Copyright ® Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved. “Stan Kenton was not the only 1950s big band leader who attempted to remake modern jazz in his own iconoclastic image. Sun Ra drew on an equally eclectic mixture of forward-looking jazz styles in the various recordings made with his large ensemble, the Arkestra — a band invariably described by the leader with one or more impressive descriptives attached (e.g., the Myth Science Arkestra or the Astro Infinity Arkestra). A certain extravagance permeated almost everything having to do with this artist.  Many jazz pl ..read more

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 © Introduction. Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved. “Mitchell was known for a fluent improvising style in which pulled-off (rather than plucked) notes in a typically low register (Mitchell used a retuned bass) suggest a baritone saxophone rather than a stringed instrument; Scott LaFaro was later sanctified for a broadly similar technique.” - Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Ed. “The basic sound of the Mitchell-Land group is one that the musicians find elusive of verbalization. "Hard" is an adjective that has been appl ..read more

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  Copyright ® John McDonough, copyright protected; all rights reserved. Michael passed away on April 19, 2024. His death is an immense loss to the Cuscuna family and the Jazz World. This article, which appeared in the January 2, 2024 issue of The Magazine, is posted as a tribute to his memory and as a way of saying “Thank You” to the many kindnesses he shared with the JazzProfiles blog. “Once upon a time, a tiny handful of early jazz critics wrote about rare old jazz records like priests talking about the Bible when most of the world couldn’t even read. Like the lonely tree in the for ..read more

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with Israel Crosby on base and Vernel Fournier on drums ..read more

 © -  Steven A. Cerra - copyright protected; all rights reserved. “The definition of "West Coast Jazz?" You know, I've been asked that question so many times. It's a hard one. I'm not trying to evade the question, I'm just trying to figure it out myself. Maybe I was a practitioner of it, but as I think it over, all of us in music are products of our environment and heritage. Shelly Manne, Jimmy Giuffre and myself who are so distinctly associated with this sound...when I look back at our musical heritage, I remember that we all loved the Kansas City 7, a small unit out of the Basie ..read more

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 © Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved Gordon Jack is a frequent contributor to the Jazz Journal and a very generous friend in allowing JazzProfiles to re-publish his perceptive and well-researched writings on various topics about Jazz and its makers. Gordon is the author of Fifties Jazz Talk An Oral Retrospective and he also developed the Gerry Mulligan discography in Raymond Horricks’ book Gerry Mulligan’s Ark. The following article was published in the April 7, 2024 edition of Jazz Journal. Gordon is based in the UK and uses English spelling. Fo ..read more