 by the Miles Davis Quintet. Although Feldman played and recorded with Davis in Los Angeles on ''Seven Steps to Heaven'', and he appears on half of the tracks of the album, the West Coast-based pianist did not want to follow Davis to New York, where the album version of the composition was finally recorded with Herbie Hancock on piano.Chambers, Jack. ''Milestones 2: The Music and Times of Miles Davis Since 1960'', Da Capo Press, 1998. pp. 53ff. Composition ''Seven Steps to Heaven'' is a 32-bar composition in AABA form; it has an intro, an interlude and an ending - but these are the same. It was originally played in an up-tempo swing style in the key of F Major. See also *List of post-1950 jazz standards Jazz standards are musical compositions that are widely kn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alabama (John Coltrane Song)
"Alabama" is a musical composition by the American jazz artist John Coltrane, first recorded in 1963 by Coltrane with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. Two takes from that session appear on Coltrane's 1964 album '' Live at Birdland''. It is widely believed that Coltrane conceived of and performed the composition in response to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing on September 15, 1963—an attack by the Ku Klux Klan in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four African-American girls: Addie Mae Collins (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14), and Carol Denise McNair (11). History Jazz historian Bill Cole, in his 1977 book, ''John Coltrane,'' states that Coltrane composed "Alabama" as a memorial to the four victims. The date of the first recording – November 18, 1963 – was days after the bombing and days before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Cole asserts that the melodic line "was developed from the rhythmic inflections of a speech given by Dr. Mar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Kuntz
Henry Kuntz is a free jazz saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. In 1979 he founded Hummingbird Records and Tapes, which released, among other things, live recordings of his free jazz trio, Trio Opeye. Cadence Magazine described his multitrack recording technique as "ushering in a new approach to free improvisation Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician(s) involved. The term can refer to both a technique (employed by any musician in any genre) and as a recognizable genre in its ...". Writer John Litweiler singles out Kuntz as being a jazz musician still exploring free improvisation. Partial discography * 1979 Cross-Eyed Priest * 1980 Ancient Of Days, Light Of Glory * 1981 New World Music (with John Kuntz) * 1998 One One & One (with Don Marvel) * 2006 The Magic Of Mystery References American jazz musicians Free jazz saxophonists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during this period believed that the bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz that had been played before them was too limiting. They became preoccupied with creating something new and exploring new directions. The term "free jazz" has often been combined with or substituted for the term "avant-garde jazz". Europeans tend to favor the term "free improvisation". Others have used "modern jazz", "creative music", and "art music". The ambiguity of free jazz presents problems of definition. Although it is usually played by small groups or individuals, free jazz big bands have existed. Although musicians and critics claim it is innovative and forward-looking, it draws on early styles of jazz and has been described as an attempt to return to primitive, often re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Encyclopedia Of Popular Music
''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is an encyclopedia created in 1989 by Colin Larkin. It is the "modern man's" equivalent of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music'', which Larkin describes in less than flattering terms.''The Times'', ''The Knowledge'', Christmas edition, 22 December 2007- 4 January 2008. It was described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". History of the encyclopedia Larkin believed that rock music and popular music were at least as significant historically as classical music, and as such, should be given definitive treatment and properly documented. ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is the result. In 1989, Larkin sold his half of the publishing company Scorpion Books to finance his ambition to publish an encyclopedia of popular music. Aided by a team of initially 70 contributors, he set about compiling the data in a pre-internet age, "relying instead on information gleaned from music magazines, individual expertise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
