THE MULTI GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING "SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS" CELEBRATES HIS 80TH BIRTHDAY LIVE ON STAGE WITH AN EXTRAORDINARY BAND: HOTTER, COOLER AND MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER.

When Sonny Rollins recorded his landmark album Saxophone Colossus way back in 1956, little did he know he'd end up wearing the title as a lifelong nickname. The "Saxophone Colossus" is now 80 years old but still going strong - in fact, he's in a partying mood. He is celebrating the birthday milestone with a world tour that includes a concert at Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid LIVE.

The Grammy Award-winning tenor saxophonist is widely recognised as one of the 20th century's most important musicians, influencing musicians across all genres with his melodic sensibilities, effortless playing style and easily identifiable sound. One of just a handful of musicians whose style has fundamentally shaped the way jazz is played and heard - in the 1950s Sonny pioneered the use of bass and drums as accompaniment for his saxophone solos, creating a piano-less trio and a texture now known as "strolling" - Rollins can lay claim to being not only the most enduring tenor saxophonist of the bebop era but the greatest contemporary jazz saxophonist of them all.

Rollins has performed and recorded with greats including Miles Davis, Charlie ‘Bird' Parker, Max Roach and Thelonious Monk. His splendid sax solos have also elevated songs such as The Rolling Stones' Waiting on a Friend, from their 1981 album Tattoo You. Three of Rollins' own compositions - St Thomas, Airegin and Oleo - have become well recognised jazz standards. In 2004, Sonny Rollins received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy and in March of this year, President Barack Obama presented him with the 2010 National Medal of Arts. Today, Rollins' sell-out shows are an opportunity to witness a living legend still at the top of his game, offering a bravura showcase of brawny bebop, soulful ballads and steamy calypsos.

Surrounded by the cool kids, the young guns and the next big things, 80 year old Sonny Rollins continues to prove he's the hippest of them all. "Sonny Rollins is a joyous performer and the essence of octogenarian cool. From the very first note it was clear that the force was still with him. Indeed, musical power was pouring out of his tenor saxophone…Quite irrespective of age, it was an astonishing performance." The Telegraph (UK).

For More Information See >>Sonny Rollins

Jack deJohnette Performs Miles Davis: A Tribute to Jack Johnson - Sydney Opera House 6 March

Sydney Opera House will presents the music of jazz giant Miles Davis. Three legends, a classic film and raw funky beats. Jack deJohnette and some of the hottest jazz musicians from America and the UK perform the epic Miles Davis album inspired by boxing champion Jack Johnson. One night only. Jack de Johnette performs Miles Davis: A Tribute to Jack Johnson live at Sydney Opera House on March 6.

For more information see:

>> Jack deJohnette at the Sydney Opera House

Phoenix Music is a small independent CD, Vinyl & DVD retailer with a huge range, located in Potts Point Sydney. Phoenix carries over 15,000 titles on CD & Vinyl across all genres including Alternative, Jazz, Blues, Chillout, Reggae, Classical, Country, Dance, Rap/Urban, Heavy Metal and more.

The range of DVDs includes Movies, TV Series, Foreign Film, Art House, Anime, Documentaries, Travel, Sci –Fi, Action/Adventure and more.

Phoenix finds the best reissues, imports and collectables, and welcomes customer orders. Best of all for those with a passion for music and film you’ll be surprised what you can get for your money.

For further details including location, parking, opening hours and contact details see:

>> Phoenix Music

Noosa Jazz Festival 2010

The Noosa Jazz Festival, held September 3-5, bought together Australian and International artists in a weekend celebration of jazz. There were numerous open-air concerts, exclusive performances, jazz feature-shows and daily free gigs.

A wide rangeof jazz styles were showcased at the Festival, including traditional, dixieland, modern, swing, and funk. The International line up includes Warren Vache , a US cornet, trumpet and flugelhorn player, Avant-garde New York Trio The Bad Plus, and UK vocalist Barbara Jungr. Locally, the Paul Grabowsky Trio featuring Scott Tinkler, the Diana Clarke Trio with Doug De Vries, The Idea of North, and the Ralph Pyl Big Band featuring Monica Trapaga and Frank Bennett.



Returning for the second year was Tastings on the Hastings, an opportunity to wine and dine on one of Noosa’s main streets whilst being entertained by the Festival’s top performers on a roaming stage.

