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Sonny Criss
William "Sonny" Criss (23 October 1927 – 19 November 1977) was an American jazz musician. An alto saxophonist of prominence during the bebop era of jazz, he was one of many players influenced by Charlie Parker. Biography William Criss was born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 15. He then went on to play in various bands including Howard McGhee's, which also featured Charlie Parker. Criss had developed his own, concise, bluesy tone by this point, and though his basic style did not vary much, his ability on the instrument continued to develop. Nevertheless, he continued to drift from band to band, and played on some records with Johnny Otis and Billy Eckstine. His first major break came in 1947, on a number of jam sessions arranged by jazz impresario Norman Granz. In 1956 he signed to Imperial Records, based in New York, and recorded a series albums including ''Jazz U.S.A '', ''Go Man!'' and ''Sonny Criss Plays Cole Porter'' feat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alto Saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor but larger than the B soprano. It is the most common saxophone and is used in popular music, concert bands, chamber music, solo repertoire, military bands, marching bands, pep bands, and jazz (such as big bands, jazz combos, swing music). The alto saxophone had a prominent role in the development of jazz. Influential jazz musicians who made significant contributions include Don Redman, Jimmy Dorsey, Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter, Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Lee Konitz, Jackie McLean, Phil Woods, Art Pepper, Paul Desmond, and Cannonball Adderley. Although the role of the alto saxophone in classical music has been limited, influential performers include Marcel Mule, Sigurd Raschèr, Jean-Marie Londeix, Eugene Rousseau, and Frederick ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonny Clark
Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark (July 21, 1931 – January 13, 1963) was an American jazz pianist and composer who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom. Early life Clark was born and raised in Herminie, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town east of Pittsburgh.Stephenson, Sam (January 13, 2011"Notes from a Biographer: Sonny Clark" ''The Paris Review''. His parents were originally from Stone Mountain, Georgia. His miner father, Emery Clark, died of a lung disease two weeks after Sonny was born. Sonny was the youngest of eight children. At age 12, he moved to Pittsburgh. Later life and career While visiting an aunt in California at age 20, Clark decided to stay and began working with saxophonist Wardell Gray. Clark went to San Francisco with Oscar Pettiford and after a couple months, was working with clarinetist Buddy DeFranco in 1953. Clark toured the United States and Europe with DeFranco until January 1956, when he joined The Lighthouse All-Stars, led by bassist Howard Rumsey. Wishing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
This Is Criss!
''This is Criss!'' is an album by saxophonist Sonny Criss recorded in 1966 and released on the Prestige label. accessed September 10, 2012 Reception awarded the album 4½ stars with its review by Stephen Cook stating, "Sonny Criss qualifies as one of the most overlooked giants of West Coast jazz. His soundlike most alto players of the bebop and hard bop dayswas heavily influenced by , but Criss still managed to forge an original style featuring a very original melodic bent with loads of bluesy underpinnings. The goods can ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peacock Records
Peacock Records was an American record label, started in 1949 by Don Robey in Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ..., Texas, United States. History "Hound Dog (song), Hound Dog" by Big Mama Thornton was a hit for Peacock in 1953. Other significant rhythm and blues artists on Peacock were Marie Adams (singer), Marie Adams, James Booker, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Little Richard, Memphis Slim, and former gospel singer Jackie Verdell. The label also dabbled in jazz, releasing albums by vocalist Betty Carter and saxophonist Sonny Criss. In 1952, Robey gained control of the Duke Records label of Memphis, Tennessee. Duke/Peacock Records was formed. For a period of time in the early 1960s, Peacock released gospel music only, issuing singles and albums by some of Amer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pablo Records
Pablo Records was a jazz record company and label founded by Norman Granz in 1973, more than a decade after he had sold his earlier catalog (including Verve Records) to MGM Records. Pablo initially featured recordings by acts that Granz managed: Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, and Joe Pass. Later, the label issued recordings by Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Milt Jackson, and Paulinho da Costa. The label also re-released 1950s recordings by Art Tatum, which Granz reacquired, and released unissued European live recordings of John Coltrane and his groups. In January 1987, it was announced that the label had been acquired by Fantasy Records for an undisclosed amount. Eric Miller, who had worked with Norman Granz since the early 1970s, continued with Pablo as head of A&R, until the early-2000s. Fantasy continued to release previously unissued recordings using the Pablo name. Discography Pablo 2310-700 Series The Pablo 2310-700 Series were released between 1974 and 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fresh Sound
Fresh Sound, or Fresh Sound New Talent, is a jazz record label established in Barcelona, Spain, by Jordi Pujol. The label was initially founded as a reissue label. The catalog includes work by musicians both major and minor that was recorded before 1962, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker. Sources include Argo, Dawn, Prestige/New Jazz, RCA, Royal Roost, Riverside, and Verve. Fresh Sound has released music by obscure singers Jane Fielding, Beverly Kenney, Marilyn Moore, Lucy Ann Polk, and Helyne Stewart In the early 1990s, the label began to produce new recordings. This included music by Georges Arvanitas and David Murray; Mundell Lowe and Tete Montoliu; Gabe Baltazar, Eddie Bert, Bob Cooper, Dick Hafer, Charlie Mariano, J. R. Monterose, Bill Perkins, Frank Strazzeri, and Claude Williamson. The Fresh Sound New Talent label was inaugurated in the 1990s with the work of Vinny Golia. Roster * Pablo Ablanedo * David Ambrosio * Reid Anderson * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Impulse! Records
