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Wendell Marshall
Dorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached, 1957-1965
by John Chacona
Imagine if Sidney Bechet, Charlie Christian and Jimmy Smith were barely remembered and recordings of their music were long unavailable and known only on the geekiest corners of Discogs. That is essentially the status of harpist Dorothy Ashby. Like the three figures cited above, Ashby essentially created a language for her chosen instrument, the harp, where virtually none has existed before and established it as a legitimate and expressive vehicle for jazz improvisation at the highest level. Just how brilliantly ...
read moreHank Jones/Milt Hinton/Bobby Rosengarden: The Trio
by Jeff Stockton
In an article published in the Village Voice a couple of years ago Gary Giddins traced a history of recorded jazz in song, year by year, and Hank Jones’ solo “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” was pegged as the noteworthy performance of 1977. As his rhythm section lays out, Jones tinkles his piano as if prompting a dream sequence, then leaves the song behind as he performs one harmonic digression after another before returning to the tune with an almost-barrelhouse ...
read moreEddie Costa: Guys and Dolls Love Jazz
by Craig Jolley
In retrospect it's hard to see how or why this record was made in the days before CD's as calling cards. Eddie Costa had little name recognition, and what fame he enjoyed was on piano, his primary instrument. The material--cute boy-meets-girl tunes written in subservience to 1950's-clever lyrics--does not lend itself to jazz interpretation. [A couple of the songs have since become standards after being overhauled by Miles Davis and Oscar Peterson.] Costa as a sometime studio musician probably had ...
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