The Tango Saloon is an experimental tango band from Sydney. Their self-titled debut, a "tango-flavored album with a twist of spaghetti western” was released in 2006. Tango Saloon is described as a musical breath of fresh air in the often foul-smelling state of modern popular music. The follow up recording, Transylvania, was released in 2008.

The Tango Saloon's lineup includes a number of notable musicians, including drummer Danny Heifetz from Mr. Bungle and Secret Chiefs 3. Bandleader Julian Curwin plays on occasion in Monsieur Camembert, along with accordionist Marcello Maio and double bassist Mark Harris. Band members' other projects include Hermitude, Gauche, Darth Vegas, Marsala and The Fantastic Terrific Munkle. Transylvania also features a guest vocal from Mike Patton on the track Dracula Cha Cha.

The Tango Saloon will appear at Venue 505 in Surry Hills, from 10.00pm on July 13. For further information and bookings see:

>> Venue 505
>> The Jazz Groove Association

 

Bob Bertles

Amongst each ensemble were some of Sydneys best known and loved jazz players including amongst others Bernie McGann, Matt McMahon, Lloyd Swanton, Col Nolan, Carl Dewhurst and Cameron Undy.

The free community event was not only broadcast live on air but also recorded, mixed and mastered by some of Sydneys best engineers culminating in the musical masterpiece that is Live at the Reservoir.

This is an Eastside Radio 89.7FM Fundraiser. All money raised goes towards the station that has been bringing Sydney the best in Jazz and specialist music, arts and community affairs programming for over 25 years.

The launch is on Wednesday June 9 at The Basement and reunites all of these fabulous musicians to help launch the remarkable recording that is Live at the Reservoir

>> www.eastsidefm.org
>> booking info

At the May 11 open mic Paige paid tribute to the late great Lena Horne, with a solo by Valda Marshall on the trumpet.

Click on video below for Paige's performance (photo is the young Lena Horne:

 

Lena Horne, movie actress, dancer, and one of the greats of Jazz singing passed away at the age of 92 on May 9 2010.

Lena was born into a relatively upper-middle-class black community in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, but lived in various places, including in the south, in her formative years. Lena’s long career was marked by both great success, and also by struggles as a black artist in the United States. She started in the chorus at the Cotton Club aged sixteen.

A few years later she joined Noble Sissle's Orchestra, with which she toured. After she separated from her first husband, Horne toured with bandleader Charlie Barnet in 1940–41, but disliked the travel and left the band to work at the Café Society in New York. She replaced Dinah Shore as the featured vocalist on NBC's popular jazz series The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street.

Lena moved to Hollywood, where her home lease was signed by a white person, blacks were not allowed to lease property. Humphry Bogart, who lived across the street, let it be known to her that if she had any trouble that he would come to her aid. Many of Horne's film appearances were stand-alone sequences that had no bearing on the rest of the film. This was because black actors in leading roles were edited out of movie prints destined for viewing in the segregated South.

During the House Committee on Un-American Activities period (the red scare) and her left-leaning political views, Horne found herself blacklisted and unable to get work in Hollywood. Horne returned to her roots as a nightclub performer both in nightclubs as well as on television, releasing well received record albums. She continued to work throughout her life, including The Lady and Her Music show on broadway, which ran for more than three hundred performances From the late 1950s through the 1980s, Horne was a staple of TV variety shows, appearing multiple times on Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dean Martin Show, and The Bell Telephone Hour. Other programs she appeared on included The Judy Garland Show, The Hollywood Palace, and The Andy Williams Show. Besides two television specials for the BBC (later syndicated in the U.S.), Horne starred in her own U.S. television special in 1969, Monsanto Night Presents Lena Horne.

During this decade, the artist Pete Hawley painted her portrait for RCA Victor, capturing the mood of her performance style. In 1970, she co-starred with Harry Belafonte in the hour long Harry & Lena for ABC; in 1973, she co-starred with Tony Bennett in Tony and Lena. Horne and Bennett subsequently toured the U.S. and U.K. in a show together. A very memorable appearance was in the 1976 program America Salutes Richard Rodgers, where she sang a lengthy medley of Rodgers songs with Peggy Lee and Vic Damone. Horne also made several appearances on The Flip Wilson Show.

The 1990s found Horne considerably more active in the recording studio - all the more remarkable considering she was approaching her 80th year. Following her 1993 performance at a tribute to the musical legacy of her good friend Billy Strayhorn (Duke Ellington's longtime collaborator), she decided to record an album composed largely of Strayhorn's and Ellington's songs the following year, We'll Be Together Again.

