Page’ s small-band records of the ’40s are not so well known as they deserve to be. Not only was he one of the period’s most exciting trumpet players, but he was also a decidedly convincing singer of blues and standards that appealed to him. The 1945 Continental session, with a particularly strong personnel, is not to be missed. A genial soul, Page probably often allowed friendship to determine whom he would call for dates, but all kinds of fine musicians are encountered here, such as Vic Dickenson, Lucky Thompson, Don Byas, Ben Webster, Jack Teagarden, Bobby Hackett, Buck Clayton, Slam Stewart. J.C. Higginbotham and Earl Bostic. “Open the Door, Richard” was a hit that hints at a future of comedy and compromise.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro
Kurt Elling: Man in the Air
Nate Chinen makes the argument that Kurt Elling is the most influential jazz vocalist of our time