Archive for the 'Jazz' Category

Wayne Shorter (August 25, 1933 – March 2, 2023)

Thursday, March 2nd, 2023
  • Herbie Hancock tweeted.

    Wayne Shorter, my best friend, left us with courage in his heart, love and compassion for all, and a seeking spirit for the eternal future. He was ready for his rebirth. As it is with every human being, he is irreplaceable . . .

    Wayne Shorter was able to reach the pinnacle of excellence as a saxophonist, composer, orchestrator, and recently, composer of the masterful opera “…Iphigenia “ I miss being around him and his special Wayne-isms but I carry his spirit within my heart always.

    Herbie Hancock
    12:44 PM · Mar 2, 2023

  • Wayne Shorter Official

    Remembering Wayne Shorter, Rogue Philosopher (1933-2023)

  • RIP – Pharoah Sanders (October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022)

    Saturday, September 24th, 2022
  • Phaorah Sanders died – Rolling Stone

    Pharoah Sanders, Saxophonist Who Pushed Jazz Toward the Spiritual, Dead at 81
    “The Creator Has a Master Plan” legend was sideman on John Coltrane’s landmark avant-garde journeys before embarking on a decades-long career that concluded with 2021’s acclaimed Promises

  • Photo via Pharoah Sanders John Coltrane Welcome to Love

  • Ji Hye Lee Orchestra

    Monday, May 24th, 2021
  • Ji Hye Lee

  • Birthday of Gerry Mulligan April 6, & Billie Holiday April 7

    Tuesday, April 6th, 2021
  • Billie Holiday

    Billie Holiday born on this date April 7 in 1915 as Eleanora Fagan and later called Lady Day, sings this song God Bless the Child for you.

  • Gerry Mulligan film credits
    Gerry Mulligan homepage via

  • Chet Baker
    and Gerry Mulligan

  • Sandy & Gerry Mulligan
    Dennis lived with prominent jazz musician Gerry Mulligan from 1965 until they split up in 1974. (Via Sandy Dennis wiki)

  • RIP Milford Graves – Pioneering Jazz Drummer and Polymath

    Saturday, February 13th, 2021

  • (Milford Graves, Dojo dance)

    Wiki

    Milford Graves (August 20, 1941 – February 12, 2021) was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, Professor Emeritus of Music,[4][5] researcher/inventor,[6][7] visual artist/sculptor,[8][9][10][11] gardener/herbalist,[12] [13] and martial artist.[14][15] Graves is noteworthy for his early avant-garde contributions in the 1960s with Paul Bley, Albert Ayler, and the New York Art Quartet, and is considered to be a free jazz pioneer, liberating percussion from its timekeeping role. The composer and saxophonist John Zorn referred to Graves as “basically a 20th-century shaman.

    Artforum Obit

    Only two weeks ago did “Milford Graves: A Mind-Body Deal,” a major exhibition of his work at the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art, draw to a close after a five-month run.

    Pioneering Drummer and Polymath dies at 79

  • Milford Graves a Mind Body deal

    As a young drummer, Milford performed at John Coltrane’s funeral and led successful Latin music combos, drawing on his Afro-Caribbean roots. When he was barely old enough to vote, his life had taken off in a half-dozen different directions that led to revolutions in music, activism, medicine, botany, and even martial arts. He led the charge in bringing the drums out from the back of the bandstand, to a position equal with the “melodic” instruments. An anchor in the New York Art Quartet with Amiri Baraka, he was also active in the collective-bargaining movement of the Jazz Composers Guild. At the same time, he began his training as a cardiac technician with zeal; he invented a martial art form called Yara based on the movements of the Praying Mantis, boxing, West African ritual dance, and Lindy Hop; and he had an abiding interest in botany and herbology, inherited from his grandmother. By the time he began his nearly 40-year career at Bennington College, as a professor of music and holistic medicine, his fecund intellect had begun to explore radical connections between rhythm and the universe: in music, in movement, in healing, in the subatomic, in the activity of the heart and other organs.

