Anahid Ajemian, violinist, and her husband, George Avakian, director of popular albums for Columbia Records, have announced a series of subscription concerts, “Music for Moderns.” They will be presented at Town Hall April 28 and May 12, 19 and 26, 1957.
Continue ReadingMiles Davis
Hampton 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 ReadingThe Jazz Workshop Redux
Rod Levitt was a trombonist and commercial arranger who occasionally worked with Gil Evans in the ’60’s. His charts from his mid:1960’s recordings for RCA, make full use of the experimental ideas that the “Birth of the Cool” crowd had ushered in years before.
Continue ReadingJAZZ CITY PART EIGHT JANUARY – MARCH 1957
Billie Holiday and the Pete Jolly Trio engagement from December of 1956 continued into the first few days of January 1957. Corky Hale provided piano accompaniment to Lady Day with Pete Jolly’s rhythm section of Bob Bertaux and Bob Neel continuing rhythm backup to Corky Hale and Billie Holiday.
Continue ReadingJAZZ CITY PART SIX JANUARY – JUNE 1956
The December 28, 1955, issue of Down Beat magazine ran a short column announcing a series of West Coast bookings for Miles Davis’s current combo with Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, Red Garland, and John Coltrane. The new quintet had a recent release on the Prestige label, MILES, that featured the new quintet. Miles Davis’s new quintet opened at Jazz City on Friday, January 6, 1956. The quintet’s engagement ran through Thursday, January 19, 1956. Prior to heading north to San Francisco for their booking at the Black Hawk, Paul Chambers joined a combo led by Kenny Drew for Jane Fielding’s second album for Herb Kimmel’s Jazz:West label.
Continue ReadingTHE BIRTH OF THE COOL ON CAPITOL RECORDS PART SEVEN
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT CONTEMPORARY CONCERTS APPRAISALS George Hoefer’s closing comment in his Down Beat review from 1965 noted: “Jazz record buyers may have missed the boat back in 1949, but today there are many who listen to the Birth of the Cool with the same affection the old-timers have for theLouis Armstrong-King Oliver duets […]
Continue ReadingTHE BIRTH OF THE COOL ON CAPITOL RECORDS PART FIVE
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (12” LPs)M-11026 [1972] The third 12” LP release of the Birth of the Cool sessions brought the marketing of these sessions full circle. The initial 10” LP releases had been marketed by Capitol as part of their “Classics in Jazz” series. The new marketing package released this music as part of […]
Continue ReadingTHE BIRTH OF THE COOL ON CAPITOL RECORDS PART FOUR
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (12” LPs) DT-1974 [1965] Leonard Feather wrote an extended article on Miles Davis for Down Beat that was published in the July 2, 1964 edition of the magazine. The piece was titled “MILES AND THE FIFTIES” and included an in depth examination of the Birth of the Cool sessions via an […]
Continue ReadingTHE BIRTH OF THE COOL ON CAPITOL RECORDS PART THREE
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (12” LPs)T-762 [1957] Eleven of the twelve tunes recorded by the various Miles Davis ensembles in January and April of 1949 and March of 1950 that had been released over four 10” LPs as noted in Part Two of this series were finally united on a single 12” LP release in […]
Continue ReadingTHE BIRTH OF THE COOL ON CAPITOL RECORDS PART TWO
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (10” LPs) The three sessions recorded by Capitol Records in New York in 1949 and 1950 under the leadership of Miles Davis have received widespread coverage in the print media in the sixty plus years since they were recorded. The sessions have collectively been christened “The Birth of the Cool” sessions […]
Continue ReadingTHE BIRTH OF THE COOL ON CAPITOL RECORDS PART ONE
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT (78s) The three sessions recorded by Capitol Records in New York in 1949 and 1950 under the leadership of Miles Davis have received widespread coverage in the print media during the sixty plus years since they were recorded. The sessions have collectively been christened “The Birth of the Cool” sessions ever […]
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