Search results for "Joe Mondragon"

Barney Kessel: Viva el Toro! (Rating: 90/100) posted in Music January 03, 09

The late-'50s craze for jazz versions of Broadway and television shows scored hits (several fine Porgy and Bess album...

The Hi-Lo's: The Lady in Red (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music November 03, 07

The Hi-Lo's were a peppy 1950s male vocal quartet whose name was self-descriptive: one guy sang high, another sang lo...

Woody Herman: Woodchopper's Ball (1946) (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music November 21, 07

Woody Herman's "Woodchopper's Ball" (1939) was a natural hit for the native of Wisconsin, which even today is nearly...

Peggy Lee: Fever (Rating: 100/100) posted in Music October 29, 07

Peggy Lee not only swings you into bad health, she gives you "Fever" to boot. For her signature 1958 hit, Peggy slyly...

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...

Mel Tormé: All I Need is the Girl (Rating: 95/100) posted in Music October 30, 07

Ring-a-Ding singing doesn't get any better than Mel Tormé with the Marty Paich Dek-Tette. Blending the lightness of G...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: RING-A-DING-DINGS: TWELVE 1960S MALE VOCAL HIPSTERS

Sinatra named them, Sinatra claimed them. Frank's album Ring-a-Ding Ding! (1960) christened a boatload of actual and ...

Marty Paich: Violets for Your Furs (Rating: 92/100) posted in Music October 30, 07

Art Pepper was a leading West Coast alto saxophonist during the 1950s before personal problems removed him from the s...

Art Pepper: 'Round Midnight (Rating: 97/100) posted in Music October 31, 07

Due to what the 1950s jazz press euphemistically called "personal problems," the once-prolific Art Pepper made just o...

Woody Herman: Ebony Concerto (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music November 05, 07

Emigrating to the U.S. during World War II, the world's foremost composer found himself financially strapped. Gratefu...

Chet Baker: Winter Wonderland (Rating: 93/100) posted in Music November 16, 07

For calling birds, a trumpet is the most reliable instrument. Especially if the trumpeter looks like jazz's James Dea...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: RUDY REINDEER'S FAVORITE JAZZ

First, about the name. The whole "Rudolph" thing started as a joke. To friends and family, I've always been Rudy. The...

Henry Mancini: My Manne Shelly (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music November 16, 07

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Henry Mancini was the sincerest man in Hollywood. Donning different s...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: CRIME JAZZ

Film scholar David Butler reckons that by the early 1950s movie jazz had become "a convenient way to impart specific ...

Gerry Mulligan: A Ballad (Rating: 97/100) posted in Music November 16, 07

As chief arranger and co-principal soloist, Gerry Mulligan helped deliver Miles Davis's obstetric triumph Birth of th...

Harry 'Sweets' Edison: How Deep Is the Ocean? (Rating: 94/100) posted in Music December 05, 07

Browsing rival websites recently for good stuff to steal—or, make that transmute into high art—we found Sweets Edison...

Ella Fitzgerald: Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me (Rating: 97/100) posted in Music July 04, 08

Jazz players often perform this song in a glib, jaunty manner. But this Ellington standard needs to be handled with ...

Clifford Brown: Joy Spring (Rating: 90/100) posted in Music July 03, 09

Less than a month after the historic February 1954 A Night At Birdland session with Art Blakey, Brownie found himself...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: AL HOOD SELECTS 12 ESSENTIAL CLIFFORD BROWN TRACKS

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Jo Stafford: What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry? (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music July 05, 09

Jo Stafford never called herself a jazz singer, but her landmark album Jo + Jazz gives us a taste of what might have ...

Ray Brown: Ain't Misbehavin' (Rating: 96/100) posted in Music September 09, 09

Ray Brown's 1960 album Jazz Cello was one of the first albums in mainstream jazz to be devoted entirely to the cello....

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: JAZZ CELLO

Can the cello swing? Can the cello be as melodically sophisticated as traditional jazz instruments? Is the cell...

Pepper, Art (Arthur Edward Pepper Jr.) posted in Encyclopedia October 20, 09

Alto saxophonist Art Pepper’s playing was cerebral in its melodic concepts, sophisticated in execution and mordant in...

Woody Herman: Lady McGowan's Dream (Rating: 99/100) posted in Music January 12, 09

This has to be the only composition named after a nymphomaniacal woman who held orgies in her hotel room for members ...

Hawes, Hampton (Hampton Barnet, Jr.) posted in Encyclopedia February 18, 09

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Ella Fitzgerald: Blue Skies (Rating: 98/100) posted in Music July 05, 09

“Blue Skies” was originally recorded for (and eventually omitted from) The Irving Berlin Song Book, and it was first ...

This track review is included in: THE DOZENS: SCAT SINGING

Scat singing—improvised solos created by a vocalist using nonsense syllables for words—is one of the great parado...

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