In many ways, Frank Strozier is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Although highly regarded by his peers, he stopped playing saxophone and flute in the 1980s, made a brief stab at a piano career in 1990 (his first instrument) and has not been heard from since. Rumors abound as to his fate, including allegations… Read more
News
Chris Byars’ Tributes to the Greats
Since 2002, it has been a pleasure to collaborate with the New York City-based saxophonist/arranger/composer Chris Byars on a variety of projects involving the legacies of jazz innovators worthy of greater recognition. With the recent (January 2017) release of his Frank Strozier tribute, he has now recorded six such albums, all of which are mandatory listening… Read more
Frank Strozier Solos
I have now added solo information to my Frank Strozier discography. This includes many live sessions where he really stretches out. In the process of doing this, I was forced to analyze some of the original compositions recorded in the 1960s and 1970s and discovered that they often have very unusual structures. In certain instances, I… Read more
Album Covers
I have spent a lot of time compiling album covers from releases listed in my discographies and those I recall being my very first LPs acquired when I began collecting jazz recordings as a teenager. At this point, there are 1679 covers available for viewing. Many of these are of great historical significance such as the… Read more
Lucky Thompson Solos
I have added a table (pdf) that lists solos of Lucky Thompson by recording date and performance title between 1944 and 1973. The information, which includes solo duration, is also found in the discography, from which the data was extracted. Needless to say, this was an enormous amount of work, involving listening to every performance and using a lap counter in order… Read more
Lucky Thompson with Boyd Raeburn: A Revision
Now having the ability to enter solo information using the BRIAN software, I have been going through sessions gathering information on soloists’ identities, solo order and duration. The first subject that I’m tackling in this regard is Lucky Thompson, which, of course, is a monumental undertaking.