Author Archives: M. Figg

About M. Figg

I blog on hot jazz, eighteenth century hits and more pop of yestercentury. I also write for All About Jazz, The Boston Musical Intelligencer and Early Music America.

Building a Better Blog(ger)

Posted on May 18, 2012

Parental edicts to “shut up and listen” seemed awfully harsh when I was little, but that advice sounds more sage every year. As such, yours truly will be taking two weeks off from blogging, to listen, to learn, listen some … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged just listen | Leave a comment

Too Good to Miss: Lady Day, Jesus Christ and A Bad Mother’s Son in Law

Posted on May 16, 2012

Downbeat magazine has posted Dave Dexter Jr.’s “classic” interview with Billie Holiday from 1939. Among (perhaps apocryphal) anecdotes about Artie Shaw‘s relentlessly serious self-image and some honesty concerning her first recording, Holiday speaks frankly about troubles on the road, looking … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1939, Artie Shaw, Artie Shaw's treatment of Billie Holiday, Basie and Billie Holiday, being a fan not a critic, Ben Webster, Benny Goodman's treatment of Billie Holiday, Billie Holiday, Cozy Cole, Dave Dexter, Downbeat, I've got my love to keep me warm, interview, John Gennari, Louis Armstrong influence on Billie Holiday, My Mother's Son in Law, Teddy Wilson | 2 Comments

Concert Review: No Less Than Gershwin and The Pops

Posted on May 14, 2012

Thursday night’s Boston Pops concert (which I was graciously invited to attend by a member of the Pops’ Public Relations staff) encompassed all the superlatives that fans have come to expect from the self-proclaimed “most beloved orchestra in the country,” … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Lester Young, George Gershwin, Ukelele Ike, slap bass, jazz standards, Tin Pan Alley, concert review, ballet, fun classical music, I Got Rhythm, John Philip Sousa, Keith Lockhart, Boston Pops, Gershwin Spectacular, Stu Rosner, most beloved orchestra in the country, critically damning, light classics, influences of European classical, Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, urban music, modernism, dissonances, just enough development, just enough dissoance, serious composers, Embraceable You, American songbook, standards, Thomas Martin, glissando, Fascinating Rhythm, beside the point, scenic routes, big kisses, heartwarming images, overhead projector, music with film, Love is Sweeping the Country, Jazz at the Philharmonic, Ken Kersey, Al Killian, Michael Chertock, piano solo, Gene Kelly, MGM film, Promenade, Walking the Dog, Boston Conservatory Theater Division, By Strauss, Slap that Bass, Lawrence Wolfe, Broadway, young voices, Peter Mansfield, Michael Chasse, The Stars and Stripes Forever, Visions of America, Al Hirschfeld, cartoon, lower brass too loud | Leave a comment

Vivaldi di Domenica: A Beautifully Miserable Day

Posted on May 13, 2012

Antonio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678-July 28, 1741) composed over five hundred concertos, yet Stravinsky joked that Vivaldi actually wrote the same concerto five hundred times. Many of the Venetian composer/violinist’s concertos display similar traits, making them instantly recognizable as the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Red Nichols: The Grand-Uncle of Cool

Posted on May 11, 2012

Cool jazz is usually assumed to have been a reaction to bebop that first appeared in the late forties, with opponents popping up soon after. It’s no secret that Bix Beiderbecke and Frank Trumbauer were experimenting with “cooler” sounds in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Arthur Schutt, Birth of the Cool 1927, Bix Beiderbecke, Bix Beiderbecke imitators, bone dry, clarinet, cold, Complete Brunswick Recordings, cool jazz, cornet, Dorsey on clarinet, early cool school, exploration, Five Pennies, Frank Trumbauer, Hoagy Carmichael, hot jazz blog, immediacy, jazz blog, jazz criticism, jazz harpsichord, Jazz Oracle, jazz timpani, Jimmy Dorsey, Len Weinstock, mechanical clever, popular jazz musicians, preconceptions, Red Nichols, Red Nichols was not a Bix Beiderbecke imitator, roots of cool jazz, students of Eddie Lang, the baron, timpani, unison front line, unromantic, Vic Berton, Washbord Blues, young Jimmy Dorsey | 2 Comments

Clarinetist Lester Young

Posted on May 9, 2012

Responding to an earlier post about the loss of Joe Muranyi, a commenter recalled Muranyi trying out his own “metal Conn clarinet, a horn a more self-conscious player would recoil from.” The open-minded Muranyi in turn “played the living heck … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1939, Benny Goodman, Benny Goodman's gift to Lester Young, Blues with Helen, clarinet, Conn, Gunther Schuller, Jazz, jazz clarinet, Joe Muranyi, John Hammond, Lester Young, Lester Young played clarinet, metal clarinet, Prez, Selmer, Spirituals to Swing, tenor sax, the sound of Lester Young's clarinet | 4 Comments

