🎷Blue Note Jazz] ▶Playlist - Mellow Jazz Lounge for Any Place, Any Time, Any Mood

The Genius of Jazz

The String Queens LIVE!

Jon Batiste’s Performs Selections from "Black Mozart" Album

Wynton Marsalis at Harvard - Lecture #4: At the Speed of Instinct

Clark Terry - swing and bebop trumpeter

                                           Clark Terry

Clark Virgil Terry Jr.December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–51), Duke Ellington (1951–59), Quincy Jones (1960), and Oscar Peterson (1964–96). He was with The Tonight Show Band on The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1972.

                 Clark Terry Music of Joy Playlist

 His career in jazz spanned more than 70 years, during which he became one of the most recorded jazz musicians, appearing on over 900 recordings. Terry also mentored Quincy Jones, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Pat Metheny, Dianne Reeves, and Terri Lyne Carrington.

Clark Terry’s career in jazz spanned more than seventy years. He was a world-class trumpeter, flugelhornist, educator, composer, writer, trumpet/flugelhorn designer, teacher, and NEA Jazz Master. He performed for eight U.S. Presidents and was a Jazz Ambassador for the State Department tours in the Middle East and Africa. More than fifty jazz festivals featured him at sea and on land on all seven continents. Many were named in his honor.

Clark Terry always played music that was exuberant, swinging, and fun. A brilliant and very distinctive soloist. He gained early experience playing trumpet in the viable St. Louis jazz scene of the early '40s, where he was an inspiration for Miles Davis, and, after performing in a Navy band during World War II, upon his discharge from the Navy in 1945, he found work with Lionel Hampton's band. He rounded out the 1940s playing with bands led by Charlie Barnet, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Charlie Ventura, and George Hudson. He gained a strong reputation playing with the big band of Charlie Barnet, 1947-1948, the orchestra and small groups of Count Basie, 1948-1951, and particularly with Duke Ellington, 1951-1959. Terry, a versatile swing/bop soloist who started specializing in flugelhorn in the mid-'50s, had many features with Ellington, including "Perdido", and started leading his own record dates during that era. He visited Europe with Harold Arlen's unsuccessful Free & Easy show of 1959-1960 and as part of Quincy Jones' Orchestra.

He worked and recorded with artists such as J. J. Johnson, Oscar Peterson, and Ella Fitzgerald, then co-led a quintet with Bob Brookmeyer. Thereafter, he led his own small and large bands, including his Big Bad Band, beginning in 1972. He also became part of Norman Granz's traveling all-stars, Jazz at the Philharmonic.

As a jazz educator, he was one of the earliest active practitioners to take time off from the road to enter the classroom, conducting numerous clinics and jazz camps. This work culminated in his own music school at Teikyo Westmar University in Le Mars, Iowa. Terry was the subject of the 2014 documentary Keep on Keepin’ on about his work mentoring blind piano prodigy Justin Kauflin.

A distinctive stylist, he was also an engaging entertainer, often alternating trumpet and flugelhorn in a solo duel with himself in concerts. He recorded and performed in a wide variety of settings, such as the One-on-One recording of duets with 14 different pianists. Terry received numerous awards and honors, including a Grammy Award (and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010), the French Officier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a knighthood in Germany, and a star on St. Louis' Walk of Fame.

        Clark Terry Interview by Joe Williams - 5/19/1995 - Clinton, NY Clark Terry's Big Band Workshop If you are a young horn player you will learn a lot from Clark Terry.

https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/clark-terry

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/clark-terry-mn0000133832

https://clarkterry.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Terry

 

Vi Redd

 

                                 Vi Redd

Elvira Louise Redd, September 20, 1928 – February 6 2022, was an American jazz alto saxophone player, vocalist, and educator. She was active from the early 1950s and was known primarily for playing in the blues style. She was highly regarded as an accomplished veteran and performed with Count Basie, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Linda Hopkins, Marian McPartland, and Dizzy Gillespie. 

Vi Redd was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of New Orleans jazz drummer and Clef Club co-founder Alton Redd and Mattie Redd. Her mother played saxophone, although not professionally, and her brother was a percussionist. She was deeply influenced during her formative years by her father, who was one of the leading figures on the Central Avenue jazz scene. Another important musical mentor was her paternal great aunt Alma Hightower, who convinced the 10-year-old Redd to switch from piano to saxophone. During junior high school, Redd played alto saxophone in a band with Melba Liston and Dexter Gordon.