Impulse! Records (occasionally styled as "¡mpulse! Records" and "¡!") is an American jazz record company and label established by Creed Taylor in 1960. John Coltrane was among Impulse!'s earliest signings. Thanks to consistent sales and positive critiques of his recordings, the label came to be known as "the house that Trane built". History Impulse!'s parent company, ABC-Paramount Records, was established in 1955 as the recording division of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). In the 1940s and 1950s, ABC benefitted from the U.S. government's antitrust actions against broadcasters and film studios who were forced to divest parts of their companies. In the early 1950s, ABC acquired the Blue Network of radio stations from NBC and later merged with the newly independent Paramount Theaters chain, formerly owned by Paramount Pictures. The new recording division was located at 1501 Broadway, above the Paramount Theatre in Times Square. Under the leadership of Leonard Goldenson ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muse Records
Muse Records was a jazz record company and label founded in New York City by Joe Fields in 1972. Fields worked as an executive for Prestige Records in the 1960s. Several of the albums were previously released on Cobblestone Records. Muse also had another label, Onyx Records, which operated until 1978, when Fields and collaborator Don Schlitten ended their professional relationship. In the late 1970s, Muse partnered with the Dutch Timeless Records to distribute Timeless Muse. Muse was sold in 1996 to 32 Jazz, which repackaged and reissued a large amount of Muse recordings. In 2003, Savoy Jazz (which had become a subsidiary of Nippon Columbia) acquired the rights to the Muse catalog (along with that of Landmark) from 32 Jazz. Fields later founded HighNote Records and Savant Records; many Muse artists later recorded for these labels as well. Discography From 1972 until 1995 Muse released around 500 albums. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horace Tapscott
Horace Elva Tapscott (April 6, 1934 – February 27, 1999) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (also known as P.A.P.A., or The Ark) in 1961 and led the ensemble through the 1990s. Early life Tapscott was born in Houston, Texas, and moved to Los Angeles, California, at the age of nine. By this time he had begun to study piano and trombone. He played with Frank Morgan, Don Cherry, and Billy Higgins as a teenager. Later life and career After service in the Air Force in Wyoming, he returned to Los Angeles and played trombone with various bands, notably Lionel Hampton (1959–61). Soon after, though, he quit playing trombone and focused on piano. In 1961 Tapscott formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, with the aim of preserving, developing and performing African-American music. As his vision grew, this became just one part of a larger organization in 1963, the Underground Musicians Association (UGMA), which later changed name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hard Bop
Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in saxophone and piano playing. David H. Rosenthal contends in his book ''Hard Bop'' that the genre is, to a large degree, the natural creation of a generation of African-American musicians who grew up at a time when bop and rhythm and blues were the dominant forms of black American music. Prominent hard bop musicians included Horace Silver, Clifford Brown, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Thelonious Monk and Lee Morgan. Musical style Hard bop is sometimes referred to as "funky hard bop". The "funky" label refers to the rollicking, rhythmic feeling associated with the style. The descriptor is also used to describe soul jazz, which is commonly a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prestige Records
Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City which issued recordings in the mainstream, bop, and cool jazz idioms. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them on subsidiary labels. In 1971, the company was sold to Fantasy, which was later absorbed by Concord. History The Prestige office was located at 446 West 50th Street, New York City. Its catalogue included Gene Ammons, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Wardell Gray, Thelonious Monk, and Sonny Rollins. Audio engineer Rudy Van Gelder was the recording engineer of many Prestige albums in the 1950s and early-to-mid-1960s. Prestige created new labels in 1960: Swingville, Moodsville, covering jazz, Bluesville featuring blues revival artists, Lively Arts featuring spoken word recordings and Prestige International, Prestige Folklore, Irish and Near East with folk and world music. By the later 1950s, We ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wynton Kelly
Wynton Charles Kelly (December 2, 1931 – April 12, 1971) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He is known for his lively, blues-based playing and as one of the finest accompanists in jazz. He began playing professionally at the age of 12 and was pianist on a No. 1 R&B hit at the age of 16. His recording debut as a leader occurred three years later, around the time he started to become better known as an accompanist to singer Dinah Washington, and as a member of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's band. This progress was interrupted by two years in the United States Army, after which Kelly worked again with Washington and Gillespie, and played with other leaders. Over the next few years, these included instrumentalists Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Wes Montgomery, and Sonny Rollins, and vocalists Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, and Abbey Lincoln. Kelly attracted the most attention as part of Miles Davis' band from 1959, including an appearance on the trumpete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
