Jazz promoter Tammy Greene co-produced last weekend’s successful jazz festival. It was one of Greene’s largest events and a long overdue addition to Charlotte’s cultural scene. Greene is known as the Jazz Diva. Her second concert in the Carolina Concert Series is Nick Colionne and Friends! on Aug. 7 at Halton Theater. If you could […]
By Tom Hanchett Today J.H. Gunn is barely remembered as the long-ago principal of J.H. Gunn School off Albemarle Road on Charlotte’s east side. But 80 years ago this African American leader was known throughout the eastern U.S. as a recording and touring musician at the helm of Jimmie Gunn and His Orchestra. J. H. […]
Thelonious Monk is considered one of the giants in American music. He is the second most recorded jazz composer and regarded as the founder of bebop, style of jazz characterized by fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity and improvisation based on the combination of harmonic structure and melody. John Coltrane is one of the best American jazz saxophonist and composers. He helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz, a style not defined by traditional jazz techniques. What do the two have in common besides their love for jazz and notable accomplishments as it relates to the music?
jive (origin unknown) – 1. the jargon of jazz musicians or enthusiasts. 2. deceptive, nonsensical or glib talk. 3. to play or dance to jive music.
Remember road trips with your parents? In my family, we battled to control the radio. If the trip was longer than 10 miles, my parents won. Dad inevitably popped in a cassette. Often he played contemporary jazz. I heard the Crusader’s “Street Life” so many times, I dreamed living the type of life Randy Crawford […]
