Posts tagged jazz

WaPo: In 'Jazz,' Legendary Photographer Herman Leonard Makes Music Stand Still

Luscious imagery from the most classic era. Leonard’s stark, shadowy and smoldering work, like contemporary William Claxton’s, is what I see whenever the music plays. Pity that Leonard passed before he saw this collection released.

A 2009 documentary entitled “Frame After Frame: The Images of Herman Leonard” offered a solid historical and artistic portrait of the photographer as he salvaged his extensive negative and print archive from his New Orleans home, post-Katrina.

Art Blakey, Paris 1958 (Image © Herman Leonard)

Jazz Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard Dies At 70

Whether front-and-center or session sideman, one of the greatest — if not the greatest — post-bop blower during the 60’s and 70’s.

Hub-Tones should be included in any personal Jazz CD collection.

New Yorker: 100 Essential Jazz Albums

No Kenny G? No John Tesh? FTW?! A solid list. Subjective. But what isn’t? Ask 100 different jazz aficianados, you’ll get back 100 different lists and 10,000 picks. There are the genre touchstones, of course — the essential essentials — but these compilations are always good for the handful of new discoveries that help expand the personal jukebox.

Jazz Piano Legend Oscar Peterson (1925-2007)

Another giant falls. Night Train was my intro to Peterson’s remarkable talent. A perfect mix of swing and mellow.

Even though his trio output with Herb Ellis (guitar) and Ray Brown (bass) is regarded as essential listening, his collaborations with sax great Lester Young and trumpeter Stan Getz are of equal heft.

‘Things Ain’t What They Used To Be’