Word: jazzing
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...loss and rebirth, and a jazzman's reclamation of Rhapsody in Blue. The new disc begins with basics--covers of Robert Johnson and Jelly Roll Morton--and then branches out with 12 self-penned numbers. The climax, Roberts writes, "symbolizes what the whole record is about...our belief that jazz (blues) will dance into the 21st century." It sounds, well, better than it sounds...
DIED. STEPHANE GRAPPELLI, 89, exuberant jazz violinist; in Paris. Grappelli started out as a pianist for silent films but switched to strings for the swing standards he loved. America had Ellington, but Europe got the Quintet of the Hot Club of France in the 1930s--the chamber group-cum-jazz ensemble that featured Grappelli and guitarist Django Reinhardt. The quintet broke up during World War II, but Grappelli played on--recording more than 100 albums...
Weekends are reserved for buying groceries, running errands, doing laundry and cooking enough food for the next six days. On Friday nights Ocon will put on some jazz, draw up a bubble bath and spend the rest of the evening playing with Bailey...
Harry Connick Jr. has long viewed himself as something of a Sinatra for the '90s. Although he broke into jazz a decade ago as a solo pianist influenced by Bud Powell and Art Tatum, his career veered sharply toward big-band and string-arranged music after his 1989 sound track, When Harry Met Sally, went multi-platinum. When his version of the classic It Had to Be You--with Connick singing--became a hit, he began moving his repertoire closer toward pop, writing, as he did on 1991's Blue Light, Red Light, jaunty big-band tunes that echoed...
...modest voice drowning in a sea of strings and lugubrious arrangements. On past records, Connick's vocal limitations usually hid behind strong melodies or brisk rhythms. Here, though, his own billowy backgrounds draw attention to his earnest but colorless singing. Connick probably sees himself as a film star, jazz interpreter and vocalist. He's right--on two of those counts...