                                 Vi Redd Jazz Playlist

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Vi began singing in church when she was five years old, after studying piano for a while, and when she was in high school, she went on to blow a C Melody saxophone that her great-aunt Alma Hightower had given when she was 10.

Vi Redd had much in common with trombonist Melba Liston. Both played a horn, in Vi’s case, alto saxophone and occasionally soprano saxophone; both were Los Angeles girls, and both studied with Mrs. Hightower. Under her tutelage, Vi cut her musical teeth...

When one does research on the career of Vi Redd, the term that recurs more than any other is “under-recorded”. How true that is. Though Ms. Redd has played and toured with artists such as Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Sarah Vaughan, and Max Roach, she has only two albums to her name and a scant four more with other artists.  Notable among these is Now’s The Time, an all-female session led by Marian McPartland in 1977.  Throughout the years, she gigged around the Los Angeles area and supported herself as a schoolteacher between engagements.  She finally received a bit of long-overdue recognition in 2000, when she was honored at “Instrumental Women: Celebrating Women-N-Jazz“, a concert at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

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In a society where women were expected to be discreet and submissive, perhaps it was the sheer volume or the brazen nature of an instrument such as the saxophone that led people to consider it ‘unfeminine’ and dismiss female players. Nevertheless, one saxophonist whose style and ability could not be ignored helped turn the tide on sex discrimination in jazz. In these years, she cultivated a sax style reminiscent of Charlie ‘The Bird’ Parker’s, and sang powerful bluesy melodies alongside her playing. Her bebop influence and reverence for Parker is alluded to in tracks such as ‘I Remember Bird’.

https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/14409-vi-redd-albums

https://www.discogs.com/release/1155487-Vi-Redd-Birdcall?srsltid=AfmBOorWpYaOjgpc8VMmYHXrytRV7fbSbiYiUnN_kckgb6Llugz5_fKQ

https://jazzwomenarchives.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/vi-redd/

https://twssmagazine.com/2020/12/15/vi-redd-the-under-recorded-over-looked-empress-of-jazz/

https://curtjazz.com/2011/10/01/unsung-women-of-jazz-7-vi-redd/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi_Redd  

Handful of Keys: A Century of Jazz Piano - JLCO

Melba Liston - American trombonist

 

                    Melba Liston - American trombonist

      “The horn has always saved me from any sadness. Anytime I need a lift, the trombone takes care of me. I’m not so good at it as it is to me. The trombone set me up for an arranger, and then when I’m writing, I forget the trombone. But then when things get dull, I go back to the trombone, and it saves me again.” - - -       Melba Liston   

       Melba Liston's playing is sensitive and rich, both relaxed and buoyant. Her compositions and arrangements are creative, beautiful, and interesting, but above all, she swings like crazy! Melba Doretta Liston was an American jazz trombonist, arranger, and composer. Other than those playing in all-female bands, she was the first woman trombonist to play in big bands during the 1940s.

       Although a formidable trombone player, Melba Liston was primarily known for her arrangements, especially working with Randy Weston. Growing up mostly in Los Angeles, some of her first work came during the 1940s with two West Coast masters: bandleader Gerald Wilson and tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon.

Despite the antipathy Melba inspired in some of her peers, she helped the careers of younger singers. She taught for many years at the Conservatorium in Melbourne and looked for a "new Melba". She published a book about her methods, which were based on those of Marchesi.

         In Gordon's small combos, she began to blossom as a trombone soloist, and Gordon wrote a song as a tribute to her, "Mischievous Lady."Through Wilson, Liston met many jazz greats. Dizzy Gillespie was so impressed with her talents that when the Wilson band broke up in 1948, he asked her to join his ensemble. Though many of her male bandmates were reluctant to accept her, she quickly earned their respect once they saw how engaging and complex her arrangements were. "Melba didn't write easily," longtime friend and trumpeter Clora Bryant says.  Despite her obvious talent as a soloist, Liston became an in-demand big band section player, which likely fueled her later work as an arranger. During the 1940s, Liston also worked with the Count Basie band and with Billie Holiday. She joined Dizzy Gillespie's bebop big band in 1950, and again for two of Gillespie's State Department tours in 1956 and 1957, which included her arrangements of "Annie's Dance" and "Stella by Starlight" in performances. She started her own all-woman quintet in 1958, working in New York and Bermuda, before joining Quincy Jones' band in 1959 to play the musical Free and Easy. She stayed in Jones' touring band as one of two female members until 1961.

