jazz
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Song of the Day: “Saint Louis Blues”
One of the most enduring individual legacies from the Jazz Age is that of the towering figure of Louis Armstrong. The super-influential artist grew up in New Orleans’s Storyville district during a time of artistic upheaval. His exposure to the musical melting…
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The Saturday Rumpus Essay: Bill Cosby’s Faux Legacy
Bill Cosby was never the man, the icon, the protector and illustrator of black culture, the guide, the genius we have created in our minds.
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Vault Release: Davis, Montgomery, and Ellington
Aquarium Drunkard has highlighted some incredible recent vault releases from the jazz masters, including archival footage that definitely merits a listen. From Miles Davis there’s a Bootleg Series spanning live performances from 1955–1975: four CDs of unreleased material of Davis…
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Sound & Vision: Dana Nielsen
GRAMMY-nominated mixer, engineer, producer, and musician Dana Nielsen talks about his career, his music, and his new collaboration with Crown and the M.O.B., All Rise, which he co-produced.
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Soundtrack to the Shaft Movie of Your Dreams
Aquarium Drunkard recently released its second mix in collaboration with Peer Schouten, a Copenhagen-based DJ and record collector. Titled Shaft’s Old Man: An Imaginary Soul Jazz Soundtrack, the mixtape is divided into an intro and six acts, delineating the major…
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Remembering Ornette Coleman
Jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman passed away last week at age 85, and the intervening days have yielded some truly beautiful pieces on the Pulitzer Prize-winning musician. The New Yorker published a comprehensive article on Coleman’s career and revolutionary approach to…
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Song of the Day: “It Never Entered My Mind”
By now Miles Davis has become a cornerstone of modern music. We can’t get rid of him, which is good, because we would never want to. Miles Davis is inside us; he surrounds us, and permeates our collective consciousness. For that reason, it’s easy to…
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Sound & Vision: Nathan East
Legendary bassist Nathan East talks about playing with the pros, from Barry White to Daft Punk, about his new solo album and documentary, and about teaching musicians to play the instrument he loves.
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Song of the Day: What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?
The warm swing-era horn section and tasteful piano vamps are just a few reasons to listen to jazz icon Ella Fitzgerald, but today there’s a more obvious reason to cue up her silky ballad, “What Are You Doing New Year’s…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, take a walk down memory lane with David Hajdu’s visual memoir of his favorite bar, Bradley’s, boasting art by John Carey. And in the Sunday Essay, Jordan Rosenfeld takes a frank look at the many ways a mother’s boldness…
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Swinging Modern Sounds #57: Going Long, in Four Parts
…if you want more, the music can meet you where you are. It can instruct on the meaning of music itself, on its history, on its cross-cultural possibilities.
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Sound & Vision: Gail Ann Dorsey
Gail Ann Dorsey, a top session bassist and singer-songwriter who’s worked with David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Dar Williams, Tears For Fears, the Indigo Girls, Gwen Stefani, Lenny Kravitz, and many more, talks recording, touring, and learning to play.