A rousing big band version of the Weather Report hit A brilliant trombonist who was a virtuosic bop-oriented player, Bill Watrous also led occasional big bands. In the 1970s when he was based in New York, Watrous recorded two impressive big band albums. After moving to Los Angeles, he occasionally led the Refuge West Big […]

Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra The son of the great arranger Chico O’Farrill, Arturo O’ Farrill began playing piano at six, worked with Carla Bley, Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Turre and Lester Bowie, and helped his father with what became Chico O’Farrill’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. After his father passed away in 2001, he […]

Melvin Howard Tormé was born September 13, 1925 in Chicago, Illinois. Tormé made his professional singing debut when he was just four, sitting in with the Coon-Sanders Orchestra in 1929. Trained as a drummer, Tormé acted regularly on the radio during 1933-41. He began writing songs when he was 13 and in 1941 his original […]

C Jam Blues and Sunset And The Mockingbird Click here to Support Jazz on the Tube Pianist Dave McKenna was born on May 30, 1930 in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. McKenna developed early as a pianist and, by the time he was 12, he was already performing in public. After working steadily in a variety of settings […]

Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band Arranger-pianist-saxophonist Gordon Goodwin has for the past decade led one of jazz’s major big bands. Based in Los Angeles, the orchestra includes many of L.A.’s most skilled musicians. On the swinging “Count Bubba’s Revenge,” one gets to hear the trumpet and trombone sections playing unaccompanied before Goodwin takes a tenor […]

Pianist, leader and composer Dave Brubeck was born December 6, 1920 in Concord, California. Brubeck grew up near San Francisco and took piano lessons early on from his mother but did not learn to read music, hiding that flaw with his great ear. While attending the College of the Pacific, Brubeck was nearly expelled when […]

Bassist Steve Swallow was born October 4, 1940 in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. He studied piano and trumpet before settling on the string bass when he was 14. After studying composition at Yale, in 1960 he dropped out of school, settled in New York, and became a member of the Jimmy Giuffre Trio which also […]

Leslie Coleman McCann was born September 23, 1935 in Lexington, Kentucky. While serving in the Navy, he won a talent contest as a singer which resulted in an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956. After his discharge, McCann formed a trio in Los Angeles, turning down a chance to join the Cannonball Adderley […]

Singer-pianist Jamie Cullum, one of the most popular of the British musicians of the past 20 years, has the potential to perform practically anything. Jazz is just a small part of what Cullum plays, but whenever he does, he displays the potential to be one of the best. On this version of “What A Difference […]

Saxophonist and bandleader Branford Marsalis was born on August 26, 1960 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. Coming from a highly musical family, he is the brother of trumpeter Wynton, drummer Jason, and trombonist and producer Delfeayo. While still a student at Berklee College of Music, Branford toured Europe with the famed hard bop drummer Art Blakey. […]