Betty Carter The 1960s featured many recordings by highly musical singers in the company of great jazz instrumentalists. In this hour of Jazz at 100, we will survey the 1960’s recordings of jazz singers Betty Carter, Eddie Jefferson, Sheila Jordan, Nancy Wilson, Shirley Horn, Carmen McRae, Jon Hendricks and Johnny Hartman. Betty Carter. “What draws […]
Thelonious Monk
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Jazz at 100 Hour 43: Monk and Friends: Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols, & Elmo Hope in the 1950s (1953 – 1957)
John Coltrane – Shadow Wilson -Thelonious Monk – Ahmed Abdul-Malik The 1950s were a very productive decade for Thelonious Monk, perhaps his most productive as a composer. During the fifties his reputation and impact grew tremendously. His influence on other pianists can be seen in the work of Elmo Hope and Herbie Nichols, among others. Although neither had […]
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Jazz at 100 Hour 28: The Genius of Modern Music – Thelonious Monk on Blue Note (1947 – 1950)
Thelonious Monk In 1940, Minton’s Playhouse on West 118th Street hired drummer Kenny Clarke as a bandleader. For the house band, Clarke hired trumpeter Joe Guy, bassist Nick Fenton, and an eccentric pianist named Thelonious Monk. Although Monk recorded with Coleman Hawkins in 1944, he didn’t record with his own group until 1947. Despite these […]
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Jazz at 100 Hour 27: Un Poco Loco – The Intensity of Bud Powell (1946 – 1953)
Bud Powell Mentored by Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell became the first great piano innovator of bebop. “It would be hard to overstate Powell’s impact. His ingenious technique and originality as an improviser and composer established the foundation for all pianists to follow. Long after bop had faded, Powell remained a source of inspiration for pianists […]
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Jazz at 100 Hour 26: That Dizzy Cat – Dizzy Gillespie (1945 – 1948)
Dizzy Gillespie Dizzy Gillespie grew up professionally playing in the big bands of Teddy Hill, Cab Calloway, Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine and writing for Woody Herman and Jimmy Dorsey. The wartime economy with its shortages and the musician’s strike of the early 1940s led Gillespie to focus on small combos for his own projects, […]
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Jazz at 100 Hour 23: Birth of Bebop (1939 – 1945)
Charlie Parker – Dizzy Gillespie “By the early 1940s … a new approach to small-combo jazz playing was developing, characterized by a more flexible approach to rhythm, a more aggressive pursuit of instrumental virtuosity, and an increasingly adventurous harmonic language.” – Scott Deveaux “Because its loose, improvisatory format offers an obvious point of contrast to […]