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Great Jazz Standards
''Great Jazz Standards'' is an album by jazz composer, arranger, conductor and pianist Gil Evans recorded in 1959 by Evans with an orchestra featuring Johnny Coles, Steve Lacy, Curtis Fuller, Jimmy Cleveland, Budd Johnson, Ray Crawford, and Elvin Jones. accessed February 1, 2010. Reception The review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4 stars calling it "Highly recommended".Yanow, S. accessed February 1, 201 ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gil Evans
Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian–American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role in the development of cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz, and jazz fusion. He is best known for his acclaimed collaborations with Miles Davis. Early life Gil Evans was born in Toronto, Canada on May 13, 1912 to Margaret Julia McConnachy. Little is known about Evans' biological father, although a family friend said that he was a doctor who had died before Evans was born. Originally named Gilmore Ian Ernest Green, Evans took the last name of his step-father, John Evans, a miner. The family moved frequently, living in Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon, migrating to wherever Evans' father could find work. Eventually, the family ended up in California, first in Berkeley, where Evans attended the ninth and ten ... [...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 Gui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys (small levers) that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. It was invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700. Description The word "piano" is a shortened form of ''pianoforte'', the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from ''clavicembalo col piano e forte'' (key cimbalom with quiet and loud)Pollens (1995, 238) and '' fortepiano''. The Italian musical terms ''piano'' and ''forte'' indicate "soft" and "loud" respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume (i.e., loudness) produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on the keys: the gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Redman
Donald Matthew Redman (July 29, 1900 – November 30, 1964) was an American jazz musician, arranger, bandleader, and composer. Biography Redman was born in Piedmont, Mineral County, West Virginia, United States. His father was a music teacher, his mother was a singer. Beginning by playing the trumpet at the age of three, Redman joined his first band at the age of six and by the age of 12 was proficient on all wind instruments ranging from trumpet to oboe as well as piano. He studied at Storer College in Harper's Ferry and at the Boston Conservatory, then joined Billy Page's Broadway Syncopaters in New York City. He was the uncle of saxophonist Dewey Redman, and thus great-uncle of saxophonist Joshua Redman and trumpeter Carlos Redman. Career In 1923, Redman joined the Fletcher Henderson orchestra, mostly playing clarinet and saxophones. He began writing arrangements, and Redman did much to formulate the sound that was to become swing. A trademark of Redman's arrangements ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Lewis (pianist)
John Aaron Lewis (May 3, 1920 – March 29, 2001) was an American jazz pianist, composer and arranger, best known as the founder and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Early life John Lewis was born in La Grange, Illinois, and after his parents' divorce moved with his mother, a trained singer, to Albuquerque, New Mexico when he was two months old. She died from peritonitis when he was four and he was raised by his grandmother and great-grandmother. He began learning classical music and piano at the age of seven. His family was musical and had a family band that allowed him to play frequently and he also played in a Boy Scout music group.Lyons, p. 77. Even though he learned piano by playing the classics, he was exposed to jazz from an early age because his aunt loved to dance and he would listen to the music she played. He attended the University of New Mexico, where he led a small dance band that he formed Giddins, p. 378. and double majored in Anthropology and Music. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Django (composition)
"Django" is a 1954 jazz standard written by John Lewis as a tribute to the Belgian-born jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. It was a signature composition of the Modern Jazz Quartet, of which Lewis was the pianist and musical director. Background and structure Lewis wrote "Django" in 1954 as a tribute to his friend, the Belgian-born jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who had died the previous year. It begins with a 20-bar theme that was described by Ted Gioia in his book ''The Jazz Standards'' as dirge-like and mournful. The entry for "django" in the original edition of the '' Real Book'' only contained the chord changes for this theme. It is followed by solo sections in modified Thirty-two-bar AABA form, where the first two A sections contain six bars instead of eight, the eight-bar B section contains a pedal point on the tonic, and the final twelve-bar A section contains a boogie bass motif. The solo sections are separated by interludes in double-time derived from the introd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clifford Brown
