|
Venus Records
Venus Records is a Japanese jazz record label. It was founded in 1992 by Tetsuo Hara, who had worked as a producer for RCA Victor. It mostly works with a select group of artists from Italy, the United States, and Japan, and uses a signature 24-bit mastering process, named "Hyper Magnum Sound," that produces "very powerful sound with strong presence". It is also known for its album covers, which use well-known photographers and frequently feature nudity. Discography * VENUS-1002 Albert Ayler ''Bells'' (CD, RE, Promo) 1993 * TKCZ-79136 Marzette Watts ''Marzette Watts'' (CD, Album, RE) 1993 * TKCZ-79134 Burton Greene Trio ''The On Tour'' (CD, Album, RE) 1993 * TKCZ-79130 Giuseppi Logan ''More'' (CD, Album, RE) 1993 * TKCZ-79126 Patty Waters ''Sings'' (CD, Album, RE) 1993 * TKCZ-79118 ''Why Not?'' (CD, Album, RE) 1993 * TKCZ-79108 Giuseppi Logan Quartet '' The Giuseppi Logan Quartet'' (CD, Album, RE) 1993 * TKCZ-79102 Albert Ayler ''Spirits Rejoice'' (CD, Album, RE) 1993 * TKCZ-79 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. But jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richie Beirach
Richard Alan Beirach (born 23 May 1947) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Early life Beirach was born in New York City. He initially studied both classical music and jazz. While still attending high school, he took lessons from pianist Lennie Tristano. Beirach later entered the Berklee College of Music. After one year, he left Berklee and began attending the Manhattan School of Music. While there, he studied with Ludmilla Ulehla. In 1972, he graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with a Master's Degree in Music Theory and Composition. Career In 1972 Beirach began working with Stan Getz. He also worked with Chet Baker. Beirach has maintained an ongoing musical partnership with David Liebman from the late-1960s to the present in the groups Lookout Farm and Quest. In addition, Liebman and Beirach have frequently performed and recorded as a duo. Several of Beirach's compositions – "Leaving" and "Elm", for instance – have found their way into the jazz standard re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
JR Monterose
J. R. Monterose (January 19, 1927 – September 16, 1993), born Frank Anthony Peter Vincent Monterose, Jr., was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor and occasionally soprano. Early life Born in Detroit, Michigan, United States, J.R. or JR (derived from Jr.) Monterose grew up in Utica, New York, where his family moved a few months after his birth. He began formal clarinet studies at thirteen, but was largely self-taught as a tenor saxophonist, which he took up at the age of 15 after hearing Glenn Miller band soloist Tex Beneke. Monterose's earliest influences were Coleman Hawkins and Chu Berry, but, as he told critic Leonard Feather, he also found harmonic inspiration in pianists, citing Bud Powell and the instruction of Utica-based guitarist and pianist Sam Mancuso, in helping him learn how to use chord changes. Professional career Monterose's first professional experience was playing in upstate New York territory dance bands (1947–49). In 1950, he joined He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenny Dorham
McKinley Howard "Kenny" Dorham (August 30, 1924 – December 5, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer. Dorham's talent is frequently lauded by critics and other musicians, but he never received the kind of attention or public recognition from the jazz establishment that many of his peers did. For this reason, writer Gary Giddins said that Dorham's name has become "virtually synonymous with ''underrated''." Dorham composed the jazz standard "Blue Bossa", which first appeared on Joe Henderson's album ''Page One''. Biography Dorham was one of the most active bebop trumpeters. He played in the big bands of Lionel Hampton, Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie, and Mercer Ellington and the quintet of Charlie Parker. He joined Parker's band in December 1948. He was a charter member of the original cooperative The Jazz Messengers, Jazz Messengers. He also recorded as a sideman with Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins, and he replaced Clifford Brown in the Max Roach Quintet af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Kuhn
Steve Kuhn (born March 24, 1938) is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator. Biography Kuhn was born in New York City, New York, to Carl and Stella Kuhn (née Kaufman), and was raised in Newton, Massachusetts. His parents were Hungarian-Jewish immigrants. At the age of five, he began studying piano under Boston piano teacher Margaret Chaloff, mother of jazz baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff, who taught him the "Russian style" of piano playing. At an early age he began improvising classical music. As a teenager, he appeared in jazz clubs in the Boston area with Chet Baker, Coleman Hawkins, Vic Dickenson, and Serge Chaloff. After graduating from Harvard, he attended the Lenox School of Music where he was associated with Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, and Gary McFarland. The school's faculty included Bill Evans, George Russell, Gunther Schuller, and the members of the Modern Jazz Quartet. This allowed Kuhn to play, study, and create with some of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enrico Rava
Enrico Rava (born 20 August 1939), is an Italian jazz trumpeter. He started on trombone, then changed to the trumpet after hearing Miles Davis. Career He was born in Trieste, Italy. His first commercial work was as a member of Gato Barbieri's Italian quintet in the mid-1960s; in the late 1960s he was a member of Steve Lacy's group. In 1967, Rava moved to New York City and, one month later, became a member of the group Gas Mask, which had one album released on Tonsil Records in 1970. In the 1970s and 1980s, he worked with John Abercrombie, Andrea Centazzo, Gil Evans, Richard Galliano, Joe Henderson, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, Michel Petrucciani, Cecil Taylor, and Miroslav Vitouš. He has also worked with Carla Bley, Lee Konitz, Jeanne Lee, Paul Motian, and Roswell Rudd. Chiefly an exponent of bebop jazz, Rava has also played in avant-garde jazz settings. With trumpeter Paolo Fresu, Rava recorded four albums on the influence of Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz Nocturne
