Jazz Legends
Conversations about the all-time jazz legends from local jazz legends Gunnar Biggs, Keith Bishop, Joey Carano, Leonard Thompson, and Bob Weller. Soak in their stories and expertise as they prep for their Sunday night shows at St. Michael’s-by-the-Sea in Carlsbad, California.
Episodes
Trumpeter/composer Lee Morgan (born July 10, 1938) first rose to national prominence as a teenager with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band. Becoming one of the most prominent hard bop trumpet soloists, he spent years with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, eschewing forming his own bands even as he issued numerous recordings as a leader in his own right. His recording of his tune "The Sidewinder" became an unexpected hit for Blue Note Records, ...
Tenor saxophonist/composer Hank Mobley (born July 7, 1930) has been described as one of the most underrated musicians of the bop era. Even though his career included stints with Miles Davis, Max Roach, Horace Silver and recordings with most of the greatest players of his generation, addiction and poor health adversely affected his life, leading to homelessness and an early death at the age of 55. He left behind a legacy of wonderfu...
Kurt Weill (born March 2, 1900) and Vernon Duke (born Vladimir Dukelsky, October 10, 1903) were both European born composers who composed “serious” concert music before emigrating to the United States and becoming two of the greatest exponents of American popular song. Kurt Weill felt strongly that music should have a political point of view, his "Three Penny Opera" and "Mahagony", both composed in Germany before he emigrated to th...
Pianist/composer Chick Corea (born June 12, 1941) is widely considered one of the most important pianists of the post Coltrane era. A prolific composer, a great many of his tunes have become jazz standards as well. His association with Miles Davis in the 1960’s lead to the birth of jazz fusion, and his various groups remained on the cutting edge of the music throughout his career. He was honored with 28 Grammy awards, and was nomin...
Composer Cole Porter (born June 9, 1891) was something of an anomaly among songwriters of the Tin Pan Alley era. Born to an affluent Indiana family, songwriting was initially just a hobby for him, but he soon parlayed his gift for penning witty urbane lyrics and totally original melodies and harmonies into one of the most important creative voices in American popular songwriter.
Trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer/arranger Tom Harrell (born June 16, 1946) has been critically acclaimed for most of his career. Starting as a sideman with Woody Herman, Horace Silver and Phil Woods, he has gone on to lead his own groups and record wonderful original music on dozens of recordings. His prolific creative output is made even more astounding considering he suffers from schizophrenia and has only one lung. His lyrical...
Songwriter Arthur Schwartz(born Nov 25, 1900) was trained as a lawyer, but encouraged by friends George Gershwin and Lorenz Hart, soon abandoned that career and became a successful popular songwriter. His tunes are featured in several Broadway shows, and many of his tunes are favorite vehicles for jazz musicians due to their interesting harmonic structure. His longtime lyricist, Howard Dietz, a collaborator with composer Jerome Ker...
Gerry Mulligan (born April 6, 1927) is possibly the best known baritone saxophonist in jazz, but he has also recorded on soprano and tenor saxophones, clarinet and piano. He is a prolific composer and arranger, contributing scores to the Miles Davis Birth of the Cool nonet, the Claude Thornhill and Stan Kenton bands, and his own Concert Jazz Band in the early 60s and 80s. His innovative piano-less quartet with trumpeter Chet Baker...
John Lenwood “Jackie” McClean (born May 17, 1931) grew up in the same neighborhood in Harlem that was home to Sonny Rollins, Bud Powell and Thelonius Monk, and soon fell under the sway of the Bebop Revolution, particularly as espoused by Charlie Parker. Throughout his career, Jackie kept his ears open to new developments in the music, while still remaining grounded in the bebop vocabulary of his youth, he recorded with many more ad...
[Note: Stay tuned at the end to hear the band play Blue Skies!]
It has been said that Irving Berlin didn’t write American music ... he was American music. Indeed, the scope and length of his career, and his vast body of work in a variety of musical contexts give credence to this argument. One of the very few songwriters of his generation who wrote his own lyrics as well as the music, it is staggering to realize that English wasn’t ...
[Note: Stay tuned at the end for some music from the band!]
Thomas “Fats” Waller (born May 21, 1904) grew up the son of a preacher in the vibrant musical community of Harlem. He played the organ for his dad’s church as a child, with the organ pumped for him by Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. His prodigious keyboard abilities were soon encouraged by many of the lions of stride piano in the neighborhood, who bought him his first pairs of lo...
It’s impossible to overestimate the impact that Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington (born April 29, 1899) had on jazz and indeed the world of music in general. Even if his myriad contributions to the Great American Songbook were his only accomplishment, he would be one of its most hallowed creators, but his legacy is far more sweeping. He managed to field an orchestra for several decades consisting of totally unique musical personaliti...
Herbie Hancock, born April 12, 1940, is one of the most influential pianists and composers in jazz. He first rose to prominence with trumpeter Donald Byrd and later revolutionized jazz itself with Miles Davis, and pop music with his headhunters and rockit bands. He remains a big influence on younger players to this day, now an elder statesman of the music.
Pianist/composer Cedar Walton (born January 17, 1934) first rose to prominence with drummer Art Blakey’s band and his own groups featured his original compositional voice for decades: fresh original takes on the hard bop style he came up in. Many of his tunes have become jazz standards.
Saxophonist and jazz composer Benny Golson (born January 25, 1929) was one of jazz’s senior statesmen, passing away last year at the age of 95. He was one of the last surviving subjects of the well known photograph “A Great Day in Harlem”, which was featured in the film “The Terminal” (2004) which also featured a cameo by Golson himself. He penned a number of compositions which have become well loved jazz standards.
Songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen (born Edward Chester Babcock on January 26, 1913) picked his professional name inspired by the shirt company. In the course of his career, he won an Emmy and four Academy Awards for best song. Many of his tunes have become beloved jazz standards over the years.
Songwriter Harry Warren (born Salvatore Antonio Guaragna on December 24, 1893) was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. In the course of his long career he was nominated for 11 Oscars for Best Song and won three times. In a career that lasted over sixty years, he composed over eight hundred songs and were featured in over three hundred films.
The band talks about celebrating New Orleans and Mardi Gras and the city’s great musical traditions.
The band is back! This Sunday at the "Unchained Melodies" show, the Evensong Quintet is playing a live recording concert of tunes in the public domain. Many of the best songwriters of the “Tin Pan Alley” era wrote some of their most enduring songs during the late 1920s, and many of these songs fall into public domain this year. Jazz musicians have long favored the work of these giants: George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Fats Waller, Irv...
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