Play depicts the last tragic days of Charlie Parker

Also check out http://jazzstage.net

The lore of jazz is filled with operatic episodes, none larger or more dramatic than the last days of Charlie Parker. His sad death, 56 years ago this month, in a Fifth Avenue apartment, is well known among music fans for its tabloid stew of tragedy, scandal, rumor and innuendo. “Cool Blues,” presented by the New Federal Theater at the Henry Street Settlement Abrons Arts Center, riffs intriguingly on the historical record, hewing closely to the facts yet, as a work of fiction, not limiting itself to them. Read complete story from the New York Times.

Tribute to Johnny Griffin -- A Night in Tunisia

Also check out http://jazzstage.net


The life of the saxophonist from 2008 obituary in NYT
Johnny Griffin was a tenor saxophonist from Chicago whose speed, control and harmonic acuity made him one of the most talented American jazz musicians of his generation yet who spent most of his career in Europe. In the early 1960s, embittered by the critical acceptance of free jazz, he stayed true to his identity as a bebopper. Feeling that the American marketplace had no use for him (at a time when he was also having marital and tax troubles), he left for Europe, where he became a celebrated jazz elder. Click here for complete story.

Friends appreciation: Miles Davis-Footprints (1967 Stockholm)

 Also check out www.jazzstage.net

Also check out http://jazzstage.net

Every now and then we have a Facebook favorite that has to be shared on jazzstage.net.  This is the choice of  "friends" who showed their approval by lighting up the "like" button. It is our pleasure to bring it to our blog.

 

                                                                                        

                                             

         

Tribute to saxophonist Hank Mobley

Also check out www.jazzstage.net

Hank Mobley was born on July 7, 1930 in Eastman, Georgia, and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There was much music in his family, particularly piano music. Uncle Dave Mobley played piano among other instruments, and his mother and grandmother also played keyboards (his grandmother was a church organist). Piano became Mobley's first instrument; then he picked up the tenor sax at age 16 and basically taught himself the horn. On his uncle's advice, he listened initially to Lester Young and then to Don Byas, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Stitt. "Anyone who can swing and get a message across," as Mobley explained his influences to
Leonard Feather in 1956. Click here for complete bio.