March 1 - 4
Sophisticated Giant Dexter Gordon
Tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon maintained an uncanny ability to improvise throughout a career that spanned over forty years. His deft command, intelligence, and humor on the instrument garnered generations of followers. From Gordon's early 1940's be bop recordings to his final years in the role as Dale Turner for the award-winning 1986 soundtrack release of "'Round Midnight," we'll present highlights of icon Dexter Gordon's massive musical footprint.
March 7 - 11
The Legacy of Bessie Smith
"Empress of the Blues" Bessie Smith had a profound influence on every blues, jazz, gospel, country, and rock vocalist who came after her throughout the last one-hundred years of American music. Smith's emotional intensity heard on early recordings from the 1920's and '30's directly affected the vocal style of artists from Billie Holiday and Mahalia Jackson to Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, and countless others. This week we'll hear original recordings of Bessie Smith, with a tribute from pianist Amina Claudine Myers' 1980 outing Salutes Bessie Smith on Leo Records.
March 14 - 18
The Fervent and Fierce Abbey Lincoln
Born Anna Marie Wooldridge, vocalist and civil-rights activist Abbey Lincoln gave us some of the most powerful vocal-led recordings in modern jazz, beginning with her late-1950's dates on Riverside Records. A career spanning over fifty years offers a passionate, political, and diverse set of recordings that reverberate with Lincoln's personal interpretation of standards alongside her own philosophical take on the world at large.
March 21 - 25
The Rise of Saxophonist Melissa Aldana
Chilean-born saxophonist Melissa Aldana wears the sound of her elders on her sleeve while pushing the music forward as a progressive instrumentalist and artist in modern jazz. The Grammy-nominated Aldana joins the Blue Note Records family this month with her new debut for the label, 12 Stars. Aldana also makes her debut at the Village Vanguard this month, and we'll celebrate these achievements and listen to select recordings from Aldana's trio, quartet, and quintet sessions all this week on the Jazz Break at Noon.
March 28 - 31
Marilyn Crispell: Composition and Deconstruction
Marilyn Crispell studied classical piano and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music before beginning an extensive recording career as a soloist, bandleader, and collaborator. Crispell faced the challenges of free jazz and extreme improvisation early and head-on with improv maverick Anthony Braxton. Since, she has collaborated with numerous American and European improvisers around the world on recordings that range in sound from soft whispers on the keys to restless eruptions of tension and release.
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