The Day Shostakovich Went to a Cannonball Adderley Gig — and Didn’t Get the Music | By Ralph J. Gleason

Early this year a group of U.S. longhair composers, including Ulysses Kaye, a nephew of King Oliver, visited Russia as part of a cultural exchange deal.

This, fall, a group of five Russian composers, headed by Dmitri Shostakovich and including Dmitri Kabalevsky, Tikhon Khrennikov, Konstantin Dankevich and Firket Amirov, visited the United States.

They were flown around the country, and included in their itinerary a three-day visit to the San Francisco area.

At their San Francisco press conference, the Russians were asked what they thought of jazz. It was obvious from their answers that they knew nothing of it (despite the fact that Kaye and his companions reported they were constantly asked about jazz by Soviet composers when they were in Russia). Jazz, to the visiting Russians, seemed to mean nothing more than hotel dance music.

The October Suite (Steve Kuhn & Gary McFarland, 1966) | Original liner notes by Nat Hentoff

So far Steve Kuhn has primarily been heard in two contexts—as a sideman and as leader of a trio. This album, however, focuses on him as solo pianist in settings written specifically for him by Gary McFarland. For Gary the assignment was stimulating because, as he observed, he didn’t have to restrict himself to any particular idiom. Knowing the broad scope of Kuhn’s capacities, Gary felt free to try any approach he wanted in the confidence that Kuhn would respond resourcefully—and with individuality.

Cecil Taylor in Paris (1968)

The brand-new restoration of Cecil Taylor à Paris, courtesy of INA, will be premiered at the 2025 edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato. – EK

“He doesn’t come from my community,” replies avant-garde jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, hidden deep behind dark glasses, when asked by the interviewer about Stockhausen. The same response follows for questions about Bach and John Cage. In a style characteristic of 1968, the African-American musician, filmed for Cecil Taylor à Paris in an old French palace with oversized chimneys, dismisses European traditions in favour of “across the track” culture – the lived experiences of African-Americans.

Bob Dylan and The Band – The 1974 Live Recordings | My Picks

I delved into the 27-CD set between September 2024 and April 2025, and these tracks — roughly amounting to a double LP — are my picks among the 431 tracks. I took the following factors into consideration:

• Quality of recording (some of the shows had poor sound quality)
• Newness of the song to Dylan's live repertoire (as in 1974)
• My love for Planet Waves and my desire to sample some live versions of it — though, as you'll see, not everything made the cut
• Aiming to highlight tracks that showcase strong features of the Band's accompaniment, particularly Robbie Robertson’s guitar, Rick Danko’s bass, and Garth Hudson’s legendary blanket organ sound
• Original and daring interpretations of oft-played tunes
• The energy of the performance, even if it meant picking some tracks that feature the shouting style I know puts some people off
• Ray Padgett’s remarkably detailed analysis and his sound advice

So, in the order of recording, here is my list:

Date, Venue, Location

Disc number of 27 | Song's name | Duration

London Jazz Festival: Symphonies in Black – Duke Ellington Shorts

Jazz on Screen: Symphonies in Black: Duke Ellington Shorts

Tue 19 Nov 2024, 18:30, Location: Barbican Cinema 3

Introduction to the screening by Ehsan Khoshbakht

Join us at the Barbican for a special screening event featuring 16 captivating short films that highlight the extraordinary musical legacy of Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. Spanning nearly a quarter of a century (1929-1953), these films showcase Ellington’s performances in a variety of settings, often accompanied by dancers and singers, including the legendary Billie Holiday in Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life. This particular film fluidly transitions between Ellington composing in solitude, leading his band in a tuxedo at a concert, and artistic depictions of African American life, including a moving sequence with Billie Holiday portraying heartbreak similar to Bessie Smith's iconic film appearance six years prior.

Paris Blues (1961)

Duke Ellington behind the scene of Paris Blues (1961) with Billy Strayhorn (left), director Martin Ritt, Louis Armstrong and production designer Alexandre Trauner.

Down Beat Diaries: Bert Dahlander | Skål (1958)

Bert Dahlander | Skål: Bert Dahlander And His Swedish Jazz—Verve MG V-8253

Tracks: How Do You Do; Johnson’s Wax; When Lights Are Low; Hip Soup; But Not For Me; Room 608; Medley—Everything Happens To Me, Moonlight In Vermont, Flamingo.

Personnel: Bert Dahlander, drums; Howard Roberts, guitar; Curtis Counce, bass; Victor Feldman, vibes.

Rating: ★★★1/2

Symphonies in Black: Duke Ellington Shorts

Black & Tan

Symphonies in Black: Duke Ellington Shorts

A programme by Jonathan Rosenbaum and Ehsan Khoshbakht (Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, June 2024)

Introductory note by Jonathan Rosenbaum

In 16 shorts made over a stretch of almost a quarter of a century (1929-1953), Duke Ellington and his Orchestra perform in a variety of settings, often with dancers and singers – including Billie Holiday in Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life. The latter cuts freely between Ellington alone in thoughtful composing mode, Ellington in a tux performing the same extended composition with his band at a concert, arty images of men engaged in heavy labour, a wordless church sermon, a nightclub floorshow, and even a short stretch of story showing Holiday being pushed to the ground by an ungrateful lover before singing there about her misery – a near replica of the musical setup accorded to Bessie Smith in her only film appearance six years earlier.

Indeed, although the pleasures to be found here are chiefly musical, the narrative pretexts for these performances offer a fascinating look at how both jazz and Black musicians were perceived and expected to behave during the first three decades of talkies. At least half of the films are Soundies made for sound-and-image jukeboxes in the 40s, but even these often trade on narrative details such as the adoring women digging the solos by Ray Nance, Rex Stewart, Ben Webster, and others at an “eatery” after hours in Jam Session (1942), or the spectacular dancing by athletic jitterbugging couples in Hot Chocolate (Cottontail) from the same year.

Duke Ellington by Gordon Parks

Duke Ellington (live TV broadcast control room) photo by Gordon Parks, 1960. (c) Gordon Parks Foundation.

"Parks was seventeen when, in 1929, he first met Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington in the back of the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. Parks [who] was living on the streets, playing piano in flophouses, hanging around nightclubs and pool halls, and skipping school [was] enthralled by Ellington’s style, grace, and musical genius.

Ellington became a hero for the young man. Decades later, in 1960, Parks was overjoyed by the opportunity to tour with Ellington’s band, calling it “a trip through paradise” (To Smile in Autumn, 1979). In his photographs, Parks revealed his admiration for the musician’s pensive elegance, magnetic personality, and exceptional stage presence." [source]

Nat Hentoff on Ahmad Jamal | RIP Ahmad Jamal (1930-2023)

Nat Hentoff Original Liner Notes: Ahmad Jamal's The Legendary Okeh & Epic Sessions,1951-55

A few years ago Miles Davis, Ahmad Jamal's most influential champion, reacted indignantly to my mumbled opinion that Ahmad Jamal was "mainly a cocktail pianist." Miles who had brought all the records Ahmad had made up to that time, began playing them, pointing out to this skeptical listener those elements of Jamal's playing that so intrigued him and that have since helped make Jamal a major force in the jazz record market and an increasingly powerful lure in personal appearances.

"Listen," Miles said then and later in an interview for The Jazz Review, "to the way Jamal uses space. He lets it go so that you can feel the rhythm section and the rhythm section can feel you. It's not crowded.