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La Sorcière, by Virginie Morgan
One of the problems music aficionados have from time to time is a song that get stack in their head and stubbornly will not let go. We are a breed that stores thousands of musical phrases in our head,...
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Turkish Mambo, by Lennie Tristano
The technique of overdubbing is second nature to recording artists and sound engineers. You record layers of musical performances one over another until you are satisfied that all the ingredients...
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Fables of Faubus, by Charles Mingus
Jazz music, with its long history in the traditions of black people in America, acted as the background music to the civil rights movement in the late 50s and into the 60s. Gospel played that role...
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What’s New, by Helen Merrill
If you were a jazz singer in the 50s, regardless of your color and gender chances were your manager and producer would have pushed you into releasing a pop album. The returns on a successful then-new...
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It Never Entered My Mind, by The Miles Davis Quintet
In 1955 Bob Weinstock found himself in a tough spot. He was about to lose his most revered recording artist, trumpeter Miles Davis. Weinstock was head of Prestige Records, the label Miles signed to in...
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Lonely Woman, by Ornette Coleman
On the evening of November 17, 1959 Ornette Coleman’s quartet took the tiny stage at the Five Spot Cafe in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City. This was the quartet’s debut at the big apple and...
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Brilliant Corners, by Thelonious Monk
When producer Orrin Keepnews signed Thelonious Monk to his newly formed Riverside label in 1955, he had to come up with a plan. He paid Bob Weinstock, president of Prestige records that had a contract...
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The Miles Davis Quintet Recordings, 1955-1956
In the first half of 1955 Miles Davis was in a much better shape than he was in a long time. After kicking his heroin habit at his father’s house in 1953, he came back to New York City a more complete...
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Jack Montrose, 1953-1955
The first half of the 1950s was the golden era of west coast jazz, with artists and bands including the ground-breaking piano-less quartet of Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, The Dave Brubeck quartet...
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The Lenox School of Jazz 1959
1959 was the year Ornette Coleman broke into the jazz consciousness, a big bang event that forever changed the perception of what jazz is and the esthetics of the genre. In May of that year, while...
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