eMusic Features

11.21.11 Six Degrees 0

Six Degrees of Can’s Tago Mago

By Michelangelo Matos, eMusic Contributor

It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five… more »

10.01.10 Spotlight 0

Shorty Rogers and the Migration of the Cool

By Kevin Whitehead, eMusic Contributor

Some good music never goes out of style: Jazz fans everywhere revere the cooking hard bop of the 1950s. So why is the other big '50s trend, cool jazz, barely on modern radar? If you want to know how fresh and airy it still sounds, hear trumpeter/composer/arranger/cool exemplar Shorty Rogers on "Popo," "Didi," "Four Mothers" and "Sam and the Lady" from his first 1951 octet session: tightly arranged, swinging jazz with breezy orchestral colors, and… more »

01.07.10 Six Degrees 0

Six Degrees of Loaded

By Matthew Fritch, eMusic Contributor

It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five… more »

10.26.09 Spotlight 0

Coltrane in the 1950s: Late Bloomer

By Kevin Whitehead, eMusic Contributor

In May 1956, when Sonny Rollins and guest John Coltrane locked horns on the friendly throwdown "Tenor Madness," Coltrane was 29, and Rollins four years his junior. But at this point in their careers, Sonny had the jackrabbit head start. He'd been recording under his own name since 1951, and was much admired; Coltrane hadn't yet made a record of his own. It's easy to forget, sometimes, Coltrane wasn't always lionized; some reviewers of his early… more »

10.15.09 Six Degrees 0

Six Degrees of The Low End Theory

By Christopher R. Weingarten, eMusic Contributor

It used to be easier to pretend that an album was its own perfectly self-contained artifact. The great records certainly feel that way. But albums are more permeable than solid, their motivations, executions and inspirations informed by, and often stolen from, their peers and forbearers. It all sounds awfully formal, but it's not. It's the very nature of music — of art, even. The Six Degrees features examine the relationships between classic records and five… more »

06.29.09 Icon 0

Icon: Miles Davis

By Kevin Whitehead, eMusic Contributor

Before Bob Dylan or David Bowie or whoever else became famous for periodically reinventing themselves, Miles Davis was already at it. He first gained attention playing fast bebop trumpet with Charlie Parker, then fronted the nine-piece band that established softer cool jazz. (One of his collaborators was arranger Gil Evans, who'd go on to direct a series of orchestral LPs for Miles.) In the '50s Davis founded his first great quintet, a highly influential group… more »

05.28.09 Spotlight 0

The Rise and Fall of Lucky Thompson

By Kevin Whitehead, eMusic Contributor

A few years ago, Italian saxophonist Daniele D'Agaro was visiting Chicago, and a critic friend put on a fairly obscure record to stump him. D'Agaro listened for about three seconds, said: "Lucky." Good ears. He knows the distinctive sound of Lucky Thompson after he started hanging out in Paris and playing sumptuous tenor saxophone ballads recalling old idol Don Byas's Parisian sides. On "Solitude" and "We'll Be Together Again," from Lucky in Paris 1959, his tenor's… more »

07.28.08 Spotlight 0

Shirley Scott and the Women of the B-3

By Kevin Whitehead, eMusic Contributor

In 1955 or so, when Jimmy Smith was popularizing the Hammond B-3 electric organ in jazz, a Philadelphia bar owner who'd rented one coaxed Shirley Scott into giving it a try. They hit it off right away. Scott played piano, so she knew the keyboard (the B-3 has two, and two octaves of bass pedals arranged like white and black keys), and she'd played trumpet in school, so she could think like a horn player, in… more »

Activity

• 05.26.12 Remembering Miles Davis On His Birthday http://t.co/7bY0Jbvd
• 05.26.12 Miles Davis Postal Stamp Brings Some ‘Cool’ To Your Mail http://t.co/qi6AvaSh
• 05.25.12 Miles Davis To Be Honored With Statue In Alton http://t.co/YfHD8QI9
• 05.25.12 A Look Back: Miles Davis At Carnegie Hall http://t.co/qj4aELDC
• 05.24.12 Did you know that Miles made his very first studio recording on April 24, 1945 with a blues/jazz singer and dancer... http://t.co/ggAbo6RL
• 05.21.12 "Hell if you understand everything I said, you’d be me." Newsweek, March 23, 1970 http://t.co/7gK85m3X
• 05.18.12 Answer: Cyndi Lauper -- “Time After Time”, and Michael Jackson -- “Human Nature”.
• 05.18.12 Who were the two pop artists who Miles covered in the 1980s and whose songs became nightly features on is shows for the rest of his career?
• 05.17.12 What is your favorite Miles live album of the acoustic era? http://t.co/1hvwFFS0
• 05.15.12 Answer: No. Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk did appear on the cover of Time while they were Columbia artists.
• 05.15.12 Question: Did Miles Davis ever appear on the cover of Time Magazine? If he didn’t, name any other artist who... http://t.co/80ZnTlmE
• 05.10.12 We had a great response to the release of the Miles Davis fashion items a few weeks ago, with requests from... http://t.co/yzX4oNfA