Who Booked These Guys? Davison and Wilcox Play Carson

Posted on May 7, 2012

Political correctness advises that age should have nothing to do with how we evaluate the playing of eighty-year old “Wild Bill” Davison and eighty-three year old Newell “Spiegle” Wilcox. Apparently both musicians, as well as lifelong jazz aficionado, drummer and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged artists playing past their peak, Commodore records, cornet, Dixieland, Eddie Condon, embouchure, hybrid jazz, jazz on late night, Jazz on television, Jean Goldkette, Johnny Carson, Spiegle Wilcox, Tonight Show, trombone, When You're Smiling, Wid Bill Davison | 4 Comments

Domenica con Vivaldi: Concerto for Smartass

Posted on May 6, 2012

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A major, allusion to other Vivaldi themes, bass lines, decending arpeggio, Domenica con Vivaldi, double-stop, end before it began, folk song, fooled you, gotcha, harmonic fancy, La Stravaganza, lack of continuity, major second, mocking the opening material, no orchestral coda, Opus 4, party crasher, pastoral, polite party, repeated notes, rhythmic, RV347, severa good parts, Simon Standage, smartass, Stravinsky on Vivaldi, The English Concert, toying with the listener, Trevor Pinnock, violin concerto, Vivaldi, Vivaldi blog, Vivaldi di domenica, why lisen to vivaldi | Leave a comment

Opine, Y’All: M. Figg’s Desert Island Jazz at the Moment

Posted on May 4, 2012

In an effort to keep International Jazz Day going and keep my money where my mouth is, here’s a few suggestions for weekend or anytime listening. They’re completely a matter of opinion, in no particular order and categorized in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Ambose Akinmusire, Amiri Baraka, Ballads, bebop, Benny Goodman, best of, big bands, Bird, Bird with Strings, Blue Train, Bop, Buster Bailey, Cab Calloway, Cannonball Adderley, Charles Mingus, Charlie Christian, Charlie Parker, Chinese music, Clarence Williams, Clifford Brown, Columbia Records, Complete Studio Recordings, cornet, Count Basie, Creole Jazz Band, Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra, Decca, Dial, Dixie Syncopators, Dizzy Gillespie, Don Ellis, Don Murray, Duke Ellington, Ed Allen, Electric Bath, Ellington suites, encourage listeners, Esperanza Spalding, Eternal Triangle, fan journalism, favorites, Five Pennies, flapper girl, Fletcher Henderson, Gil Evans, harry james, hobbyist, Hot Fives, Hot Sevens, International Jazz Day, Jazz, jazz blog, jazz musicians, jazz orchestration, Jelly Roll Morton, John Coltrane, King Oliver, kryptonite, late twenties, Lionel Hampton, lists, Louis Armstrong, Louis Armstrong as sideman, love, lucid, Max Roach, melody, memories of You, Miles Davis, Milestones, Mingus Ah Um, Moonglow, New Orleans Rhythm Kings, official websites, orchestration, Paul Chambers, personal opinion, Philly Joe Jones, pigs, Plato, polymath, Poor Butterfly, Porgy and Bess, put my money where my mouth is, quartet sextet, Radio Music Society, rebop, Red Garlan, Red Heads, Red Hot Peppers, Red Nichols, Republic, Rufus Wainwright, Sahib Shihad, Savoy, Say It, Sidney Bechet, Smithsonian Anthology, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, Stardust, Study in Frustration, subjective, suggestions, Swing, Teddy Wilson, Terrell Stafford, This Side of Strayhorn, three little bops, transparent, trio, UNESCO, unsung heroes, Verve, Vicious World, washboard, what jazz to listen to, When the heart emerges glistening | Leave a comment

While We’re At It, Let’s Have Several National Jazz Days

Posted on May 2, 2012

This past Monday marked the first International Jazz Day, declared by UNESCO to celebrate jazz as “…an educational tool and a force for peace, unity, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among people.” Even though this blog featured the sexy eighteenth century … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged BAM, blog, controversial, David Adler, esoteric, holiday, ideological real estate, International Jazz Day, Jazz, John Philip Sousa, sousa on jazz, theophany, UNESCO, United States | 2 Comments

Author Archives: M. Figg

About M. Figg

Building a Better Blog(ger)

Too Good to Miss: Lady Day, Jesus Christ and A Bad Mother’s Son in Law

Concert Review: No Less Than Gershwin and The Pops

Vivaldi di Domenica: A Beautifully Miserable Day

Red Nichols: The Grand-Uncle of Cool

Clarinetist Lester Young

Who Booked These Guys? Davison and Wilcox Play Carson

Domenica con Vivaldi: Concerto for Smartass

Opine, Y’All: M. Figg’s Desert Island Jazz at the Moment

While We’re At It, Let’s Have Several National Jazz Days

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