To coincide with the release of the album, Horne made what would be her final concert performances at New York's Supper Club and Carnegie Hall. That same year, Horne also lent her vocals to a recording of "Embraceable You" on Sinatra's Duets II album. Though the album was largely derided by critics, the Sinatra-Horne pairing was generally regarded as its highlight. In 1995, a 'live' album capturing her Supper Club performance was released (subsequently winning a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album). In 1998, Horne released another studio album, entitled Being Myself.

Thereafter, Horne essentially retired from performing and largely retreated from public view, though she did return to the recording studio in 2000 to contribute vocal tracks on Simon Rattle's Classic Ellington album. Horne was long involved with the Civil Rights movement. In 1941, she sang at Cafe Society and worked with Paul Robeson. During World War II, when entertaining the troops for the USO, she refused to perform "for segregated audiences or for groups in which German POWs were seated in front of African American servicemen", according to her Kennedy Center biography. Since the US Army refused to allow integrated audiences, she wound up putting on a show for a mixed audience of black US soldiers and white German POWs.

In January 2005, Blue Note Records, her label for more than a decade, announced that "the finishing touches have been put on a collection of rare and unreleased recordings by the legendary Horne made during her time on Blue Note." Remixed by her longtime producer Rodney Jones, the recordings featured Horne in remarkably secure voice for a woman of her years, and include versions of such signature songs as "Something to Live For", "Chelsea Bridge", and "Stormy Weather". The album, originally titled Soul but renamed Seasons of a Life, was released on January 24, 2006.

Horne married Louis Jordan Jones in January 1937 and lived in Pittsburgh. On December 21, 1937 they had a daughter, Gail (later known as Gail Lumet Buckley, a best-selling author), and a son, Edwin Jones (February 1940 - September 12, 1970- kidney disease). Horne and Jones separated in 1940 and divorced in 1944. Horne's second marriage was to Lennie Hayton, a Jewish American and one of the premier musical conductors and arrangers at MGM, in December 1947 in Paris. They separated in the early 1960s, but never divorced; he died in 1971.

Horne recounts the enormous pressures she and her husband faced as an interracial married couple. She later admitted in an Ebony, May 1980 interview she had married Hayton to advance her career. In fact Lena was in love with Billy Strayhorn, and although great friends, it was never to be as Billy was gay.

Listening to Lena now, her voice is noticeable for its lightness and for by the strength of its expressiveness. Lena was a great beauty and noted, that because of her relatively light skin that 'I was a kind of black that white people could accept”.

Georgia Lee Dies 23 April 2010

Georgia Lee was a jazz and blues singer from Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Her father was of Jamaican descent and her mother was Indian, Australian Aboriginal, Islander and Scottish. She performed and recorded with many artists and bands including Graeme Bell, Geraldo, Bruce Clarke, Port Jackson Jazz Band, George Trevare and the Max Williams Quintet and toured with Nat King Cole.

She performed on TV on Graham Kennedy's In Melbourne Tonight and Bandstand Georgia Lee is credited with being the first Indigenous Australian artist to record blues songs.Her album Georgia Lee Sings the Blues Down Under may have been only the second album to be released by an Australian woman.

>> Georgia Lee on YouTube

Jasmine Chen to appear in Sydney

Leading Shanghai jazz singer Jasmin Chen, accompanied by Sydney singer-pianist Didi Mudigdo will appear at the Berkelouw Wine Bar (70 Norton St Leichhardt) on Thursday May 13th from 8pm. Jasmine is in Australia for Encounters, a Sino-Australian cross-cultural festival at the Queensland Conservatorium.

Jasmine is one of the Shanghai jazz singers and musicians featured on Shanghai Jazz, a series of best-selling CD albums released by EMI Asia and produced by Australian composer John Huie, who is well-known in Sydney's music circles as Artistic Director of the Chinese Gardens Chamber Music Festival. She has also released her own debut CD Colors of Love (available on iTunes and CD Baby), a collaboration with New York pianist Steve Sweeting containing original compositions, Western jazz standards and old Chinese songs all sung in Mandarin.

Ccontact:

>> Didi Mudigdo

Further Information:

>> Jasmine Chen
>> Encounters
>> John Huie
>> Shanghai Jazz (CD)
>> Colors of Love (CD)
>> Berkelouw Books Wine Bar
>> Didi Mudigdo