James Gavin is the author of Deep in a Dream: The Long Night of Chet Baker, Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne, and Intimate Nights: The Golden Age of Cabaret. He is a regular contributor to JazzTimes.
James Gavin on social media
For at least six decades, many young jazzmen have viewed the music’s early years as hopelessly uncool. Aaron Weinstein discovered that in 2003, when he … Read More “Aaron Weinstein: Wielding the Bow, and the Bow Tie”
Many tourists who land in Brazil think that bossa nova, the country’s most renowned musical export, is still wafting through the palm trees and pulsing … Read More “Overdue Ovation: A Bossa Nova Pioneer Celebrates His Latest Rebirth”
It was in the 1980s that trumpeter Herb Alpert—creator of a ’60s pop phenomenon, the Tijuana Brass, and cofounder of A&M Records—began to ponder what … Read More “Sweet Charity: Herb Alpert Award in the Arts Celebrates 25th Anniversary”
The Mexican city played host to Latin America’s first jazz education conference.
With Sérgio Mendes and Brasil ’66, the vocalist helped define an era. Chronic illness and disillusion with the industry derailed her for years, but now—to her own amazement—she’s back on track.
Long before she died on March 22 at the age of 87, Morgana King had known which credit would top her obituaries. It wasn’t her … Read More “Morgana King Remembered”
In Carmen McRae’s suitcase throughout her last year of touring was a tape of Rebecca Parris’ 1990 album, Love Comes and Goes. McRae told Parris … Read More “Singer Rebecca Parris Dies at 66”
“I am the oldest bebopper alive!” proclaims 93-year-old Terry Gibbs. This forefather of the jazz vibraphone may well be right; age-wise he beats out his … Read More “Terry Gibbs: Tales of a True Bebopper”
In April, Japan’s favorite jazz singer for more than 50 years returned for what she called her “sayonara” engagement. As Helen Merrill stepped onstage at … Read More “Helen Merrill: Big in Japan”
As a teenager of the 1950s, singer Ann Richards fell in love from afar with the Toscanini of big-band jazz, Stan Kenton. He was 6-foot-4, … Read More “Ann Richards: Dreams Have a Way of Fading”
The Godmother of Vocal Jazz
Without Sir John, the grande dame soldiers on
Brazilian jazz shares the struggle for attention
5.22.28-9.15.14
Striving to heal through God, family and jazz
Live in a dive
Versatility personified
A few years back, I visited a jazz pianist who had made his mark in the ’70s with a reflective series of albums on the … Read More “Homophobia in Jazz”
