Word: jazzing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Berger and the more conflicted refugee from Queens, Claude. (A New York Times critic, quaintly, said the show reminded him of 1920s off-Broadway revues--"the bright impudence of The Grand Street Follies and The Garrick Gaieties.") The score by Galt MacDermot--a musician who was nearing 40, loved jazz and favored suits and ties, the straight man out in this band of hippie-artists--is more experimental than it usually gets credit for. In addition to the familiar anthems (Aquarius, Let the Sun Shine In), many of the songs are mere snippets, hewing to few of the traditional rules...
...known as the "Little Giant" because of his diminutive stature, but Johnny Griffin was a musical talent of towering proportions. The Chicago-born tenor saxophonist made his name in the 1950s, collaborating with luminaries like John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey. Dismayed by the ascendancy of free jazz (a genre he considered "noise") in the 1960s, Griffin fled to Europe, where he mesmerized audiences for decades. "I want to eat up the music like a child eating candy," he said. In turn, listeners devoured his unique sound, a melding of forceful tones and dazzling improvisation played at lightning speeds...
...nice Jewish boy from Chicago, the son of a tailor from Warsaw, and he played the clarinet. The experienced jazz musicians aboard the excursion boat were skeptical of the slight, bespectacled twelve-year-old in short pants, union card or no union card. ''Keep away from the instruments, kid!'' they shouted. ''Get off the boat!'' Undaunted, the lad took out his horn and started to play. Case closed: two minutes later, Benny Goodman had joined Bix Beiderbecke's band. From that humble dockside audition grew the career of one of the century's most influential jazzmen and most enduring icons...
...made his way to New York, where he was soon in demand as a sideman, earning up to $400 a week even as the Depression got under way. In 1933, he met John Hammond, a descendant of Commodore Vanderbilt's, who backed up his love for jazz with a considerable amount of cash. A year later, with underwriting from Hammond, Goodman formed his first band, which opened at Billy Rose's Music Hall in New York City. It was too intense and driving for a public conditioned to syrupy hotel orchestras. But for all its kick-up-your- heels abandon...
Other than classical, do you have a favorite musical genre? -Spencer J. Gordon Chesteron, Ind.I love jazz and opera. And also hip-hop. They make impressive music videos. Classical-music videos are still pretty traditional. You can probably direct one yourself. Just put a piano out in some landscape...