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Jazz Birthday .. Arturo Sandoval

 

Happy birthday to a great trumpet player  -- Arturo Sandoval.

Dizzy Gillespie called him the 2nd best trumpet player in the world.  It was Dizzy who helped Arturo defect from his native Cuba, where he was initially discouraged from playing jazz and from playing outside the country.  He was discovered by Dizzy, who had been his longtime hero, and eventually permitted to play and tour with the UN International Jazz Band, led by Dizzy. While on tour in 1990, he defected to the U.S. and became a U.S. citizen in 1998. He's won 10 Grammy Awards.

His story is beautifully told and features his music in a 2000 HBO movie "For Love or Country," starring Andy Garcia as Arturo. 

You can watch on YouTube by clicking here.

Feliz cumpleanos, Maestro Arturo.

 

Jazz Birthday .. Dizzy Gillespie

Born this day, jazz master Dizzy Gillespie. 

I was lucky enough to see him in concert many years ago.  As a young trumpet player, I was taught never to puff your cheeks out as you blow.  Dizzy broke that rule, just a bit. He looked like a squirrel when he played, but what a sound!

Click here to hear his classic "Night in Tunisia"...

    

Jazz Birthday - Dr. Billy Taylor

Billy Taylor, whose birthday was yesterday, is one of my heroes.  He's the person who got me hooked on jazz when I was a teen.  My mom listened to WNEW and one afternoon I put the radio on and there was Billy Taylor, doing his jazz show.  The music spoke to me from the start.

Billy eventually moved over  to WLIB Radio, Harlem's radio station, and I followed.  WLIB expanded his one-hour show to a few hours starting at 4, so there was more to hear and I ate it all up.

Billy not only played great jazz; he talked about the music and the musicians, so his show was like a lesson in jazz.

He became a culture correspondent for CBS, with frequent reports about jazz musicians on CBS Sunday Morning.

I met Billy Taylor several times over the years. When I was doing a jazz show on my college radio station, I called him at WLIB and asked if I could visit him in the studio. He graciously said, "Of course, come on by."  He recorded some promos for me, which I aired on my station.

I happened to befriend the bass player in Billy's trio -- Ben Tucker, who was working as a promo guy at a new jazz record label.  The trio was playing at college near mine, and he invited me to the gig. Afterwards, Billy, Ben and drummer Grady Tate drove with me ten miles to my school, where they did a one-hour special edition of my "Jazz Scene" show, picking out some records and talking about the music.  Billy liked that the opening tune for my twice-a-week show was his "That's Where It Is," from his 1963 album with Oliver Nelson's big band.    

I saw Billy a few years later in concert at Carnegie Hall and I chatted with him after the show.  And I called on him when my PR agency was looking to create a music program for one of our clients. He met with us at our offices and helped us shape a proposal which, unfortunately, didn't get picked up.

The last time I saw him was in the crowd at the annual crafts fair on the plaza at Lincoln Center.  He remembered me and we spoke for a few minutes.  About a year after that, I read that he had passed.

I'm lucky to have known him, even if just a little. His influence on me lasts to this day.

 

 

An American Treasure

Sad to learn the Girl from Ipanema has passed

Astrud Gilberto - 1940 - June 5, 2023

Her soft and sweet voice lives on...

 

 

Another legend lost -- Tina Turner

 

 

She seemed ageless.  Her music certainly is.

First lady of song

That's Ella.  

Ella Fitzgerald, born today in 1917.  She gave us so much beautiful music. 

Click here for a sample...

Q = 90

 

Happy birthday Quincy Jones

Vinyl Lives

When CDs hit the market in 1982, many thought it would spell the end of vinyl records.  And it almost did.

Some thought vinyl LPs provide a superior sound than CDs, although I don't agree.  With CDs, you don't get the rumble or scratches and pops that you often hear on vinyl

CDs can hold more music, so you don't have to get up to turn a record over after 15 or 20 minutes. 

To me, the biggest drawback of CDs was the scaling down of the album cover art.

Even as CDs took over the market, vinyl maintained a loyal following, especially with fans of indie and punk bands.  But the numbers tipped heavily in favor of CDs, and by 1987 CDs were outselling vinyl.  

But there always remained a group loyal to vinyl.

The Recording Industry Association of America released sales figures a few days ago, and last year, for the first time since 1987, vinyl outsold CDs.  The RIAA says 41 million vinyl albums were sold last year, compared with 33 million CDs.

Part of the change comes from the fact that there aren't many "record" stores anymore.  Sam Goody, Tower Records and others are long gone and Barnes & Noble, which used to have a decent music selection, now has maybe one rack with a handful of CDs and some vinyl.  The records, which now are made on a thicker sheet of vinyl, are priced way above CDs -- averaging in the mid-$20 range and more. 

I have hundreds of vinyl records, almost all dating back pre-CD.  Almost all of my music purchases since the mid-80s have been CDs and, on the rare occasions that I buy recorded music now, it's on a CD.

Clearly, I'm the exception. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wayne Shorter

The jazz world is a bit bluer today, as we learn of the passing of sax man Wayne Shorter.    

He played with all the greats, from Art Blakey to Miles and later with jazz-fusion band Weather Report.  I played his tunes on my jazz show on college radio back in the late '60s.

Click here to listen to him, playing with Herbie Hancock, Joe Chambers and Reggie Workman, from one of his albums recorded in 1966.