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Phil Urso
Urso was prominently featured on some of the trumpeter's Pacific Jazz recordings of 1956, which make one wish he had become more visible instead of less so. But after the '50s, very little was heard about Urso on a national level, although he did remain active in the jazz scene of his adopted home of Denver well into the 1990s. Phil recorded an album with Carl Saunders "Salute Chet Baker" for Colorado's own Jazzed Media label a few years ago. Phil was part of the all-star big band that was part of the performoing artists that played for jazz89KUVO's 20th Anniversary Concert in 2005 that was headlined by Marian McPartland. Urso had been ill for the past year.
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Phil Urso/Carl Saunders: Salute to Chet Baker
by Jack Bowers
Phil Urso won’t remember this, but many years ago—nearly half a century, in fact—I heard him playing in a small club in Washington, DC, and was so impressed that I approached him after the gig and said he sounded to me like Zoot Sims. I made his day then, and now I’d like to give it another try. Urso and trumpeter Carl Saunders have joined forces to sculpt this warmhearted tribute to the incomparable but self-impaled Chet Baker, and although ...
read morePhil Urso and Carl Saunders: Phil Urso and Carl Saunders Salute Chet Baker
by C. Michael Bailey
The East and West Coast varieties of jazz in the '50s and '60s were as unique and identifiable as the same hip-hop genres they predated. The great purveyors of the West Coast Sound'Art Pepper, Bill Perkins, Hampton Hawes, Shorty Rogers, Bud Shank, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, and Phil Urso'were all able shake over ice the hot bebop of the East Coast, producing a dry and complex brand of modern jazz. The latter two names of this group are forever linked ...
read morePhil Urso & the Jomar Dagron 4
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1959, tenor saxophonist Phil Urso recorded a terrific album for the Legacy label with the Jomar Dagron Quartet in Louisville, Colo. Jomar Dagron wasn't a transplanted Scandinavian jazz musician. In fact, there was no such person named Jomar Dagron. It was a first-name amalgam of drummer Jo Jo Williams, baritone saxophonist Marvin Halliday, organist Dag Walton and tenor saxophonist Ron Washington. All were from Colorado and played there. By the time of this recording session, however, Halliday had left ...
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Phil Urso and Carl Saunders
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
One of the finest albums of the early 2000s is Phil Urso and Carl Saunders Salute Chet Baker. Recorded in 2002 for the Jazzed Media label, the album featured tenor saxophonist Phil Urso and trumpeter Carl Saunders backed by a trio of Keith Waters (p), Colin Gieg (b) and Paul Romaine (d). The album revived the 1956 pairing of Urso and Baker and mid-1960s reunification of the pair, and featured several songs from what is perhaps their best album, Playboys, ...
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No other jazz player in Denver has Phil Urso's pedigree.
Phil Urso holds a letter that trumpeter Chet Baker wrote to him in 1971.
"I have always felt you were and are the most underrated of America's jazz players and composers," Baker begins. His letter continues for a few pages, telling Urso about his experiences abroad, and then concludes, "Well, Phil, we'll say goodbye for now with one more reminder that we love you and wish you all good things, and when anyone asks me about my favorite tenor player, the answer is always Phil Urso."