The Truth About Brass Sliding Things…
Below, a Louis Armstrong Armstrong All Stars Concert from May 8, 1948 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The venue is the St.Paul Auditorium: The Louis Armstrong All-Stars! It’s generally recognized that a May 17, 1947 Town Hall concert in New York City constitutes the origin story of the Louis Armstrong All Stars touring band. Many fantastic […]
In 1956, Coleman Hawkins was interviewed by Bill Grauer and Paul Bacon for Riverside Records. At one point, Hawkins recalls a period — about April, 1928, it turns out — that he played at the Roseland Ballroom with Jimmy Harrison, a trombonist and fellow member of Fletcher Henderson’s band. Hawkins and Jimmy already shared a […]
The documentary has been on YouTube since late 2021, and recounts the story of one the most universally revered and beloved jazz musicians, Jack Teagarden. Importantly, this documentary work on Big Tea — now so easily and freely available — would absolutely not exist without the work of the late Joe Showler*, the Canadian record […]
Almost any English teacher can be counted on to make some sort of a handout on when to use a comma. It’s sort of that same way with brass players and exercise books, going back — at least — to Arbans famous method. Both comma handouts and brass exercise books have this in common: despite […]
In October of 1958, Jack Teagarden and his working band undertook a tour of the near east for the U.S. State Department. The trip covered eighteen countries and 17,000 miles, winding up in January of 1959. The King of Thailand, himself a saxophonist and composer, was happy to see Teagarden, someone whose music he had […]