Thomas Edward Yerxa If you heard “YERXA(ELEGY MOVEMENT FROM THE JITTERBUG SUITE)” for the first time without any background information regarding its origin you might have assumed it was from a classic black & white film from the 1940s or early 1950s. Arranger/composer credits for “Yerxa” belong to George Handy and Hal McKusick, written for […]
Continue ReadingVIVIEN GARRY ON RECORD
Vivien Garry The initial musical career of Vivien Garry was intertwined with the emerging guitar career of Arv Garrison. They met in Monroe, Michigan at The Silver Moon, a nightclub where Garrison was performing with a Toledo band led by Bud Ziegler. Monroe was a lakeside town located twenty miles north of Toledo. Vivien […]
Continue ReadingTiffany Club 1950/1994/2021
I visited 3260 West 8th Street in 1994 when I was checking street addresses for some of the major jazz clubs that flourished in Los Angeles during the 1950s. The Tiffany Club had long since ceased functioning as a jazz club or burlesque venue, it now catered to the neighborhood as a Mercado Y Panaderia. […]
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1956/1957
Tiffany Club – 1956/1957 Shelly Manne and His Men continued to be the headline attraction through December 1955 at Tiffany Club and were carried over into January of 1956. The continuing engagement included a special “New Year’s Eve Gala” at the club with favors, hats, horns, and noisemakers. Manne’s working quintet comprised Stu Williamson […]
Continue ReadingEarle Spencer Remembered by John S. Lewis
This article was published in the IAJRC (International Association of Jazz Record Collectors) journal in 1982. It fills in some blanks regarding Earle Spencer’s activity after leaving California. SPENCERIA: A FORGOTTEN BAND OF THE LATE 1940S By John S. Lewis Geographically and politically there are two Kansas Cities, but musically the town to the […]
Continue ReadingTeddy Charles / Dave Brubeck / Chet Baker
Teddy Charles / Dave Brubeck / Chet Baker – Los Angeles 1953 The individual careers of Teddy Charles, Dave Brubeck, and Chet Baker intersected when they appeared at clubs and concerts in 1953. Teddy Charles shared the stage with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and a Shelly Manne group at Wilshire-Ebell in July for what was […]
Continue ReadingSHELLY’S MANNE HOLE – FIFTH ANNIVERSARY
By Charles M. Weisenberg “How many club owners could distinguish between Miles Davis, a glockenspiel and a C clef?” This question was raised about five years ago in an article by the poet Kenneth Rexroth who maintained that a jazz club is no place for a musician who considers himself a creative artist. Rexroth’s […]
Continue ReadingJACK WILSON – IVORY INNOVATOR
By Gary G. Vercelli Jack Wilson will be seen in a special screening event via Eventbrite on May 6, 2021. The occasion is the debut of several restored episodes of the heralded Los Angeles television series, Frankly Jazz, that aired on local channel KTLA 5, for twenty-four shows from August of 1962 through January of […]
Continue ReadingHampton Hawes Memorial by Pete Welding
Pete Welding wrote liner notes for many reissues of classic West Coast sessions for a variety of record labels. His notes for the Xanadu collection, The Hampton Hawes Memorial Album, provide a snapshot of Hampton Hawes place in the emerging jazz scene in Los Angeles. Before West Coast Jazz exploded in the ears […]
Continue ReadingFRANKLY JAZZ with Frank Evans
Jazz returned to the television screen in Los Angeles in the summer of 1962. The first program was created for syndication by Steve Allen who hired Jimmie Baker to produce the shows. Baker was a veteran jazz TV producer who had been one of the creative forces responsible for the award winning Stars of Jazz […]
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1955 – Part Two
Chris Connor opened at Tiffany Club on Friday, July 8, 1955. Slim Gaillard and his crew were held-over for the sixth time. Down Beat published a profile of Chris that started out on the wrong foot when they printed her last name as “Connors.” Corrected for entry here: New York—Young, energetic Chris Connor, the former […]
Continue ReadingSlim Gaillard at the Nice Jazz Festival – 1982
Jazz Research is pleased to present a guest column by the noted British author, Steve Voce. Steve Voce began writing about jazz in the Melody Maker during the fifties, and at the same time began writing obituaries for The Independent. He has been a columnist for Jazz Journal for over 60 years under various incarnations, […]
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1955 – Part One
The Lee Konitz Quartet with Ronnie Ball, Peter Ind, and Jeff Morton continued their December 1954 run into the middle of January 1955. After leaving Tiffany Club on January 13th, the quartet was booked into Maynard Sloate’s Jazz City where they continued to draw capacity crowds. In his youth Lee Konitz studied clarinet with a […]
Continue ReadingDodo Marmarosa
Bob Dietsche visited Dodo Marmarosa at his home outside Pittsburgh in 1990.
Continue ReadingArv Garrison
Several weeks ago I mentioned to my friend, Nick Rossi, that I planned to do a feature on Arv Garrison. I had heard Arv’s name mentioned during the recent slew of radio broadcast specials devoted to the celebration of Charlie Parker’s centenary. Arv Garrison’s electric guitar can be heard on three of Parker’s first sessions […]
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