News & Updates — classic albums

Born on this day in 1938, the soulful Alton Ellis was one of the finest rocksteady singers Jamaica ever produced. With a career going back to the late '50s, he recorded early on doing ska, R&B and ballads in the duo Alton & Eddy (and with his sister Hortense) for Studio 1 and Randy's. He teamed with John Holt for awhile and started The Flames, recording for Treasure Isle & again Studio 1. The genre took its name from Ellis' 1967 recording "Rock Steady", helping establish the genre and making Ellis popular enough to tour England. Several more hits followed...

One of the greats, bop trumpeter & arranger (and singer!) Kenny Dorham may be best known for his composition "Blue Bossa" but check your collection and you will find his name on dozens and dozens of classic sides. His playing is exquisite and clear-toned with perfectly placed notes, and he had great taste in sidemen! Born McKinley Dorham, he grew up in Austin TX. He joined the Dizzy Gillespie band in '45, as well as a stint in that Billy Eckstine group that yielded many future bop stars. He also played in the '40s with Mercer Ellington, Kenny Clarke and...

One of my very favorites is the pianist/harpist/composer and cosmic music traveler Alice McLeod, known later as Alice Coltrane. Another great jazz artist from Detroit, she is possibly best known for being the wife and collaborator of John Coltrane, but Alice is an amazing artist in her own right. She brought celestial concepts into the music and fused free jazz, Indian, European classical, new age, bebop and avant-garde into a gorgeously spiritual, intense experience. Her music has gained much more currency in the last twenty years but I have always been a fan. I remember thinking "why are her records...

Happy birthday to the boisterous Clifford Jarvis, stylish drummer of post-bop and free jazz who also worked well with other percussionists. He was from Boston and came from a family of trumpeters. He started playing drums at 10 and studied with Alan Dawson. Early professional experience with Chet Baker and Randy Weston set him up for some gigs with heavy hitters of the '60s & '70s. Operating out of NYC and Chicago, he played or recorded with a host of amazing musicians: Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Grant Green, John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Big John Patton, Barry Harris, Yusef Lateef, Curtis Fuller, Elmo...

One of the greatest of many, many great DC musicians, Chuck Brown and his band the Soul Searchers practically invented the infamous Washington DC go-go style. Hugely popular in the clubs of DC and Baltimore, go-go was a percussion heavy brand of funk (although very much informed by the gospel beat from black churches, as well as African music) that was native to DC and was very much a live music, with audience call-and-response an essential aspect to the style and never-ending percussion jams. In a way it was DC's answer to hip-hop. Chuck is widely considered the godfather of...