20 Greatest Jazz Drummers

The musicians on the list of 100 Greatest Drummers constitute all the myriad forms and interpretations of the diversity of jazz occurring today.

How would Jamaican Jazz drummers like Desi Jones, DeLeon “Jubba” White, and Akeem “Red Bull” Karam equate with the DigitalDreamDoor.com list we cannot measure since the drummers herein were chosen for their originality, versatility, impact and influence within the genre.

The criteria also took into consideration their innovations and the technical ability for improvisation & musical expression in addition to their compositional skill & creative inspiration.

The 20 Greatest Jazz Drummers, spanning the period from the first note of jazz was sounded to the present, are:


1. Buddy Rich (inset) 2. Elvin Jones 3. Max Roach 4. Roy Haynes 5. Jack DeJohnette 6. Tony Williams 7. Billy Cobham 8. Art Blakey 9. Joe Morello 10. Kenny Clarke

11. Gene Krupa 12. Dave Weckl 13. Harvey Mason 14. Peter Erskine 15. Chick Webb 16. Louis Bellson 17. Ed Blackwell 18. Bill Stewart 19. Steve Gadd 20. Papa Joe Jones

Dermot Hussey 'thriving on a Riff'

The phrase may have come from Charlie Parker’s bebop original but each weekday at 8:30 pm on News Talk 93 FM renowned Jamaican musicologist Dermot Hussey is indeed “Thriving on a Riff” that sounds off across Jamaica and on live streaming on http://www.newstalk.com.jm/

What is Riffin? Offbeat inquires of the Program Director at XM 101. “Riffin”, a musical term is common to jazz, but not exclusively, for in any popular music, where there is a continuously reiterated musical phrase over changing harmonies, that is a “riff”. It’s also used in a wider sense, when one is extemporizing on a subject that too is considered “Riffin”, Dermot states .

“ For someone who has always been musically eclectic , Riffin summarizes all that I represent in music, and in a diversity of styles. It also represents the highest possible standards in improvised music, and under the umbrella of a riff, I can cover all and any style of music in any given programme. I’m also moving away from the regimentation of category, for in the final analysis it’s all about the music, and the best music too, and from wherever it might spring like hope, ever eternal,

Five nights a week Dermot Hussey dishes out a palatable banquet of diverse musical styling, music that is eclectic and decidedly improvised.

Indeed, Riffin is five nights of improvised music, five nights of music without borders “Heard Everywhere” on Jamaica’s NewsTalk 93 FM.

Spyro Gyra: Good to Go at Jazz & Blues

Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival has netted another big act, the most prolific, commercially lucrative American Jazz Fusion band, Spyro Gyra.

Many middle-aged Jamaicans would be, wittingly or unwittingly, familiar with Spyro Gyra through the band’s breakthrough instrumental Morning Dance that was the theme song to Neville Willoughby’s Evening People Show on RJR. And, Willoughby did most to popularize the group in Jamaica.

Formed in Buffalo, New York in 1975 and led by saxophonist Jay Beckenstein, Spyro Gyra has been widely recognized for its US Top 5 hits Shaker Song, Catching the Sun, and Café Amore. The group, however, has released 26 albums, between 1978-2007, and amassed sales well over 10 million making them the most prolific group in jazz-fusion idiom.

According to Wikipedia, “Spyro Gyra's music has been criticized for being light-weight and for emphasizing melody over improvisation. They have nevertheless been praised as skilled instrumentalists and for their live performances, which average nearly 100 per year”.

Spyro Gyra is up for 2 Grammy Awards for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the single "Simple Pleasures" from the CD Good To Go-Go which is also nominated in the Best Pop Instrumental Album category.

Personnel:

Jay Beckenstein - saxophones
Tom Schuman - piano, keyboards
Julio Fernandez - guitars
Scott Ambush - bass
Bonny Bonaparte - drums, percussion

Herbie Hancock vies for Grammy Album of the Year

The Grammy nominations are out and maybe the biggest news for The Offbeat is the selection of a jazz album for Album of the Year. Herbie Hancock’s Rivers: The Joni Letters CD, a tribute to the music of an old friend and colleague, Joni Mitchell, Hancock recorded with Mitchell on her 1979 Asylum album, is in contention for Grammy biggest prize, Best Pop Album

One of the icons of modern muisc, Hancock will chance for two Grammys with his nomination also in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category.

Nominees for the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category are; Party Hats, Will Bernard [Palmetto Records], Downright Upright, Brian Bromberg [Artistry Music], Re-imagination, Eldar [Masterworks Jazz], River: The Joni Letters, Herbie Hancock [Verve], He Had A Hat, Jeff Lorber [Blue Note]

REGGAE GRAMMY

The Best Reggae Album (Vocal or Instrumental.): The Burning Spear Experience, Burning Spear [Burning Music Production], Mind Control, Stephen Marley [Tuff Gong/Ghetto Youths/Universal Republic], The End Of An American Dream, Lee "Scratch" Perry [Megawave], Anniversary, Sly & Robbie And The Taxi Gang [Taxi Records] , Light Your Light, Toots & The Maytals, [Fantasy]

JILL SCOTT

R&B new sensation Jill Scott, who comes in for Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival 2008, received a nomination in the category of Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for her single Hate On Me, track from The Real Thing album. Fresh from her successful acting performance in the film Why Did I Get Married, Jill Scott will headline the Montego Bay Festival on Friday, January 25, 2008.

