Tag: Norm Provizer
Why Jazz Matters: Track 14
by Norman Provizer They call Highway 61, which runs from New Orleans to Minnesota, the blues highway. Following the Mississippi River, the highway, metaphorically at least, transported the Delta blues to the outside world. If you check a map, of course, you quickly discover that Highway 61 doesn’t come anywhere near Colorado. And yet the […]
Why Jazz Matters: Track 9
by Norm Provizer A few months ago in this column, I made mention of the tribute Snoop Dog paid to Herbie Hancock when the Kennedy Center honored the great jazz pianist in 2013. At the event, Snoop referred to Hancock as the person who “invented hip hop.” While that testimonial might be a bit overly […]
Why Jazz Matters: Track 8
by Norman Provizer If you were to draw up a very short list of the most significant bass players in the history of rock, one slot would definitely be reserved for Jack Bruce who died just a week before this past Halloween at the age of 71. Before he turned 20, this Scottish-born musician was […]
Why Jazz Matters- Track 5
by Norm Provizer This month, drummer Ginger Baker celebrates his 75th birthday. From the perspective of the 1960s, when Baker propelled Cream (the first rock super group with Baker, Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce) and Blind Faith (with Steve Winwood and Clapton), the very idea that the drummer, who had a lot of habits, would […]
Why Jazz Matters: Track 4
by Norm Provizer In its Michael Jackson obituary, The New York Times noted that the singer’s Thriller disc had sold, across the planet, to date, some 100 million copies. While that figure has been debated, there is a general consensus that Thriller has, at least, sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 55-to-65 million copies. Either […]
Why Jazz Matters: Track 2
by Norm Provizer At the start of the 1950s, a Cleveland disc jockey by the name of Alan Freed took the phrase “rock and roll” and attached it to the emerging new music that blended rhythm and blues with pop vocals and rockabilly. So, if you have ever wondered why the Rock and Roll Hall […]
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