Written by Patrick Jarenwattananon from National Public Radio
One week until Newport.
- Charles Mingus, as remembered by Nat Hentoff. “Every once in a while, when I was at home, the phone would ring and I’d be jolted by music until he came on. ‘What do you think of that?’ he would ask. ‘I just wrote it.’”
- A 76-year-old boogie-woogie pianist is being honored by the city of Chicago. Howard Reich has the story.
- Kassa Overall, drummer/beatmaker/rapper, gets a profile treatment from Nextbop. He’s the sort of musician who can work with Geri Allen and Das Racist in the same week, and do it well.
- Charlie Haden remembers Larance Marable. The late drummer was an associate of Haden but also appeared on many jazz records made in California in the ’50s and beyond.
- Saxophonist Phil Woods is the subject of a short profile in the New York Daily News. On his band: “We’ve been together since before Vaseline, man.”
- The CBC Music folks have posted a lot of jazz bits lately. Check out the survey of Canada’s top 5 jazz clubs or the countdown to the “essential” Canadian jazz records.
- Our friends at KMHD radio in Portland have stepped up their online game lately. On their blog, there’s a report from the Vancouver Jazz Festival, a video-enhanced report from the hometown Cathedral Park Jazz Festival and an interview with trumpeter Eddie Henderson.
- Two films in progress, via Kickstarter. A nearly 90-year-old trumpeter chases the dream of finally having his own big band. And late bassist Keter Betts is the subject of a documentary project.
- Eric Essix, Alabama-based guitarist, gets a local paper profile. I don’t know Essix’s music but there’s something about this story which feels like it could apply to thousands of other highly-competent, middle-class musicians — and that’s why I thought it was interesting to share, really.
- A big collection of big band music and recordings was acquired by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire recently.
- I did this. I go “umm” a lot, apparently.
- “Five Song Requests Jazz Bands Wish You Would Stop Making.”
- The David Sanborn Jazz Festival, ladies and gentlemen.
- JazzWax posted a variety of features, including a compilation of Japanese bossa nova.
- The Checkout sat down with Dafnis Prieto about his new Proverb Trio album.
Elsewhere at NPR Music:
- On the John Coltrane home in Long Island and the efforts to preserve it.
- A mix of New Orleans music for your ears.
- Joe Jackson does his Duke Ellington Project material on World Cafe.
- JazzSet features Charles Lloyd’s Sangam from Newport 2011.
- Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz features the Studs Terkel episode.
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