In 1978, Time-Life initiated an ambitious project to commemorate ‘Giants of Jazz’, many of whom had been recording, (78 rpm shellac discs), since the early days of acoustic record-making. The project eventually included 28 volumes, each containing 3 LPs and a 50-page booklet. The volumes were offered as a subscription series that stretched over 5 years! Critics have long argued …
The Arrangers
Individual players/singers skilled at improvising a tune are often referred to as ‘jazz artists’. Musicians who ‘hear’ multi-instrument (and vocal?) improvisations ‘in their head’ prior to writing out the music for an actual performance are an even rarer breed – the ‘Arrangers’. Many start out as ‘jazz artists’, but the skill of arranging seems to be a separate gift – …
Art Tatum – “God is in the house”
My first exposure to Art Tatum’s recordings was similar to calculus, i.e. “I recognize a few digits – but what’s all the other stuff?” Few people can listen fast enough and attentively enough, with any consistency, to take in the ‘full measure’ of what is happening as Art plays. His improvisations extend the possibilities for tunes beyond what even the …
The Swing Era
This stereo compilation from Time-Life is the ‘Holy Grail of big band music’ for aficionados of the genre, (but weren’t around to hear any of the original big bands’ ‘live’ performances). The series has quite a history of its own … After ceasing to record as the original Casa Loma Orchestra 1947, (the original band already disbanded in 1942), leader Glen Gray …
OKLAHOMA!
Around the end of the 19th century, the success of ‘music halls’ in Britain, (and Vaudeville in North America), lured investors into backing musical theater productions – an amalgam of popular music, story and dance. Over a century later, the formula still works, selling sheet music, recordings and performance rights, spilling over into movie adaptations and studio-made ‘cast (re)recordings’. In …