Blog, Chroniclers, Jazz on the Tube Interview, Podcasts
Interview with Richard Vacca
Download the mp3 here
Looking for a great vacation where you can dig a lot of jazz?
How about New York, New Orleans, Chicago…or Boston.
Boston?
Yes, Boston.
A thriving local scene with deep historical roots, amazing schools (Berklee and New England Conservatory of Music), plus the “Boston-New York Pipeline.” Richard Vacca takes us by the hand and explains all.
For more info on the Boston scene and its singular history plus a great blog and info about guided tours visit Vacca’s TroyStreet.com website.
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
Music credit: The Jazz on the Tube podcast theme song is “Mambo Inferno” performed by The Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra conducted by Bobby Sanabria from the CD ¡Que Viva Harlem!
Artist-Educators, Blog, Chroniclers, Jazz on the Tube Interview, Podcasts
Recollections with Eddie’s daughter Topsy
Download the mp3 here
Jazz on the Tube is declaring 2021 the “Year of Eddie Durham.”
If you don’t know Eddie Durham (1906-1987), buckle your seat belts. He’s one of the secret sources of the music we call jazz.
Take Eddie out of the equation and a whole lot of things that made jazz jazz would never have happened.
He’s easily one of the most important musicians in the history of jazz and therefore one of the most important musicians in the history of American music.
Whose careers were nourished by Eddie Durham’s genius?
How about these for starters?
The Oklahoma City Blue Devils, Benny Moten, Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, Charlie Christian, Lester Young, Glenn Miller – and this is just the short list!
Music referenced in this interview
Download the mp3 here
1. Moten’s Swing (1933) – (00:00)
2. Hittin’ the Bottle (1935) – (03:24)
3. Topsy (1937) – (06:24)
4. Good Morning Blues (1937) – (09:38)
5. Swinging the Blues (1938) – (12:26)
6. Countless Blues (1938) – (15:10)
7. Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (1938 – two takes) – (18:07)
8. Jumpin’ at the Woodside (1939) – (24:09)
9. In the Mood (1939) – (27:18)
Documentary about Eddie Durham by the Center for Texas Music History
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
Music credit: The Jazz on the Tube podcast theme song is “Mambo Inferno” performed by The Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra conducted by Bobby Sanabria from the CD ¡Que Viva Harlem!
Blog, Chroniclers, Podcasts
Download the mp3 here
Some essential gems of jazz history hidden in an obscure book I came across about about jazz in Kansas City
The book is built around dozens of great musicians who lived through its Golden Age telling the story…in their own words.
Some of the diamonds I uncovered:
* The essential differences between New Orleans, Chicago, and Kansas City-style jazz
* The very real trouble Lester Young had holding down a job and how Eddie Durham wrote arrangements specifically to make him and his unique tone employable
* What young Count Basie was like and why the extent of his genius is not fully appreciated
* A vivid picture of what a musical paradise Kansas City was in its prime and why it might have been THE most musician-friendly city in all of human history!
* The seldom-mentioned musical influences that produced a generation of master musicians in America’s Southwest – Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri – that fed Kansas City’s musical scene.
* A finely detailed description of exactly how Charlie Parker worked out his harmonic concept and two little-known musicians who coached him through the process.
* The extraordinary musical life of Mary Lou Williams from her teenage years on the road, to thriving in Kansas City, to mentoring young musicians like Thelonious Mon, Bud Powell and others and helping them work out their some of their classic compositions.
* A cogent argument for the case that Kansas City was where MODERN jazz was born.
Click here for music referenced in this reading
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Blog, Jazz on the Tube Interview, Podcasts
Download the mp3 here
Monika Herzig, Vic Hobson, David Wright in conversation with Jazz on the Tube’s Ken McCarthy.
The inspiration for the conversation was Vic Hobson’s revelation that Louis Armstrong’s art was built on top of his experience as a street corner vocal quartet singer as documented in his book Creating the Jazz Solo.
It seems that all the early jazz greats shared Armstrong’s experience: Jerry Roll Morton, W.C. Handy, Earl “Fatha” Hines, and Sidney Bechet were all members of “barbershop” groups in their youth.
Contemporaries say even Buddy Bolden got his harmonic ideas from singing groups.
So how do we apply this important insight to contemporary music and jazz education?
We take an initial stab at it. Maybe you have ideas too. If so, we’d love to hear your thoughts. You can post them below.
For more on this, you can listen to Vic and David at Satchmo Fest 2019
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Blog, Chroniclers, Jazz on the Tube Interview, Ornette, Podcasts
Download the mp3 here
Within months of picking up the saxophone, Ornette was a working musicians in some of the scariest dives in Fort Worth, bringing home much needed money for his family whose father, a baseball player and singer, died when Ornette was seven.
We talk about this and other topics and read from A.B. Spellman’s classic: “Four Lives in the Bebop Business”
Erratum: Spellman refers to Melvin Lastie as “Melvin Lassister, a clarinetist.” It’s possible Melvin also played the clarinet, but he was most known for his trumpet playing.
The Lastie clan is one of the great New Orleans musical families and includes Herman Riley and the Andrews clan (James, Troy and Glenn) in their extended family. Frank Lastie introduced gospel drums to the Spiritual Church. and played with Louis Armstrong in the Waif’s Home Band. The family was very important in the Spiritual Church.
Others episodes from “Ornette: Deep from the Heart of Texas” here:
Part One: Ornette: Deep from the Heart of Texas – Conversation with Dave Oliphant
Part Two: Ornette in Amarillo
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
Afro-Cuban culture, Artist-Educators, Cuba, Jazz on the Tube Interview, Latin Jazz, Podcasts, Producer-Presenters, Puerto Rico, Video, Video and audio
Download the mp3 here
Produced by Coco Records in 1974
– Ken McCarthy
Jazz on the Tube
P.S. Our unique programming is made possible by help from people like you. Learn how you can contribute to our efforts here: Support Jazz on the Tube
Thanks.
Go to Cuba with Jazz on the Tube as your guide:
Click here for details
