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Elmo

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About Elmo

  • Birthday 03/22/1951

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    Buffalo, NY

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  1. Hi Peter, That is a great story. Primarily because there are so few people still around who have any first- hand stories to share about Doug. I was very lucky to be able to interview Louis Hayes for the story. It added a great deal about who Doug was as a person. Peter, thanks for sharing that with all of us who appreciate the enormous talent that Doug possessed. Steve Siegel
  2. There are many reasons why jazz artists who have left large footprints in the sands of artistic achievement have been forgotten as the winds of time fill in those footprints. One such artist is bassist Doug Watkins. During his relatively short career (1954-1962) it is indisputable that he was a great talent, recognized by both his peers as well as the informed jazz public. We cannot point to any singular career decision or unusual circumstance that might have led to Watkins' current relative anonymity but looking back over the 62 years since his passing, clues do exist... https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2024/03/doug-watkins-unfinished-journey-by.html
  3. “The multifaceted Jimmy Rushing (1899-1972) was perhaps one of the more underrated singers of the 20th century. He performed equally well with blues, jazz or popular material. Whitney Balliett, the then jazz critic for The New Yorker, wrote of Rushing that "His supple, rich voice and his elegant accent have the curious effect of making the typical roughhouse blues lyric seem like a song by Noël Coward."... At Jazz Profiles, Steve Siegel explores Rushing's recording career after he left Count Basie. https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2023/08/jimmy-rushing-his-recording-career.html?m=1
  4. On Wikipedia, they have the incorrect 1901 date in the Rushing article with a footnote for the Social Security document. I have never edited Wiki so if someone is so inclined to edit the article with the correct date and delete the current footnote and add my article as the new footnote, please do so. I presume that future researchers referencing the Rushing entry would appreciate it. Perhaps the myriad of incorrect dates in articles might eventually also be corrected. Thank you! Steve Siegel
  5. What are we to make about a public figure, recognized as one of the seminal jazz and blues singers of the 20th century who, in his lifetime, provided 4 different birth years to various sources with presumably the knowledge that all 4 were inaccurate and why did he fail to ever reveal the correct year, which he presumably knew? So goes the story of Jimmy Rushing and his very elusive birth year. https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2020/10/searching-for-jimmy-rushing-his-correct.html?m=1
  6. Firstly, thank you to all who have viewed my article on Burrell. I hope you enjoyed it! I would like to offer a bit of clarification re the supposed "thesis" of the article being that Burrell was not well known... The comment at the prelude (above) to the article that claims that "Burrell had never secured the popularity..." was made by Richard Cook in the Blue Note Encyclopedia and was not my writing. This was added by the editorial staff at Jazz Profiles as their introduction to the article and was actually a very true statement during the period right before the Guitar Forms album was made. In the August 2, 1962 issue of Downbeat, in the International Critics Poll, Burrell secured only 12 of approximately 250 votes for best guitarist. Wes Montgomery won with 79 votes. The poll results were obviously to improve for Burrell in subsequent years but it took time. My actual thesis for the article only addressed the why, how and with whom he made the album and its impact on his career. Steve Siegel
  7. Burrell is on hundreds of records, many of which are among the more famous jazz sessions of the LP era, yet he has never secured the popularity which a guitarist might have expected in a period when its practitioners became as important as saxophonists and pianists. He grew up in Detroit and worked there until a tour with Oscar Peterson minded him to look further afield, and he moved to New York in 1956. His Christian-derived style helped get him a job with Benny Goodman, but thereafter he played in settings which were in the heartland of hard bop, for Prestige, Blue Note and New Jazz. Less a sideman and more a partner with several small-group leaders - especially Jimmy Smith, who was a favourite collaborator - Burrell's easy going manner fits so snugly and accommodatingly into any jazz groove that he can almost disappear in a band situation, but his solos and rhythm parts are bluesily effective whatever the prevailing conditions. Gil Evans arranged Guitar Forms for him at Verve, which is perhaps the closest Burrell has ever been to a big-time date. Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia Steve Siegel - on Jazz Profiles: https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2023/11/kenny-burrell-making-of-guitar-forms.html?m=1
  8. HOW DOES AN ARTIST CREATE in such a way that his art is at once timeless, in that it is relevant to any generation, and individual, in that it evokes an era and helps to define a distinct personality? The music of Herbie Nichols is all of these things and the discovery of this fact has added greatly to our musical lives. Herbie Nichols was an extraordinary pianist/composer who was tragically under-recognized in his lifetime, He recorded only six sessions as a leader, all in the trio format, and all with the support of creative sidemen. These sessions resulted in four releases, three on the Blue Note label, and one for Bethlehem. Unfortunately, great recordings don't always sell well and Herbie remained an obscure figure on the fringes of the jazz scene until well after his untimely death of leukemia on April 12,1963 at the age of 44.” (booklet from The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Herbie Nichols) Link to article on Jazz Profiles: https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2023/02/herbie-nichols-it-never-happened-by.html?m=1
  9. Jazz Profiles: Sonny Clark - The Blue Note Years by Steve Siegel https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2022/06/sonny-clark-blue-note-years-by-steve.html?m=0
  10. Mike, My research for the article clearly shows that that the recording was originally done by Mainstream not for Fontana as you claim. In 1964 Mainstream signed an agreement with Fontana to lease Mainstream masters to Fontana. On the label of the Fontana release it states "A Mainstream Recording." The label also displays "Recording First Published in 1965" because it was already published in the USA by Mills Music. Also Fontana would have had to recorded it England but all the musicians on the record were based in the USA.
  11. Helen Merrill - A Restless Musical Soul https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2022/04/helen-merrill-restless-musical-soul-by.html?m=1
  12. Ed Reed: From San Quentin to Jazz at Lincoln Center By Steve Siegel “Ed Reed is the Phoenix of jazz. In his 92 years, he seems to have navigated as many rises and falls as the legendary mythological bird. He has, at various times in his life, due to almost 40 years of heroin addiction, endured as much grief and heartbreak (most of it self-directed) as any man should have to endure. He freely admits he has been the cause of a similar amount of the same within his family and the friends that have supported him through it all." https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2021/09/ed-reed-from-san-quentin-to-jazz-at.html?m=0
  13. With previous features on pianist Wade Legge, the Great Day in Harlem Photograph “Mystery Man” - William J. Crump, drummer Frankie Dunlop, vocalist Jimmy Rushing, critic and author Nat Hentoff, and Jazz Party: A Great Night In Manhattan featuring the Miles Davis Sextet and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, the September 9, 1958 fest that Columbia Records put on at the Plaza Hotel for its executives and guests, Steve Siegel has assumed the role of “unofficial” staff writer for JazzProfiles. His latest effort is about the obscure trumpet player Dupree Bolton [1929-1993], who appeared, seemingly from nowhere in California in 1959 and set the West Coast jazz world abuzz with his performance as a sideman. He then disappeared just as quickly and reappeared a few years later, again as a sideman, displaying mind-blowing chops. He was then gone again, never to officially record again for the remainder of his life. https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2021/07/dupree-bolton-uneven-life-by-steve.html?m=1
  14. bertand - give Nasar my email address and I will provide him with my cell phone #. I'd love to speak with him. jeeves2nd@aol.com Steve Siegel
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