"Summertime" by Laurence Walden and the Jazz Connection feat. Womack Howard (w/Paul Grant, Linda Paul, Bobby Ray and Ben Adkins) Enjoy the video! Nice, upbeat version of a classic Gershwin ballad... it didn't take me very long to put this together, but I needed something to cheer me up a bit, so here you go.
This man was a legend in jazz bass... and I was a longtime fan of his, and Charlie Haden was a big influence on my playing as well. Sad to hear of his passing today. Let us remember the man and his music! Peace out, Charlie! Today we celebrate one of the most creative and eclectic personalities in the history of jazz. As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of his sudden death this weekend (from complications of diabetes, at age 36) in a (then-West) Berlin hotel, we look back at the life and music of Eric Dolphy. This cat blew rings around other horn-men with ease, and was quite versatile. His main axe was alto-saxophone, but he was also accomplished at flute and bass-clarinet. Charles Mingus, who know Dolphy from way-back to his formative years in Los Angeles, where they both grew up and paid their dues in various bands from Satchmo's, Duke's and Hamp's (Mingus) to Chico Hamilton's and Gerald Wilson's (Dolphy), knew how to hone Eric's gifts into his compositions & arrangements, and the two had a very close & fruitful relationship - so much that Mingus was devastated for weeks when he heard the news of Dolphy's death (barely weeks after leaving the Mingus sextet on tour in Europe) during the summer of 1964. |