Search results for "Jo Jones"

Jo Jones: Little Susie (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music October 29, 07

Jo Jones was an inimitable force in the development of modern jazz drumming. Not only was he an innovator in moving ...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: TWELVE GREAT MOMENTS IN MODERN JAZZ DRUMMING

Transitions and developments at the drumset have been an essential driving force throughout the history of jazz. Fro...

Gerald Wilson: Nancy Jo (Rating: 92/100) posted in Music April 03, 08

Named for one of Gerald Wilson's daughters, this track is a blues with a major difference: every chord change is an a...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: ESSENTIAL GERALD WILSON

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Count Basie All-Stars: I Left My Baby (1957) (Rating: 97/100) posted in Music May 27, 08

James Andrew Rushing, born in Oklahoma City in 1903, first recorded "I Left My Baby" in 1939 under the aegis of Willi...

Lester Young: All of Me (Rating: 95/100) posted in Music February 12, 08

Propelled by Jo Jones's dynamic sticks, this tune (originally from the album Pres and Teddy) finds Pres in great shap...

Johnny Hodges: You Need To Rock (Rating: 90/100) posted in Music May 22, 08

Given its title and 1958 vintage, "You Need To Rock" might figure as an attempt by Swing Era stalwarts— all, except R...

Count Basie: Dance of the Gremlins (Rating: 95/100) posted in Music June 10, 08

As evidenced throughout "Dance of the Gremlins," Jo Jones was the undisputed king of maintaining a swinging hi-hat pu...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: HISTORIC RHYTHM SECTIONS

            The Rhythm Section, artwork by Suzanne Cerny ...

Count Basie (featuring Lester Young): Oh, Lady Be Good (Rating: 97/100) posted in Music August 16, 09

A sort of dry run for the recently signed, but not-yet-recorded Count Basie Orchestra, the “Jones-Smith” session unle...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: LESTER YOUNG AT 100

It’s hard to imagine what it was like. Today, New York City is so entrenched as the jazz scene of record that the...

Billie Holiday (with Count Basie): They Can't Take That Away From Me (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music February 11, 08

Count Basie featured three singers with his band on this June 30, 1937 live broadcast from Harlem's famous Savoy Bal...

Pee Wee Russell & Coleman Hawkins: 28th and 8th (Rating: 92/100) posted in Music February 09, 09

The album title Jazz Reunion refers to the fact that Pee Wee Russell and Coleman Hawkins had not recorded together si...

Count Basie (with Lester Young): Song of the Islands (Rating: 100/100) posted in Music August 27, 09

I once asked Stan Getz which Lester Young recordings he most admired, and this was the first track he mentioned. I h...

Count Basie (featuring Lester Young): Oh, Lady Be Good (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music December 03, 07

Swing Era rhythm sections specialized in a monotonous thumping not unlike men with flyswatters beating determinedly o...

Lester Young: I Want a Little Girl (Rating: 95/100) posted in Music October 30, 07

Setting aside his tenor sax, Lester Young switches to his beloved but dilapidated metal clarinet. Upon seeing this pi...

Blossom Dearie: They Say It's Spring (Rating: 100/100) posted in Music October 30, 07

Confronted with Blossom Dearie, jazz fans divide faster than a cell undergoing cytokinesis. Either you find her kitte...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: FIFTIES FEMMES FATALES

In 1958, as evidence that love's fever is a long-running malady, singer/lyricist Peggy Lee alluded to Romeo & Julie...

Lester Young: Lester Leaps In (1939) (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music November 07, 07

Lester Young was the major influence on a generation of tenor saxophonists who preferred his relatively light, pure t...

Count Basie: One O'Clock Jump (Rating: 100/100) posted in Music November 09, 07

With his customary sparse piano, wily Bill B. sets the stage for this easygoing anthem of the Swing Era. Big-toned te...

Count Basie: Shoe Shine Boy (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music November 12, 07

By convention, Swing Era jazzmen improvised harmonically, grinding through chord progressions as implacably as a trai...

Count Basie: Dickie's Dream (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music November 17, 07

Four days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland to kick off World War II, Count Basie's Kansas City Seven invaded a New Y...

Billie Holiday & Lester Young: I Can't Get Started (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music December 09, 07

The collaborations between Billie Holiday and Lester Young still speak to us today -- and not just as historical docu...

Count Basie (featuring J.J. Johnson): Rambo (Rating: 85/100) posted in Music January 18, 08

J.J. Johnson was a promising young trombonist/arranger when he left the Benny Carter band and joined up with the Coun...

Count Basie: Stay On It (Rating: 95/100) posted in Music January 18, 08

It says quite a bit when ensembles led by Basie and Dizzy Gillespie give equally convincing performances of a particu...

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