Ella Fitzgerald Songs from what came to be known as the Great American Songbook, have been part of jazz perhaps since The Original Dixieland Jazz Band began recording Irving Berlin compositions. In the 1940s, singer Lee Wiley recorded several collections of 78s, known as “albums” – a name that stuck into the LP era, focused […]
Louis Armstrong
-
-
Jazz at 100 Hour 45: Norman Granz and Verve Records (1944 – 1962)
Ella Fitzgerald – Louis Armstrong In July 2, 1944, Norman Granz, a jazz fan and small-time LA promoter staged a concert in the Philharmonic Auditorium with $300 of borrowed money. His “Jazz at the Philharmonic” concerts were hugely successful and became tours that ran until 1957. These tours and the record labels they spawned – […]
-
Jazz at 100 / The Jazz Messenger – The Porgy and Bess Show
Tags: Archie Shepp, Arkestra, Ben Webster, Bill Evans, Bill Frisell, Billie Holiday, Branford Marsalis, Cab Calloway, Coleman Hawkins, DuBose Heyward, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Free Bridge Quintet, George Gershwin, Gerald Wilson, Gil Evans, Herbie Hancock, Ira Gershwin, Jimmy Smith, Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, Johnny Hartman, Joni Mitchell, Kurt Elling, Louis Armstrong, Mal Waldron, Mel Torme, Miles Davis, New Vision Sax Ensemble, Nina Simone, Patricia Barber, Porgy & Bess, Sammy Davis Jr., Sonny Rollins, Sun RaCab Calloway as Sportin’ Life In the mid-1930’s, George Gershwin acquired the rights to the play Porgy by DuBose Heyward, based on his own novel of 1925. Gershwin’s great American opera, Porgy and Bess debuted in 1935 with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. For some period of time, the themes of domestic violence, […]
-
Jazz at 100 Hour 32: Dixieland Revival – A Sense of History (1939 – 1955)
Sidney Bechet In the 1940’s, some twenty-five to thirty years into the history of recorded jazz, the sometimes violent reaction against the bebop revolution caused a hard look into the rear view and the jazz world focused on its own history. Many of the players who led the first jazz revolution were still alive, ready […]
-
Jazz at 100 Hour 24: Bebop’s Twin – Rhythm and Blues (1939 – 1951)
Louis Jordan Some of the same forces that launched Bebop as a break from Big Band Swing, also fueled the birth of Rhythm and Blues – the rise of independent labels in the wake of the recording ban of 1942 – 1944, the economic infeasibility of touring with 16-member orchestras, the decline of dance halls […]
-
Jazz at 100 Hour 17: The Entertainers – Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway and Lionel Hampton (1929 – 1940)
Cab Calloway Jazz has often been understood through the lens of the conflict between art and commerce. In the 1930s, several artists successfully blurred these distinctions. Louis Armstrong adopted popular song as his vehicle foe a successful career shift into the mainstream. Cab Calloway defined his popular hipster persona while fronting one of the most […]
-
Jazz at 100 Hour 7: Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Hot Sevens (1926 – 1929)
Tags: jazz at 100, Louis ArmstrongLouis Armstrong and his Hot Five In the past two hours, we’ve heard the music of the newly conceived jazz orchestras of New York and the Harlem-style or “Stride” pianists. We touched on Louis Armstrong’s contributions to the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra and the invention of the big band soloist. In this hour, we return with […]