In the 1950s, Liston began a partnership that she would return to on and off for more than 40 years. From the seminal 1959 recording Little Niles through 1998's Khepera, Liston was the arranger on many of Randy Weston's albums. Her arrangements, with a powerful base of brass and percussion and expressive solo performances, helped shape and embellish Weston's compositions.

       Other affiliations during the 1960s included co-leading a band with trumpeter Clark Terry, writing for the Duke Ellington orchestra, singers Tony Bennett and Eddie Fisher, and the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra. During the 1970s, she worked with youth orchestras in Los Angeles, continuing to write for Basie, Ellington, and singer Abbey Lincoln. Liston also became a staff arranger for the Motown label. Later that decade, she took up residence in Jamaica, where she taught at the University of the West Indies and was director of Popular Music Studies at the Jamaica Institute of Music.

      Born in 1926, Liston first laid eyes on the trombone in grade school; immediately, she said, she knew she wanted one. With encouragement from her family and music teachers, she began to develop her talent in school and local ensembles. One of her high-school friends, alto saxophonist Vi Redd, says that Liston was always musically ahead of her peers. "Melba's just always been an advanced musician," she says. "We had to struggle to keep up with her." Liston led her own groups in the '70s and '80s until a 1985 stroke left her

partially paralyzed. Though she was left unable to play, Weston convinced her to continue writing music. With the help of a computer, she kept producing arrangements for Gillespie and Weston, and Liston wrote rich musical settings up until her death in 1999.

       

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melba_Liston

https://wbssmedia.com/artists/detail/3445

https://jmih.org/event/women-pioneers-of-jazz-celebrating-melba-liston/

https://www.sfcv.org/articles/feature/celebrating-legacy-jazz-legend-melba-liston

https://www.npr.org/2008/07/09/92349036/melba-liston-bones-of-an-arranger

https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/melba-liston

: Nina Simone The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement | Activism Through M...

Wynton Marsalis - South African Songbook

John Coltrane Quartet with Eric Dolphy - "Impressions"

One Night With Blue Note (1985)

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 -One Night With Blue Note (1985) - Considered one of the greatest nights in Jazz history, this film documents the reunion of 30 jazz greats from the Blue Note label filmed at Town Hall in New York City on February 22nd, 1985.

Art Blakey - Drums Ron Carter - Bass Walter Davis Jr. Jack DeJohnette - Drums Curtis Fuller Johnny Griffin Herbie Hancock - Keyboard / Synth / Piano Joe Henderson - Saxophone Freddie Hubbard - Trumpet Stanley Jordan Charles Lloyd Jackie McLean Michel Petrucciani Woody Shaw - Trumpet Jimmy Smith - Drums Tony Williams - Drums

Nnenna Freelon | Shaped by Sound: Full Episode | PBS North Carolina

Herbie Hancock: Possibilities

- - A rare and true icon of modern music, Herbie Hancock continues to bring audiences new and inventive visions of music. In August 2005, the Possibilities album was released, featuring the collaborative talents of a legendary lineup of artists. The film, Herbie Hancock: Possibilities, showcases this musical project in development and design, as Herbie interacts with artists such as Christina Aguilera, John Mayer, Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, Sting and others. A leader of musical innovation, Herbie explores the creation of fresh music through collaboration and expansion upon his and others’ experiences, and what results is a collection of poignant musical imprints.

India Arie Live at Java Jazz Festival 2014

What Good Is A Song

I Said I Love You

Ahmad Jamal - Poinciana - Olympia Paris - LIVE

Sun Ra - A Joyful Noise

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     Robert Mugge filmed jazz great Sun Ra on location in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. between 1978 and 1980. The resulting 60-minute film includes multiple public and private performances, poetry readings, a band rehearsal, interviews, and extensive improvisations. Transferred to HD from the original 16mm film and lovingly restored for the best possible viewing experience.

