You’re forgiven for forgetting that Chris Connor, one of the premier cool-jazz vocalists, took a quick detour into popular music in the mid-1960s. You May Also Like: Eliane Elias Confidently Expanded Her Main Influences on ‘Bossa Nova Stories’ Gentle Giant – ‘Free Hand [Steven Wilson Mix]’ (1975; 2021 reissue) GentleRead More
Stan Kenton would have been 100 this year and, in many ways, he’s as misunderstood now as he was in his own time. You May Also Like: 14 Jazz Orchestra, Jazzrausch Bigband + Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra: Big Bands on Different Paths
The King has been dead for nearly a half century. Not that you’d know it with all the reissues, television specials and creepy rip offs from Nat Cole’s daughter over the last pair of decades. He’s funny that way. Cole has had more output over that period than many livingRead More
A canny mixture of an old-school swinging style with the then-new cool sound, even if its name sounds like a goof. Shorty Rogers, who’d first garnered attention as part of bands led by Woody Herman (both the first and second Herds) and then Stan Kenton, had a way of confoundingRead More
NICK DERISO: Volume 2 gives an idea of how considerable a wake the 1940s Miles Davis Nonet left. Taking its name from Davis’ legendary 1950 recording, this welcome, if belated, compilation scoops up all of the Capitol cuts from the early ’50s by two of the nonet’s most important disciples,Read More
NICK DERISO: This is a woman who could fall to whispery sweet nothings, even from the highest precipice, effortlessly. Start with “Something Cool,” issued on Capitol in 1955 and recorded with Pete Rugolo — Stan Kenton’s one-time musical director — and an orchestra. June tumbles, she sidesteps and old Pete,Read More