    Chick Corea, Jazz Keyboardist and Innovator, Dies at 79

    Thursday, February 11th, 2021
  • Chick Corea Jazz Fusion Keyboard died (LA times obit)

    Rolling Stones obit

    Chick Corea wiki

  • American jazz-fusion pianist Chick Corea, Rome, Italy, 1992. (Photo by Luciano Viti/Getty Images)

    Chick Corea dead Cancer

    Legendary Jazz Keyboardist Chick Corea Dies of ‘Rare Form of Cancer’ at 79
    “My mission has always been to bring the joy of creating anywhere I could, and to have done so with all the artists that I admire so dearly — this has been the richness of my life,” he said before his death

    “No Sun in Venice” “Venus Institute” – Adieu Robert Hossein + RIP Joan Micklin Silver

    Sunday, January 3rd, 2021
  • French actor and director Robert Hossein dies aged 93 (Euro Weekly obit)


    (No Sun in Venice – 1957 directed by Roger Vadim. )
    Robert Hossein wiki

    Robert Hossein died of COVID-19, on 31 December 2020, one day after his 93rd birthday.

  • Milt Jackson was born on January 1. 1923.
    Bags Groove Milt Jackson (previous post – listen to the Golden Striker, another composition by John Lewis for the film “No Sun in Venice”)

  • Robert Hossein and Audrey Tatou

    Robert Hossein filmography

  • Joan Micklin Silver,‘Crossing Delancey’ Director, Dies at 85

    Joan Micklin Silver also directed “Hester Street” and “Chilly Scenes of Winter”.

    1aChillyjohnheard
    (John Heard and Mary Beth Hurt, or Mrs Paul Schrader)
    Chilly Scenes of Winter (based on Anne Beattie’s Novel)

  • Film Comment article, Stronger Together

    Joan Micklin Silver portrays working women in stories of independence and solidarity that quietly defy convention

  • Goodbye, Jazz Icon Annie Ross

    Wednesday, July 22nd, 2020
  • Independent/UK obit

    Annie Ross death: Acclaimed jazz singer and actor dies aged 89
    London-born musician and nightclub owner left an indelible mark on jazz music

    Vocalese trio formed by jazz vocalists (from left to right) Annie Ross, Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks during a photo shoot for DownBeat magazine shot near First National Bank Building in Chicago, published on 17th September 1959.


    The original recording of her song “Twisted” was used in the introduction to the 1997 Woody Allen film Deconstructing Harry.

  • RIP McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938 – March 6, 2020)

    Friday, March 6th, 2020

  • McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938 – March 6, 2020)

    McCoy Tyner Jazz Pianist dead (Rolling Stone)

    McCoy Tyner, Jazz Pianist Who Anchored John Coltrane’s Legendary Quartet, Dead at 81

    Musician’s bluesy, muscular approach made him one of the most influential pianists of the past six decades

  • Miles Davis from Louis Malle’s Elevator To The Gallows & Lee Chang Dong’s Burning

    Sunday, May 26th, 2019

  • Photo via
    Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows and it’s historic Miles Davis recording


  • Burning – interview with Lee Chang Dong

    MM: I want to know more about your choice of music, such as the jazz by Miles Davis. Can you comment a little bit about the pieces you have used for this film, and the reasons behind your selection?

    LCD: I needed the music in that scene to have a sense of freedom since that’s what Hae-mi’s dance is about. I wanted to use music that has this specific quality that jazz has where it feels like there’s no beginning or end. That song is called “Lift to the Scaffold,” and I like the sort of bad omen feeling that comes from that title.

    photo via

    Poetry was his last film (Lee Chang Dong previous post here)

    Last Feb at MoMa – honoring Lee Chang Dong – Cinema of Trauma.

    Happy birthday Miles Davis!
    Miles Davis and Horace Silver
    This is funny “At one time, Miles Davis was one of the highest – paid artists in jazz. He made BIG money. He invested some of this money in an electric company that supplied New York with electricity. Every time he phoned me, his opening remark was, “Have you got your lights on? Go turn your lights on.” (I think I read this from Horace Silver “s autobio)..

  • Michel Legrand recalls collaboration with Miles

  • Adieu Michel Legrand – The French New Wave Composer

    Saturday, January 26th, 2019
  • photo via

    Tributes to Michel Legrand (Variety) Pour In


  • Criterion – Jacques Demy and Michel Legrand – partners in song

    Michel Legrand studied under Nadia Boulanger – see two videos from Go Between)

  • Thank you Aretha Franklin for Making us Feel, Duet with Sinatra was Her Favorite

    Thursday, August 16th, 2018
  • Aretha Franlin
    (photographed by George Hurrell, 1979)

    Duet with Frank Sinatra was her favorite..

  • Read (Independent)

    Aretha Franklin: How the Queen of Soul offered to post bail for Angela Davis, saying ‘black people will be free’