Articles by Richard J Salvucci
Jake Hertzog: The Ozark Concerto
by Richard J Salvucci
As Terry Teachout very accurately wrote, “The relationship between jazz and classical music has often been close...but is ultimately equivocal" ("Jazz and Classical Music: To the Third Stream and Beyond," in Bill Kirchner, editor, The Oxford Companion to Jazz, Oxford University Press, 2000). Equivocal is a tough word. It can mean suspicious, doubtful or uncertain. Spend any time around musicians in either camp and you find out about suspicions, doubts and uncertainties. They range from 'overpaid' to 'tissue paper lip' ...
Continue ReadingBilly Lester: High Standards
by Richard J Salvucci
This is a very difficult recording to evaluate. If Billy Lester is living in Italy, the Italians are lucky. Someone has to be beyond sophisticated to pull off what Lester has done. He has, in essence, taken the GAS (Great American Songbook) and, with perhaps one exception, has improvised to the chord changes over the tunes. Imaginatively. Very imaginatively. Unfortunately, it really takes a pretty deep knowledge of music theory to appreciate what Lester has done. But if you have ...
Continue ReadingSatchmocracy: Satchmocracy vol. 2
by Richard J Salvucci
It is not easy to keep up with all the new jazz being recorded. It was perhaps easier in the 1950s or 1960s, when a couple of major labels did the bulk of the recording. An artist either made it that way or went unheard except in his or her hometown. For better or worse, it is different now. A prospective reviewer probably fields requests for several hundred recordings a year. And, of course, they come ...
Continue ReadingMiles Davis: Miles '55: The Prestige Recordings
by Richard J Salvucci
It is hard to imagine any casual jazz fan failing a blindfold test on the vinyls on offer here. It is a game people play: how quickly can you identify the performer. A lot of horn players make it into the competition, because horns are boisterous and mimic the human voice and persona. Clark Terry, some say, requires one note. And for much of his career, starting in the mid-1950s, a compatriot and mentee of Terry's: Miles Davis was equally ...
Continue ReadingCal Tjader: Amazonas
by Richard J Salvucci
Multi-instrumentalist Cal Tjader has been gone for over forty years. Had he lived, he would be in his nineties today. The West Coast scene he entered, first as a drummer, then as a vibraphonist, was a world of clubs, acoustic bands, and enthusiastic promoters who pushed their favorite artists' careers. For Tjader, it was San Francisco, the Blackhawk, and jazz writer Ralph Gleason. Tjader broke in playing with Dave Brubeck in 1948. He was continuously employed until his premature death ...
Continue ReadingGunhild Carling: Jazz Is My Lifestyle
by Richard J Salvucci
Sometimes there is a tendency to take a performance less than seriously, especially if an artist uses a bit of self-satire as part of the act. Pianist Victor Borge had this problem--"comic virtuoso" he was called--and even trumpet player Jack Sheldon, to a degree, had to blow the roof off sometimes to remind the audience of what he could do. One senses that Gunhild Carling may get the less-than-serious treatment That is a pity, because she can play. And so ...
Continue ReadingJack Wood: Movie Magic. Great Songs from the Movies
by Richard J Salvucci
Someone could be forgiven for thinking that everyone loves music from the movies. After all: Jule Styne; Leslie Bricusse; Johnny Mandel; Sammy Fain; Harry Warren; Richard Rodgers ; Henry Mancini; Johnny Mercer; Antonio Carlos Jobim; Michel Legrand; Bernice Petkere; and Isham Jones is hardly a list of minor talents, but all are represented on Movie Magic. Is it the music itself, the associated film or both that are compelling? Perhaps an emotional connection to a moment, a time, a person ...
Continue ReadingMargaret Slovak: A Star's Light Does Fall
by Richard J Salvucci
This is a lovely recording of Christmas music that includes the proverbial “well loved" tunes plus even musings by Paul Stookey and Wayne Shorter. Honestly, the acoustic bass-guitar offerings are so mellow, tranquil and restful, that a listener does not have to wait for the holidays. Paco de Lucia or Andrés Segovia never made a Christmas album, so A Star's Lght Does Fall will have to do. And really, does anyone want to read a review of a ...
Continue ReadingKathy Sanborn: Romance Language
by Richard J Salvucci
Over 60 years ago, the original television series, The Twilight Zone (Rod Serling, CBS, 1959-64), had an unusually memorable episode. Called “Passage for a Trumpet," it featured Jack Klugman, alcoholic, down on his luck and suicidal. A trumpet player named Joey Crown uttered the memorable line, “This horn is half my language." OK. No spoiler. It is a spectacular performance, and now Kathy Sanborn has, in a way, produced an album based on it. The player for the episode was ...
Continue ReadingJoaquin Nu?ez: Ruta De La Clave
by Richard J Salvucci
Ruta de la Clave is everything a good recording should be: listenable, stimulating, thoughtful, a bit eclectic and, above all, musical. Joaquín Núñez and Habana Safari has set out to do a version of the “history of the clave." Of course, this is a unique vision, a distillation of Nú?ez's experiences as a Cuban-Canadian percussionist. But his overall goal is considerably greater, “a reinvention of Afro-Cuban jazz." That is a pretty tall order. Others will say ...
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