Jazz composer and trumpeter Theo Croker opens his new album, AfroPhysicist, with an ode to his grandfather: New Orleans jazz great Doc Cheatham. The thing is, Croker didn’t grow up in New Orleans or any other jazz hub. He’s from Jacksonville, Fla., and he was just a child when his grandfather died in 1997. It wasn’t until his grandfather’s memorial services — attended by jazz legends — that he decided to join the legacy.
A native of Chicago, Andrew Hill was interested in music throughout his childhood, and could be found singing and dancing on stage at a young age. By the time he was 13, he had picked up blues and R&B piano, and his first work in music was with local R&B bands like that of Paul Williams. Hill later began to develop his jazz chops in the 1950s while jamming with top-notch players who traveled through Chicago clubs, including Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Johnny Griffin.
by PATRICK JARENWATTANANON
Camille Thurman (left), Mimi Jones (center) and Shirazette Tinnin all released new albums this week on Hot Tone Music, Jones’ record imprint. Courtesy of the artist.
This past week, the bassist and vocalist Mimi Jones released three albums at once. They weren’t all her music, but they were her work: As the founder and producer of the record label Hot Tone Music, she brought all three albums to fruition.
Dave Brubeck was embarrassed. It was 1954, and he was pictured on the cover of Time magazine — only the second jazz musician ever to receive that particular mainstream media recognition. The chagrin came, he said, because he felt that his friend Duke Ellington — who was also interviewed for the magazine’s feature on jazz in the U.S. — deserved it more. Many years later, Brubeck told PBS documentarian Hendrick Smith about it:
Duke and I were on tour together across the country and this night, we were in Denver. … And at seven o’clock in the morning, there was a knock on my door, and I opened the door, and there’s Duke, and he said, ‘You’re on the cover of Time.’ And he handed me Time magazine. It was the worst and the best moment possible, all mixed up, because I didn’t want to have my story come first. I was so hoping that they would do Duke first, because I idolized him. He was so much more important than I was … he deserved to be first.
This scene is reminiscent of the situation that the rapper Macklemore found himself in on Sunday night at the Grammy Awards. After winning the Best Rap Album Grammy, he publicly apologized to fellow nominee Kendrick Lamar, a heavily-tipped favorite for the award who Macklemore had publicly endorsed. Here’s what he sent Lamar as a text message and posted as a screenshot to Instagram:
You got robbed. I wanted you to win. You should have. It’s weird and sucks that I robbed you. I was gonna say that during the speech. Then the music started playing during my speech and I froze. Anyway, you know what it is. Congrats on this year and your music. Appreciate you as an artist and as a friend. Much love Continue reading
Donny Hathaway‘s repertoire occupies a peculiar space in jazz. Though not a jazz artist, he has influenced a variety of jazz musicians through his work as a singer, keyboardist and composer. Still, jazz musicians have only skimmed the surface of his small but remarkable catalog.
During his run in the 1970s, Hathaway would see only five LPs released under his name. Bouts of mental illness sidelined his productivity, which came to an unexpected end in January 1979, when he leaped to his death out a window of a New York City hotel.
Rhino Records’ new four-disc anthology, Never My Love, captures and confirms Hathaway’s enduring legacy, particularly in the realms of R&B and jazz. It contains all the famous classics, as well as previously unreleased material (both studio and live) and one disc dedicated entirely to his timeless duets with Roberta Flack. These selections reflect some of the Hathaway treasures most frequently covered by jazz artists. Continue reading
The reedman Paquito D’Rivera has made a career out of crossing genres. Born in Cuba, his larder is never out of Afro-Caribbean and Latin American sounds; he’s made a name for himself as a jazz virtuoso and classical performer. Chicago’s Latino Music Festival took advantage this year. Artistic director Elbio Barilari, himself a composer (and radio host on WFMT, and professor, and author), invited D’Rivera to headline his festival, including a performance of Barilari’s own “Musings on the Nature of Time” — a response to Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet featuring the Kaia String Quartet. Continue reading
PULLMAN, Wash. – With the flip of a switch Friday, KJEM 89.9 FM, the newest radio station in the Palouse, began filling the airways with the sounds of jazz in honor of WSU alumnus and broadcast pioneer J. Elroy McCaw.
At the controls, his son Bruce R. McCaw officially signed on the station 76 years to the day after his father launched his first radio station, KELA in Centralia, Wash.
KJEM, whose call letters are derived from J. Elroy McCaw’s initials, is the newest of the 19 stations in the Northwest Public Radio (NWPR) group, the largest National Public Radio network in the Pacific Northwest. Unlike other NWPR stations, KJEM will be run by students but under the guidance of NWPR’s professional management team. Continue reading
