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Renee Klahr/Think of the best songs of 2021 as a playlist catering to the most basic human urges. Within it, booties were called, muffins were buttered and bloody revenge was contemplated. It was quite a year. -
Renee Klahr/Think of the best songs of 2021 as a playlist catering to the most basic human urges. Within it, booties were called, muffins were buttered and bloody revenge was contemplated. It was quite a year.
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Ten albums for newbies, the hated Cabaret Card and composer/arranger Gil Evans' centennial. -
Whistling guitarist and harmonica master Toots Thielemans has played in everything from Charlie Parker's band to commercials for Old Spice. In his childhood home of Brussels — really, throughout his homeland — the celebration of his 90th birthday is on.
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Steve Lehman's new album Dialect Fluorescent ends with a song called "Mr. E," a composition written by jazz legend Jackie McLean. But the connections run deep between Lehman and the alto saxophonist he considers a personal hero.
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He broke all the rules of jazz and improvised music — and that was in the 1950s. Now 83 and idolized by musicians, the great improviser is celebrated for developing a unique language at the keyboard.
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The Vortex in London is a 100-person venue which recently hosted the Vijay Iyer Trio and the BBC. It's been an engine of economic growth for its community and is embraced by musicians. It's all the more remarkable considering no staff are paid.
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In one of his final performances, Armstrong used "Hello Dolly" to convey the joy of being alive.
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A professor of music writes about how a proliferation of teaching jazz hasn't made it more popular.
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The Cuban trumpeter first met Dizzy Gillespie in 1977, when the American jazzman came to Havana to play a concert. It was the start of a friendship that would last until Gillespie's death in 1993.
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"Cookie cutter" students, young musicians in New York and the history of jazz in India.
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In Boston, three professors and musical virtuosos meet weekly to give concerts of free improvisation — and have for four decades. One fan tells us about how she saw The Fringe so many times, the manager of the club finally offered her a job tending bar.