The Great Wide World of Quincy Jones

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Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Patti Austin, Sarah Vaughn, and Michael Jackson are just some of the recording artists with whom mega-producer and arranger Quincy Jones has created music in his illustrious 60+ year career. Known to many simply as ‘Q’, he has received 28 Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Legend Award, and has been a major force in almost every style of music and entertainment! Maestro Singleton has gone on record many times, stating Quincy Jones is the most important musician of our time. His mastery of musical styles ranges from jazz and R&B, Brazilian and pop, and everything in between. On October 13, 2018, your CJO, featuring guest vocalist Quiana Parler, dove into Quincy Jones’s repertoire and performed some of his most notable compositions and arrangements.

New Standard Time: The Great American Songbook - Nnenna Freelon and your...

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 The Great American Songbook – Nnenna Freelon and the Charleston Jazz Orchestra

Originally performed live on January 18, 2018

Nnenna Freelon and the Charleston Jazz Orchestra kicked off the 4th Annual Charleston Jazz Festival with their performance of NEW STANDARD TIME: The Great American Songbook. As a six-time Grammy Award nominee, Nnenna has earned a well-deserved reputation as a compelling and captivating live performer. In 2014, Nnenna starred in the critically acclaimed show “Georgia on My Mind: Celebrating the Music of Ray Charles” at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Nnenna is no stranger to the music of Ray Charles, as she toured with him, as well as many other great jazz artists, including Ellis Marsalis, Al Jarreau, George Benson, and others.

Wynton Marsalis - South African Songbook

Nnenna Freelon | Shaped by Sound

     

Nnenna Freelon uses her special instrument to develop and express how jazz improvisation, deep listening, and ancestral presence shaped her journey through loss. They reflect on grief and the healing power of creativity and community, and the ways memory, music, and everyday rituals open pathways from sorrow to hope. These words of Dr.Rhon, of the UNC Sonja Haynes Stone Center, express the uniqueness of the words and music of Nnenna Freelon.

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S2E4: Let Us All Be Windows w/Nnenna Freelon  

In a deeply intimate conversation, Stone Written host Dr. Rhon (@DoctorRMB) sits down with Grammy-nominated American jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon to discuss her new book and album, exploring how jazz improvisation, deep listening, and ancestral presence shaped her journey through loss.

They reflect on grief’s non-linear nature, the healing power of creativity and community, and the ways memory, music, and everyday rituals open pathways from sorrow to hope.

https://stonecenter.unc.edu/podcast/

Exploring Grief through Music with Nnenna Freelon | Black America - -

Nnenna Freelon, born July 28, 1954. Freelon was born Chinyere Nnenna Pierce to Charles and Frances Pierce in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  She has a brother, Melvin, and a sister named Debbie. As a young woman, she sang extensively in her community and the Union Baptist Church and at St. Paul AME. She recalled, "I started singing in the church, like so many others...."Nnenna graduated from Simmons College in Boston with a degree in health care administration. For a while, she worked for the Durham County Hospital Corporation, Durham, North Carolina.

In 1990, Nnenna Freelon went to the Southern Arts Federation's jazz meeting and met Ellis Marsalis. "That was a big turning point. At that time, I had been singing for seven years. Ellis is an educator, and he wanted to nurture and help. What I didn't know at the time was that George Butler of Columbia Records was looking for a female singer. Ellis asked me for a package of materials. I had my little local press kit and my little tape with original music. Two years later, I was signed to Columbia Records." She was in her late 30s when she made her debut CD, Nnenna Freelon, for Columbia in 1992. The label dropped her in 1994, and Concord Records signed her in 1996.

In 1979, she married architect Philip Freelon. She and her husband raised three children, Deen, Maya, and Pierce, before she decided to perform professionally as a jazz singer. Their son, Pierce Freelon, is a hip hop artist, a Visiting Professor of Political Science at North Carolina Central University, and the founder of the website Blackademics, for which he has interviewed many notable figures such as Angela Davis, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, and Jesse Jackson. Deen Freelon is a Presidential Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, studying social media and politics. Daughter Maya Freelon Asante is a visual artist.

                   Nnenna Freelon's   special instrument