News & Updates — classic albums

I want to give a birthday shout-out to an underknown talent, the jazz tuba player Ray Draper. He career was stunted from drug addiction, as well as the limited opportunities for his cumbersome instrument, but he burst onto the bop scene as a teenage bandleader and cut some records for Prestige. At 16 he made his debut, Tuba Sounds, with Jackie McLean on sax and Mal Waldron on piano. At 18 he cut Ray Draper Quintet Featuring John Coltrane and at 19 released A Tuba Jazz, again with Trane in the band, for the Jubilee label. He cut some sessions...

Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos was a steady figure in the world of experimental/improvised/"ethnic" jazz for decades. His work with Codona, Don Cherry, Egberto Gismonti, Milton Nascimento and others show a great contribution, especially in bringing the berimbau into a progressive jazz context. Born in Recife, he came from a musical family and participated in samba bands as a teenager and started playing in professional groups in his early 20s. Early appearances included recordings and performances with Os Mutantes, Gato Barbieri, Nascimento and Herb Alpert. In the mid-'70s, he made a great trio album with Perry Robinson and Badal Roy (Kundalini)...

I must give respect to that counter-cultural icon of The Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, on his day of birth. I was never a big fan of the Dead, although they certainly have their fine moments and I have a lot of respect for what they built and accomplished. But one of the best aspects of the band had always been Jerry's presence and his beautiful psychedelic guitar style. He could play also pedal steel and banjo, had a distinct singing voice, and his love for music allowed him to dip into many different styles, from folk-rock to garage punk, free...

Bop drummer Roy Porter was a heavy cat on the West Coast scene of the late '40s, famously recording with Charlie Parker and leading an forward-pointing big band that featured young musicians such as Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Art Farmer and others. Drugs destroyed his career but his '70s mini-comeback material remains sought after by funk collectors. A Colorado native, he went to college with Kenny Dorham in Texas. He was touring with Milt Larkin in '43 and landed in Los Angeles. His first recordings were with Howard McGhee in '45. In '46 he recorded with Bird for Dial (among...

Happy birthday to the world's greatest soprano saxophone artist, Steven Lackritz aka Steve Lacy. Polish-American and born in NYC, Lacy played in dixieland bands before helping launch the out-jazz revolution. He played early on with Pee Wee Russell, Jimmy Rushing, Gil Evans and others before joining Cecil Taylor's group, with their first album appearing in 1956. Lacy's 1958 album Reflections was the first all-Thelonious Monk program on an album. One of the planet's deepest diggers into the catalogue of Monk, the great composer of whom Lacy used to work with in the early '60s, he went on to produce several...