Britt Woodman
by Steve Voce

Duke Ellington always claimed that whenever he needed a musician he simply hired the best player available locally. He certainly made an exception when Lawrence Brown gave two weeks' notice, and Ellington cabled the young trombonist Britt Woodman in Los Angeles to come out to join the band for a season at the Thunderbird in Las Vegas in February 1951.

"Thank God I've got a fortnight to learn the book," Woodman said to Lawrence Brown when he arrived. "To hell with that," said Brown. "I'm taking off in the morning."

J.J. Johnson 1924-2001

Several years ago, Erik Moseholm (THE guy in Danish Jazz) and I were having dinner and, somehow, the subject of "who is still here" came up. After compiling a frighteningly short list, he looked at me and said "there aren't many left."

Elvin Jones at Yoshi's, April 2003
reviewed by Rahsaan Clark Morris

Elvin Jones brought his Jazz Machine to Yoshi’s in Oakland for six nights of shows starting Tuesday, April 15. I figured as long as I was there to catch some of the SF Jazz Spring Season, I might as well avail myself of a chance to hear a band whose music I hadn’t heard in a long time.

Chasing the Moment: Monty Alexander

interviewed by Judith Schlesinger

Live the Spirit at Hothouse: June 2002
reviewed by Rahsaan Clark Morris

I had been hearing about Ernest Khabeer Dawkins’ Live The Spirit Band and, in fact, I had seen various combinations of the group at places like Fred Anderson’s Velvet Lounge and of course, Hothouse. But, earlier this summer there was a CD release set thrown by the Hothouse for the band’s last project—a recording of a live concert from late 2001, after 9-11.

And one thing led
to another, and...
by Harriet Choice

I suppose the Jazz Institute of Chicago began during a phone conversation with Art Hodes last spring. I had just returned from New Orleans where Art's band was among the groups that had performed at the first New Orleans Jazz Festival. There had been so many places to hear traditional Jazz there and so few here in Chicago. We talked about the possibility of getting an old store and turning it into a kitty hall similar to those in New Orleans.

Most Valued Player: Edmond Hall
by Nic Jones

Before Coleman Hawkins more or less single-handedly created a role for the tenor sax in jazz, the clarinet was the only reed instrument that had a home in the music. Edmond Hall, along with Johnny Dodds and Sidney Bechet, was one of its ablest exponents.

Chicagoan Ken Vandermark awarded
MacArthur Fellowship
by Michael Witt

Meade Lux Lewis
(1905-1964)
by Joel Simpson

Boogie-Woogie
The driving left-hand blues style known as boogie-woogie was probably invented around 1900 (Eubie Blake's broken octave, descending bassline in the "Charleston Rag" from 1899, is highly suggestive of a boogie pattern). It began to surface in saloons, honky-tonks, bawdy houses, and "barrelhouses" in the South and Midwest around 1912.

Betty Carter
by Stuart Nicholson

Sounds (Movin' on). I think I got it now. Caribbean sea. The trolley song. Everything I have is yours. I'll buy you a star. I could write a book. Can't we talk it over/Either it's love or it isn't. Deep night. Spring can really hang you up the most. Tight. Fake. So.... My favourite things. Open the door (theme song).