-
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.
-
Called one of the greatest improvisers in the history of jazz, Jarrett was famous for his wildly passionate solo recitals. In 1996, Jarrett came down with a mysterious illness- an interstitial bacterial parasite-- that caused him to stop performing for about two and a half years. Jarrett has started performing and recording again, but he still keeps a low public profile, so his condition will not worsen again. His newest CD is Whisper Not (Universal Classics). His other recent CD, Melody at Night, With You, was a solo album Jarrett recorded at his home studio in rural New Jersey.
-
The Harlem Renaissance gave birth to a movement that was social, political, and artistic. To be in Harlem in the 1920s and '30s was to experience everything from the poetry of Langston Hughes to the music of Duke Ellington. Liane talks to Shawn Amos, who produced a new four-CD box set that captures the sounds of the period, and updates them with new readings. It's called Rhapsodies in Black: Words and Music from the Harlem Renaissance. (9:30) (NOTE: Rhapsodies in Black is available on Rhino Records #R2-79874).
-
Critic Milo Miles reviews a new 3-CD set Demons and Angels (Shanachie) collecting the recordings of blues guitarist Rev. Gary Davis.
-
Jazz Historian WILL FREIDWALD. Hes the author of books like –Jazz Singing: Americas Greatest Voices from Bessie Smith to Bebop to Beyond—, –Sinatra! The Song is You: A Singers Art— and a contributor to Tony Bennetts autobiography –The Good Life.— Most recently, he wrote the liner notes for Mosaic Records release of –The Complete Columbia Mildred Bailey Sessions,— a comprehensive 10 disc set of the legendary singers recordings. He talks today about Baileys influence in American music.
-
Liane speaks with Weekend Edition Sunday music director Ned Wharton about the latest crop of new releases on CD.
-
NPR's Susan Stamberg reports on jazz percussionist Lionel Hampton's appearance yesterday at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, where he donated one of his vibraphones to the permanent collection.
-
Liane Hansen speaks with jazz composer and bandleader Carla Bley. Perhaps best know for her big- and VERY big-bands, she's pared down to a mid-sized group of eight top-notch players for her new cd, 4X4. (WATT records 012 159 547-2).
-
His new biography of Bing Crosby is called, Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams--the Early Years, 1903-1940 (Little Brown and Company). From 1930s to the 50s, Crosby was a pop culture icon, dominating American entertainment with his hit records and movies. In this first volume of the biography, Giddins chronicles the rise of Crosbys career. Giddins may be best known as a jazz columnist for the Village Voice. He won the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award for his book Visions of Jazz. He was one of the experts featured in Ken Burns Jazz series on PBS.
-
Critics call Bill Charlap one of the strongest mainstream jazz pianists on the scene and one of the most gifted interpreters of standards. He has worked with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Benny Carter, Clark Terry and the Phil Woods Quintet where he remains. His most recent album, Written in the Stars (Blue Note) was released in 2000.
-
Blues Musician Screamin' Jay Hawkins was an eccentric man. He wore outlandish outfits, claimed to practice voodoo and carried a skull named Henry on stage with him at every gig he played. But when his close friend and official biographer, Maral Nigolian, learned that Jay Hawkins had 57 children, she was shocked. After his death last February, Nigolian decided to look for the children of Screamin' Jay Hawkins to bring them together for a reunion. As independent producer Alix Spiegel reports, what seemed like a small simple idea, turned into a full-time occupation. The Website Nigolian posted drew thousands of responses, most from people who hoped to be connected to the man, some from people who actually were. The oldest of what soon became perhaps 75 children, Suki Lee Anne Hawkins remembers mostly her father's absences. She never knew he had any other children. Another child, Debra Roe, was 23-years-old before she learned that Screamin' Jay Hawkins was her father. This summer, Nigolian brought together these two women and some of the other 33 Hawkins children she has identified. It was a kind if practice for a bigger reunion she is planning for March. And it was rough. No one could believe Screamin' Jay had fathered so many. (22:00) Find out more at: http://www.jayskids.com.