Home Music Jazz Archive by category "Jazz By Instrument" (Page 2)

Category: Jazz By Instrument

Jason Marsalis – Vibes the Marsalis Way!!

Jason Marsalis :Vibraphone Born: March 4, 1977

So a while back I came across the album In a World of Mallets by Jason Marsalis. I listened to the album because the lead instrument was a vibraphone and not because of the name Marsalis. In fact I didn’t even make the connection until today, when I was reading about Jason, who is celebrating his thirty-ninth (39) birthday today. I read that Jason was in fact the youngest of the famous Marsalis family ,led by father Ellis and includes brothers Wynton, Bradford and Delfeayo!. I felt a little better about not knowing who he was after I read at All About Jazz that….. read more

Cal Tjader – Latin Vibes from California!

Cal Tjader – Vibraphone – (July 16, 1925 – May 5, 1982)

Cal Tjader was born on July 16th in 1925 in Saint Louis, Missouri and that fact surprises me! See I thought that Tjader was Latin! I discovered Tjader’s music, because he plays vibraphone and Gary Burton’s album For Hamp. Bags, Red and Cal, led me to it! As “I listened to his Latin influenced music I just assumed that he was Latin. But in fact he is the son of touring Swedish American vaudevillians! His father tap danced and his mother played piano, a husband-wife team going from city to city with their troupe to earn a living.His father taught him to tap dance. He performed around the Bay Area as “Tjader Junior,” a tap-dancing wunderkind. He performed a brief non-speaking role dancing alongside Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in the film The White of the Dark Cloud of Joy! read more

Aaron Diehl – Space Time Continuum

Aaron Diehl Joins Generations on Space Time Continuum

Aaron DiehlWhen I first started to listen to jazz it was mostly the guitar of Wes Montgomery and the Hammond B3 of Jimmy Smith, but through the years I started adding other artists. Pianist like Thelonious Monk and Oscar Peterson were added to my music library, along with Miles, Gary Burton and Milt Jackson. One night a few years ago I put on The Bespoke Man’s Narrative from Aaron Diehl, while I was reading. After a few minutes I stopped reading and listened to some unbelievable piano! Along with Diehl’s piano on that album I also loved the vibraphone of Warren Wolf on the album. Anyway, a few weeks ago Diehl’s new album Space,Time, Continuum joined my music rotation and it’s another outstanding outing from a great pianist. What surprised me was the presence of some fine saxophone and trumpet, which I hadn’t heard on Diehl’s previous albums. read more

Hank Mobley….exploring his music

Hank Mobley – Tenor Saxophone – Composer 

 (July 7, 1930 – May 30, 1986)

I first discovered the saxophone of Hank Mobley one night in 2014 when I was exploring some jazz. That night I explored the music of Blue Mitchell, Wynton Kelly and Hank Mobley. One that night Hank Mobley’s album Soul Station was my favorite of the night!! You can read about it in- A Jazzy Night with Music from Blue, Wynton and Hank and friends!! Here’s some background information about Hank Mobley from Wikipedia:

Henry “Hank” Mobley (July 7, 1930 – May 30, 1986) was an American hard bop and soul jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. Mobley was described by Leonard Feather as the “middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone”, a metaphor used to describe his tone, that was neither as aggressive as John Coltrane nor as mellow as Stan Getz, and his style that was laid-back, subtle and melodic, especially in contrast with players like Sonny Rollins and Coltrane. The critic Stacia Proefrock claimed he is “one of the most underrated musicians of the bop era.” read more

Colin Edwin – Explorations of his Music!

Colin Edwin –  fretted and fretless bass guitar , double bass and guimbri. –Born July 2, 1970

Ihave explored the music of Colin Edwin, not through the band that he has been a member of since 1993 Porcupine Tree; but through his collaborations with Jon Durant and more recently with Armonite. So today July 2nd i thought it may be a good day to more extensively explore the man and his music.  What I discovered is that Colin Edwin, like many talented musicians has many different outlets for his musicianship! In addition to his work with Porcupine Tree, Edwin has released solo albums. collaborated many artists and been a member of several bands! Some basics from Wikipedia. read more

Terence Blanchard – Breathless

Terence Blanchard

Terence Blanchard’s – Breathless – leaves me just that way!