Clifford Benjamin Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. He died at the age of 25 in a car accident, leaving behind four years' worth of recordings. His compositions "Sandu", "Joy Spring", and "Daahoud" have become jazz standards. Brown won the ''DownBeat'' magazine Critics' Poll for New Star of the Year in 1954; he was inducted into the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in 1972. Early career Brown was born into a musical family in Wilmington, Delaware. His father organized his four sons, including Clifford, into a vocal quartet. Around age ten, Brown started playing trumpet at school after becoming fascinated with the shiny trumpet his father owned. At age thirteen, his father bought him a trumpet and provided him with private lessons. In high school, Brown received lessons from Robert Boysie Lowery and played in "a jazz group that Lowery organized", making trips to Philadelphia. Brown briefly attended Delaware State University as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joy Spring
"Joy Spring" is a 1954 jazz composition by Clifford Brown that became his signature work. The title was his pet name for his wife Larue. Early history Brown first recorded "Joy Spring" in a studio session led by him on August 6, 1954, at Capitol Recording Studios, in Los Angeles, with Harold Land (tenor sax), Richie Powell (piano), George Morrow ( bass), and Max Roach (drums). They did two takes – and . Six days later (August 12, 1954), at the same studio, Brown, as leader, recorded Jack Montrose's arrangement of it with Stu Williamson (valve trombone), Zoot Sims (tenor sax), Bob Gordon (baritone sax), Russ Freeman (piano), Joe Mondragon ( bass), and Shelly Manne (drums). That take has been issued on several albums, including '' Jazz Messages'' (Jazztone ), ''Clifford Brown & Max Roach'' (Pacific Jazz ), and ''Jazz Imortal – Featuring Zoot Sims'' (1988; Pacific Jazz ). Larue Anderson, before marrying Brown, had been a classical music student at the University of S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommy Wolf
Thomas Joseph Wolf Jr. (1925 – 1979) was an American composer and piano player. He was best known for his songwriting collaboration with Fran Landesman. Life Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Wolf met Fran Landesman while playing piano at the Jefferson Hotel there. She showed him a poem which he set to music. The resulting song "This Little Love of Ours" began a collaboration that continued for more than a decade. Wolf's albums include " Wolf at Your Door," and " Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most", both recorded for Fraternity Records. After moving to California, he was a rehearsal pianist, working on the Andy Williams and Red Skelton television shows, and numerous musical specials, most memorably the award-winning Fred Astaire show "Evenings." Several of Wolf's songs, including " Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most", have become jazz Jazz standards, and have been recorded by artists such as Kurt Elling, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, Barbra Streisand, and Ella Fitzgerald. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fran Landesman
Fran Landesman (October 21, 1927 – July 23, 2011) was an American lyricist and poet. She grew up in New York City and lived for years in St. Louis, Missouri, where her husband Jay Landesman operated the Crystal Palace nightclub. One of her best-known songs is " Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most". Early life and education She was born Frances Deitsch in New York City in 1927, Her mother was a journalist and a father was a dress manufacturer. Her brother, Sam Deitsch, founded and operated some neighborhood bars in St. Louis and, with his partner Ed Moose, later founded the Washington Square Bar and Grill in San Francisco. Deitsch attended private schools through high school. For college, she studied at Temple University in Philadelphia and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. There she initially worked in the fashion industry, as her father did. While in New York, Deitsch met writer Jay Landesman, the publisher of the short-lived ''Neurotica'' magazine, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", " Blue Monk", " Straight, No Chaser", " Ruby, My Dear", " In Walked Bud", and " Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington. Monk's compositions and improvisations feature dissonances and angular melodic twists and are consistent with his unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations. Monk's distinct look included suits, hats, and sunglasses. He also had an idiosyncratic habit during performances: while other musicians continued playing, Monk would stop, stand up, and dance for a few moments before returning to the piano. Monk is one of five jazz musicians to have been featured on the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Straight, No Chaser (composition)
This is a list of compositions by jazz musician Thelonious Monk. 0-9 52nd Street Theme A contrafact based loosely on rhythm changes in C, and was copyrighted by Monk under the title "Nameless" in April 1944. The tune was also called "Bip Bop" by Monk, and he claims that the tune's latter title was the origin of the genre-defining name bebop. It quickly became popular as an opening and closing tune on the clubs on 52nd Street on Manhattan where Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker played. It was first recorded by Dizzy Gillespie's sextet on February 22, 1946, under the title "52nd Street Theme". Leonard Feather claims he gave the latter title. A Ask Me Now A tonally ambiguous ballad in D first recorded on July 23, 1951, for the ''Genius of Modern Music'' sessions. It also appears on ''5 by Monk by 5'', and ''Solo Monk''. Jon Hendricks wrote lyrics to the tune and called it ”How I Wish”; it was first recorded by Carmen McRae on ''Carmen Sings Monk''. Mark Murphy sings a versio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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