Jazz

Duke Ellington’s “The Mooche”: Three Classic Recordings

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The Mooche was one of Duke Ellington’s signature pieces. Composed in 1928 by Ellington and the jazz promoter Irving Mills, it is an example of the Duke’s characteristic “jungle style,” with its exotic, pseudo-African undercurrents. These are the jazz age sounds which filled Harlem’s Cotton Club in the late 1920s. According to Ellington, the title, underscored by the infectiously languid rhythm, refers to “a certain lazy gait peculiar to some of the …

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“Long as You Know You’re Living Yours”: Keith Jarrett’s European Quartet

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Long as You Know You’re Living Yours is the third track on the 1974 album, Belonging, featuring the American jazz pianist, Keith Jarrett, with saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Palle Danielsson, and drummer, Jon Christensen. Jarrett’s collaboration with the three Scandinavian musicians resulted in a group which became known as the “European Quartet.” Infamously, Long as You Know You’re Living Yours heavily influenced Gaucho, the title track of Steely Dan’s seventh studio album, released in …

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“Solar”: Keith Jarrett and Miles Davis

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Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple. -Keith Jarrett Originally attributed to Miles Davis, the tune Solar was written by the jazz guitarist Chuck Wayne. It was first heard at an intimate 1946 jam session in Oklahoma City. Later, Davis included it on his 1954 album, Walkin’. Here is an ecstatic improvisation on Solar by the American pianist, Keith Jarrett. The athletic performance took place in Japan in …

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Remembering Tony Bennett

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Tony Bennett, the American jazz singer, passed away late last week. He was 96, just two days shy of his birthday. A devotee to the Great American Songbook, Bennett was, perhaps, the last exponent of the mid-twentieth century crooner style  of singing. Among his signature songs was, I Left My Heart in San Francisco. As styles changed with the rise of rock and roll, Bennett launched a spectacular comeback in the 1980s, …

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Dvořák’s Humoresque in G-flat Major: Ignaz Friedman and Art Tatum

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Antonín Dvořák was one of the greatest composers of melody. Perhaps the most catchy and popularly enduring example is the Humoresque No. 7 in G-flat Major (Poco lento e grazioso), originally written for solo piano. Propelled forward by an infectious, lilting rhythm, the melody develops in two-note steps which ascend gradually and explore a variety of motivic combinations before sinking into repose at the end of the phrase. As with much of …

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Remembering Ahmad Jamal

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Ahmad Jamal, the American jazz pianist, composer, and band leader, passed away on April 16. He was 92. Known for a taut, minimalist style, Jamal broke new ground in modern jazz. Miles Davis once said, “All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal…[He] knocked me out with his concept of space, his lightness of touch, and the way he phrases notes and chords and passages.” Born Frederick Russell Jones in Pittsburgh, Jamal began playing …

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Remembering Wayne Shorter: “Footprints” in Two Versions

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Wayne Shorter, the legendary American jazz saxophonist and composer, passed away last Thursday. He was 89. Born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, Wayne Shorter joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1959 and became the band’s music director. In 1964, he became a member of Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet. Herbie Hancock remembered Shorter as the group’s “master writer,” and commented, “Wayne was one of the few people who brought music to Miles …

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