Roll Call on Jazz in Jamaica

Jazz, the African-American inspired music that is central to New Orleans and environs, has been explored and certainly exploited by the earliest Jamaican musicians, coming to mind readily is master trumpeter Sonny Bradshaw and his Big Band. Thereafter, Jamaica produced internationally recognized pianist Monty Alexander, guitarist Ernest Ranglin, and Birmingham, UK legendary saxophonist Andy Hamilton.

Other jazz musicians who had overseas visibility in a distant past include names like Dizzy Reece (trumpet), Joe Harriott (saxophone), Bertie King (saxophone). Most of these musicians opted to ply their craft overseas in more lucrative, artistically motivating concert halls and jazz clubs of Europe and the United States.

Other luminaries of the local jazz scene, both past and present, include Hedley Jones, Seymour "Foggy" Mullings, Cedric Brooks, Myrna Hague, Carl "Cannonball" Bryan, Jasper Adams, Roy Burrowes, Wilton Gaynair, Totlyn Jackson, Billy Cook and Reuben Alexander.

Straight-ahead jazz musicians are today a rarity and others, for survival, basically play the field of jazz, reggae and dancehall to make ends meet. Today’s Jamaican practitioners, players of improvised music, reads Desi Jones (drums), Seretse Small (guitars), Kathy Brown (piano), Harold Davis (piano), Deleon White (drums), Denver Smith (percussions), Akil Karam (drums), Djenne Greaves (percussions), Sherwayne Thompson (bass), Aeion Hoilett (bass), John Williams (multi-instrumentalist) Maurice Gordon (guitars) Marjorie Whylie (piano), Alicia (singer) Dennis Rushton (piano), Dale Haslam (bass), Ouida Lewis (percussions), Charmaine Limonius (pianist and singer), Alex Martin (piano) Karen Smith (songstress), Christine Fisher and those we inadvertently omit.

The calendar shows are Jazz in the Garden (bimonthly), Jazz on the Green (annual), Harold Davis Moonlighting, Ocho Rios Jazz Festival (annual), Optimist Jazz Show (annual), and Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival (annual)

Jazz is played on a regular basis at Christopher’s Jazz Cafe, Red Bones Blues Café, Rib Cage Restaurant, Pegasus Hotel, Terra Nova Hotel, and The Event Place (Montego Bay) and those other open house for improvised music that we inadvertently omit.

Two of 18 radio stations and currently 3 programs are jazz-oriented; Riffin (Dermot Hussey) on News Talk 93 FM weekdays 8:30 – 9:30 pm, Sunday Brunch (Monty “Merritone” Blake )New Talk 93FM, Sundays 12- 4 pm, Sunday Bess (Lou Gooden) on BESS 100 FM Sunday 12-6 pm.

Some personalities behind the music includes Keith Brown (Musicologist), Ken Nelson (Jazz in the Gardens), Walter Elmore (Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival), Sonny Bradshaw & Myrna Hague (Ocho Rios Jazz Festival), Mutabaruka and Dermot Hussey (musicologists/presenters), and Herbie Miller (jazz historian).

Monty Alexander comes for Rebel Salute

Legendary Jamaican pianist, Monty Alexander is among the first set of acts billed for the 14th anniversary of Rebel Salute 2K8.anniversary.

By grafting the traditions of American jazz to his authentic Jamaican roots, Monty Alexander has spent a lifetime exploring the rich depths of musical and cultural diversity. As such the internationally famous pianist has undertaken numerous reggae projects which he has embellished with his musical genius.

Among them his two sets with his interpretations of some of Bob Marley's classics for the Cleveland, Ohio-based Telarc Records, the company for which he also recorded the album, Monty Meets Sly and Robbie.

(paraphrase of Observer staff reporter Basil Walters article in Sunday Observer December 02, 2007

All times best-selling Jazz CD/Album

King of Blue

Miles Davis’ King of Blue is considered the highest selling jazz CD album of all times. Released on August 17, 1959, Miles best work, according to Wikipedia, is regarded as the greatest jazz album yet apart from having, as of January 16, 2002, been certified triple platinum, that is over 3,000.000 units, by the RIAA making it the best selling jazz album of all times.

Track Listing

"So What" – 9:22
"Freddie Freeloader" – 9:46
"Blue in Green" – 5:37
"All Blues" – 11:33
"Flamenco Sketches" (take 2) – 9:26

Musicians:

Miles Davis – trumpet, leader
Julian "Cannonball" Adderley – alto saxophone, except on "Blue in Green"
John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
Wynton Kelly – piano, only on "Freddie Freeloader"
Bill Evans – piano, liner notes
Paul Chambers – bass
Jimmy Cobb – drums

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_of_Blue