One of the  albums that has spent considerable time in my music rotation over the last few weeks is Breathless the latest release from Terence Blanchard and the E-Collective. Terence Blanchard’s music career started in the 1980s first touring with Lionel Hampton and then replacing Wynton Marsalis in Art Blakey‘s Jazz Messengers. Since then he has been a prominent force in the jazz community.with 5 career Grammys out of his 13 career Grammy nominations, Terence has released twenty albums since his debut in 1984. Blanchard has probably reached his widest audience through his work as a film composer. His trumpet can be heard on nearly fifty film scores; with more than forty of the films scores were composed by Blanchard. As if all that was not enough to do, since 2000, Blanchard has served as Artistic Director at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.and in August of 2011, he was named the Artistic Director of the Henry Mancini Institute at the University of Miami Frost School of Music! Some people can do it all!. read more

Jaki Byard – Extraordinary Solo Jazz Piano!

Jaki Byard – Piano – (June 15, 1922 – February 11, 1999) 

2015 Update:I discovered the music of Jaki Byard in August of 2014 at that time the album The Late Show: An Evening with Jaki Byard: Live at the Keystone Korner, Vol. 3 , which had been released on Hightone in June was on the JazzWeek charts.The album is the third release that consists of live music from Jacki’s regular dates at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco, CA. . The music on the album was taken from performances from his appearance from 08/09/79 though 08/12/1979, So today ion the 93 anniversary of Jacki’s birth I am reposting that original post, which appeared in Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries.….on August 23, 2014…. read more

Night and Day – Vincent Herring

Vincent Herring – Night and Day – A 2015 Favorite!

Back on May 12 I was excited to see that saxophonist Vincent Herring had released a new album titled Night and Day. Then I saw on the album cover who Herring had playing with him on the album and I was even more excited! The other members of this quintet include: Brandi Disterheft on bass, Joe Farnsworth on drums, pianist Mike LeDonne and trumpeter, Jeremy Pelt, Both Disterheft and Farnsworth played with Herring on his last album Uptown Shuffle.

About Night and Day

On Night and Day. Mike LeDonne replaces Cyrus Chestnut on piano and Jeremy Pelt is a new addition! I first listened to some of the great piano of Mike LeDonne back in 2010 when I started to blog. I listened to his album Bag’s Groove and really liked it! Since then I’ve listened to several of his albums and each time I have been impressed by his playing. As for Jeremy Pelt I first listened to his fine trumpet on a night that I listened to trumpeters Pelt, Terrence Blanchard and Ambrose Akinmusrie! read more

Wallace Roney – Jazz Trumpet from Philadelphia!

Wallace Roney – Trumpet – Born May 25, 1960 – In Philadelphia.

Tomorrow May 26th is the great Miles Davis‘ birthday. Today is the  birthday of  the only trumpet player that he ever mentored Wallace Roney. Wallace was born in Philadelphia in 1960 So he is too young to have experienced 1960, which was the year that former Whiz Kids manager re Eddie Sawyer resigned as the hapless Phillies’ manager after a 9-4 opening day loss to the Reds and said.: “I’m 49 years old and I want to live to be 50.”  But I digress so it’s back to Wallace Roney. read more

Charles Earland – Jazz Organist

Charles Earland– Hammond B3 -(May 24, 1941 – December 11, 1999)

I browse the daily listing of jazz birthdays each day not only for whose birthday it is that particular day, but also to discover new music. Many times I select who I read about by the instrument they play. Other times I select someone with a foreign sounding name, figuring that will lead me to explorations of jazz music beyond America’s shores. Tunisian born Wajdi Cherif is a perfect example of this type of choice. I read about, and spent time listening to Charles Earland’s music this morning, based on the instrument he plays – Hammond B3 organ!! read more