00:00
Travellin’ Blues: Big Daddy Wilson
‘Jazz en Baie’, a whining guitar sound, and the baritone voice of Big Daddy Wilson are the perfect recipe for an emotional and melancholy blues concert. As a young man, Big Daddy Wilson never saw a real blues concert before he walked into a Bremen club as a young soldier. This revelation drove the expatriate to throw himself head over heals into music. A few decades and a couple of studio albums later, he’s well-known as one of the greatest contemporary bluesmen: his baritone voice, of a rare emotional power, recounts the nostalgic stories of his native land. His album ‘I'm Your Man’ brought him his first international success. Always respectful of the blues roots he inherited, the charismatic singer adds soul, funk, country and gospel to his musical range; the memories of his American youth.
01:20
Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz - Part II
Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk... these names are synonymous with the great Jazz Age. But how many people know Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, to whom we owe the recorded memory of our Jazz legends? Two German Jews who emigrated from Nazi Germany to New York "discovered" an American art form which at the time received little serious attention from mainstream America: Jazz Music. Without money or connections and speaking little English, the two men began to record practically unknown musicians, following their own taste and judgment. Today this list of artists reads like the Who-is-Who of Jazz. "Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz" tells the story of Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff and their record label. It is the story of the rise of Modern Jazz, of a friendship in exile and of uncompromising artistic excellence. Told by the musicians, by friends and associates and by fans of the Blue Note recordings from all walks of life, the film Blue Note recreates an era of American cultural history.
02:20
Coleman Hawkins live in Belgium, 1962
A jazz festival named after the inventor of the instrument most associated with the genre, Adolphe Sax, would be incomplete without the man who laid the groundwork for how the instrument is played today. This must have been the reasoning of the organizers of the Festival International de Jazz Adolphe Sax in Dinant, Belgium, when they invited tenor saxophone giant Coleman Hawkins to perform there in June 1962. Appearing with a group that includes the French pianist George Arvanitas, one-time Duke Ellington bassist Jimmy Woode, and expat drummer Kansas Fields, the musician also known as ‘Bean’ and ‘Hawk’ serves up an hour-long set of familiar standards bookended by Hank Jones’ “Chant” and J. J. Johnson’s “Wee Dot”.