''Jazz Nocture'' is an album by saxophonist Lee Konitz's Quartet, recorded in 1992 for the Japanese Venus Records, Venus label and released in the US on the Evidence Music, Evidence label. accessed March 20, 2017 Critical reception The AllMusic review stated: "Konitz digs into seven standards with an impressive rhythm section (pianist Kenny Barron, bassist James Genus and drummer Kenny Washington) and constantly comes up with interesting ideas and new twists. There are no phony disguises of familiar tunes with new titles on this date; just creative blowing. ... This CD is recommended as a strong example of Lee Konitz's playing in the '90s".Track listing # "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" (Cole Porter) – 6:14 # "Everything Happen ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lee Konitz
Leon Konitz (October 13, 1927 – April 15, 2020) was an American composer and alto saxophonist. He performed successfully in a wide range of jazz styles, including bebop, cool jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Konitz's association with the cool jazz movement of the 1940s and 1950s includes participation in Miles Davis's ''Birth of the Cool'' sessions and his work with pianist Lennie Tristano. He was one of relatively few alto saxophonists of this era to retain a distinctive style, when Charlie Parker exerted a massive influence. Like other students of Tristano, Konitz improvised long, melodic lines with the rhythmic interest coming from odd accents, or odd note groupings suggestive of the imposition of one time signature over another. Other saxophonists were strongly influenced by Konitz, such as Paul Desmond and Art Pepper. He died during the COVID-19 pandemic from complications brought on by the disease. Biography Early life Konitz was born on October 13, 1927, in Chicago. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937) is an American jazz saxophonist, educator and playwright who since the 1960s has played a central part in the development of avant-garde jazz. Biography Early life Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano, clarinet and alto saxophone before narrowing his focus to tenor saxophone. He occasionally plays soprano saxophone as well. He studied drama at Goddard College from 1955 to 1959. He played in a Latin jazz band for a short time before joining the band of avant-garde pianist Cecil Taylor. Shepp's first recording under his own name, '' Archie Shepp - Bill Dixon Quartet'', was released on Savoy Records in 1962 and featured a composition by Ornette Coleman. Along with alto saxophonist John Tchicai and trumpeter Don Cherry, he formed the New York Contemporary Five. John Coltrane's admiration for Shepp led to recordings for Impulse! Records, the first of which was ''Four for Trane'' in 1964 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thad Jones
Thaddeus Joseph Jones (March 28, 1923 – August 20, 1986) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader who has been called "one of the all-time greatest jazz trumpet soloists". Biography Thad Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan, United States, to Henry and Olivia Jones, a musical family of 10 (an older brother was pianist Hank Jones and a younger brother was drummer Elvin Jones). A self-taught musician, Thad began performing professionally at the age of 16. He served in U.S. Army bands during World War II (1943–46). After his military service, which included an association with the U.S. Military School of Music and working with area bands in Des Moines and Oklahoma City, Jones became a member of the Count Basie Orchestra in May 1954. He was featured as a soloist on such well-known tunes as " April in Paris", "Shiny Stockings", and "Corner Pocket". However, his main contribution to Basie's organization was nearly two dozen arrangements and compositions, which incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sonny Rollins
Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a leader. A number of his compositions, including " St. Thomas", " Oleo", " Doxy", "Pent-Up House", and "Airegin", have become jazz standards. Rollins has been called "the greatest living improviser" and the "Saxophone Colossus". Early life Rollins was born in New York City to parents from the United States Virgin Islands. The youngest of three siblings, he grew up in central Harlem and on Sugar Hill, receiving his first alto saxophone at the age of seven or eight. He attended Edward W. Stitt Junior High School and graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem. Rollins started as a pianist, changed to alto saxophone, and finally switched to tenor in 1946. During his high school years, he played in a band with other future ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Abercrombie (guitarist)
John Laird Abercrombie (December 16, 1944 – August 22, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist. His work explored jazz fusion, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Abercrombie studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He was known for his understated style and his work with organ trios. Career Early life and education John Abercrombie was born on December 16, 1944, in Port Chester, New York. Growing up in the 1950s in Greenwich, Connecticut he was attracted to the rock and roll of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, and Bill Haley and the Comets. He also liked the sound of jazz guitarist Mickey Baker of the vocal duo Mickey and Silvia. He had two friends who were musicians with a large jazz collection. They played him albums by Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis. The first jazz guitar album he heard was by Barney Kessel. He took guitar lessons at the age of ten, asking his teacher to show him what Barney Kessel was playing. After high school, he attended Berklee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
