sabato 25 febbraio 2012

Zoot Sims in Sweden with Red Mitchell (1984)

Zoot Sims (1925-1985) "was one of a group of tenor saxophonists born in the mid-1920s whose early professional experience came in big bands and who idolized Lester Young. The basic jazz skills of most of these reedmen were developed by the time they had reached their early twenties. But their styles flowered in the bebop atmosphere in which jazz matured so dramatically following World War II." (Steven A. Cerra - Jazz Profiles, march 20, 2009).
He was well known as one of the Woody Herman's Four Brothers (with Stan Getz, Herbie Steward and Serge Chaloff).


He played with many stars as Count Basie, Gerry Mulligan, Oscar Peterson, Art Pepper, Jim Hall, Hank Mobley and many others.
His career was struck down by a cancer at only 59 years.


Few months before his death he was in Sweden and, in a private house, with Red Mitchell at bass and Rude Gustafsson at guitar (porbably the householder) recorded the following rare videos. They play some classics standards, in which we can appreciate the sensibillity of Sims. 









These are, probably, the last video images of the artist.

mercoledì 8 febbraio 2012

Jazz Live in Europe: Oscar Peterson and Count Basie Together in Prague (1974)


In november 1974 Oscar Peterson was in concert at Prague Jazz Festival, and after some takes in solo and in duo with N-H. Ø. Pedersen, as the following exciting Mack the Knife


he invited Count Basie, who had to play after with his orchestra, to joint him on stage.
They played, with a rhythm session (Pedersen, Freddie Green and Skeets Marsh), the following three tracks,







What can we say? Only invite you to enjoy these two fantastic jazz masters.

mercoledì 1 febbraio 2012

Jazz Live in Europe: Enrico Rava quintet at Sibiu Jazz Festival (Romania) 2007

The well known italian jazz trumpet player Enrico Rava with some of the most interesting italian jazz players: Gianluca Petrella (tbn), Andrea Pozza (piano), Rosario Bonaccorso (bs) and Emanuele Maniscalco caught during the Sibiu Jazz Festival in Romania in summer 2007


In the following video you can see the whole concert in a good quality.