Myrna Hague covers 'Broken-Hearted Melody'

Jamaican jazz singer Myrna Hague has never hid her admiration for American jazz stylist Sarah Vaughn. Recently, she got the opportunity to salute her musical idol by covering Vaughn's biggest hit song.

Hague teamed with veteran session guitarist Earl 'Chinna' Smith, Oral Brown on percussions, drummer Denver Smith and keyboardist/bass player Ozou'ne to record Broken-Hearted Melody, which was a massive hit in 1959. The song will be released on the Homegrown label.

"It's really a re-enactment of the original, we stayed true to the song," Hague told Gleaner writer Howard Campbell. Though she has performed Vaughn favourites such as On a Clear Day and Summertime in her live set, Hague has never recorded any of the legendary vocalist's songs.

Myrna Hague said why in the Jamaican Gleaner story published Saturday, May 29, 2010.Link:Read full story at www.jamaica-gleaner.com!

Carmen Lundy played the Ocho Rios International Jazz Festival June 13

World-renowned American jazz vocalist, songwriter, and actress Carmen Lundy who is also a celebrated painter, was one of several North American improv artists to have performed at the week-long, multi-venue Ohio Rios International Jazz Festival, held June 13-20.

Lundy has been performing for 3 decades, with a focus on original material, during which she has earned positive comparison to Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.
After studying at Miami University, Carmen Lundy moved to New York in 1978 and worked with Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican jazz musician Ray Barretto prior to forming her own trio in 1980. Lundy would there record for Blackhawk (1987) and Sony (1988) and appeared in the plays Sophisticated Ladies and They Were All Gardenias, portraying Billie Holiday in the latter.

Her portfolio includes 11 albums, including the debut GOOD MORNING KISS and the well thought of live set, Jazz and the New Songbook: LIVE AT THE MADRID (Theatre) in Los Angeles. In 1991 she moved to LA, recording for Arabesque (1992) and JVC. Although open to the influences of folk, R&B, and pop, Carmen Lundy, who will perform on Festival open day (June 13)in the Gardens of the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, Kingston, is a strong improviser.

Lena Horne: Barrier-breaking jazz star, actress

(AP) — Lena Horne, the enchanting jazz singer and actress [was] known for her plaintive signature song Stormy Weather and for her triumph over the bigotry that allowed her to entertain white audiences but not socialise with them.

Horne died Sunday, May 9th at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Horne, whose striking beauty and magnetic sex appeal often overshadowed her sultry voice, was remarkably candid about the underlying reason for her success.

"I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept," she once said. "I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked."

"I knew her from the time I was born, and whenever I needed anything she was there," actress Liza Minnelli said belatedly. She was funny, sophisticated and truly one of a kind. We lost an original. Thank you Lena."

In the 1960s Horne was one of the most visible celebrities in the civil rights movement, once throwing a lamp at a customer who made a racial slur in a Beverly Hills restaurant and in 1963 joining 250,000 others in the March on Washington when Martin Luther King Jr gave his I Have a Dream speech.

In the 2009 biography, Stormy Weather, author James Gavin recounts that when Horne was asked by a lover why she'd married a white man, she replied: "To get even with him."

Esperanza Spaulding: superb bassist, multlingual vocalist, irresistible jazz performer

American born Esperanza Spalding, vivacious, prodigious bassist, multlingual vocalist, and irresistible contemporary jazz performer.

Bass virtuoso Stanley Clarke releases his 28th album

Bass virtuoso Stanley Clarke, the American jazz performer, composer, bandleader who rose to prominence in the 1970s and single-handedly brought the electric bass to the forefront of jazz and R&B teams with up-and-coming star, Japanese virtuoso Hiromi Uehara, keyboard master, Ruslan Sirota, and fierce drummer Ronald Bruner Jr, in a special "sneak peak" showcase of his upcoming June 15, 2010 release, The Stanley Clarke Band, solo album number 28.

On show will be Clarke's latest genius at BLUES ALLEY in DC - Thursday, June 3rd through Sunday the 6th.

In a career that spans nearly four decades and boasts a long list of feats including Grammy's, Emmy's, gold and platinum records, bass virtuoso Stanley Clarke, known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores, is one of the most celebrated bassists in the world. His last release, May 2009, titled Jazz In The Garden on Heads Up International, included two brilliant collaborators at the top of their respective games: pianist Hiromi Uehara and drummer Lenny White.

Gerald Clayton supposes tradition and innovation can peacefully exist

At one-forth the age of jazz, New York based jazz pianist Gerald Clayton stakes his claim in the history and the present of jazz.
“Tradition and innovation can peacefully exist”, supposes the son of famous bassist John Clayton. However, his biography states, 'with Gerald behind the piano this coexistence anything but peaceful.'

‘His dynamic and award-winning sound has been praised in print by the Jazz Times and Los Angeles Times. The New York Times has saluted his “Oscar-Peterson like style” and “huge, authoritative presence” and Down Beat Magazine’s 2008 Readers’ Poll named him one of the top up-and-coming pianists to watch'.
As a composer, his work has been commissioned by the Jazz Gallery in New York City and performed overseas by the BBC Orchestra. He has received many honours including the US Presidential Scholar in the Art.
Born in the Netherlands in 1984, Gerald grew up mainly in Los Angeles with a musical family that includes his father, bassist/composer John Clayton, and uncle, saxophonist Jeff Clayton.

Gerald began an 11 years study of classical piano at age 6, later enrolled in a Jazz Studies program at the University of Southern California. Still later he would study piano and composition under masters like Kenny Barron
A current member of the siblings Clayton Brothers Quintet, Gerald can be heard on the Brothers latest release, Brother to Brother, as well as on Roy Hargrove’s 2008 Earfood, and Diana Krall’s From This Moment On. But, it is Gerald Clayton’s own New York City based trio, comprised of Justin Brown (drums) and Joe Sanders (bass) that provides the most direct opportunity to explore and expand his own thoughts in music.
Gerald Clayton’s Two-Shades CD drops in June.
Live at the Smalls: youtube.com!

Frank Consola: WDNA's walking encyclopedia of jazz

He hosts 88 Jazz Place Morning, Monday - Friday 6 - 11 am, on Miami's WDNA 88.9 FM, Frank Consola, known as "the walking encyclopedia of jazz", had transplanted to Philly and ingrained himself into serious R&B and Rock & Roll. Later, however, a romantic interest would play for him a record Herbie Man at the Village Gate it was a big turn on to jazz.

Growing a jazz collection, Frank went to Miami in 1982 where he discovered WDNA, the serious jazz radio, and, in his own word, "becoming a sort of pest" he wrangled himself behind the microphone, he with his stack of jazz record. In 1989, as a volunteer, he started hosting a once a week jazz show and today Frank Consola's morning mix on the longest running jazz show in Miami brings musical order to the testy Miami morning commute

Tune in the next time you find yourself in some heavy traffic, Miami or anywhere. And if Miles, Coltrane, Parker, Kirk, and the rest of the legends don't soothe your soul, chances are you're too much of a hothead for even the coolest of jazz.