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210 articles

John White

Born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1939, and educated at schools in Staffordshire and North Wales, John White is a graduate of the University of Manchester, the University of Michigan, and the University of Hull – where he received a PhD in 1975. He is now Emeritus Reader in American History at Hull University. His academic interests and publications were in the areas of African-American and Southern History, and he was a Visiting Professor at several American universities. His publications included Black Leadership in America, now in its third edition, Reconstruction after the American Civil War, and Martin Luther King Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement in America. His conversion to jazz (age 10) came after (repeatedly) playing a 78rpm record of Harry James’ version of "Trumpet Blues and Cantabile" on a wind-up gramophone. At the University of Hull he had a 20-year jazz-based friendship with its poet/librarian Philip Larkin. With the late Richard Palmer, he co-edited Reference Back: Philip Larkin’s Uncollected Jazz Writings 1940-1984 (now revised as Larkin: Jazz Writings: Essays & Reviews 1940-84), and with Trevor Tolley produced the 4CD set Larkin’s Jazz (Proper Records, 2010). His other jazz writings include biographies of Billie Holiday (1987) and Artie Shaw (1998, 2004). His essay “Kansas City, Pendergast and All That Jazz” won the Arthur Miller American Studies Prize in 1992. He is currently Jazz Consultant to The Philip Larkin Society, and has published several articles on Larkin’s jazz tastes in About Larkin: Journal of The Philip Larkin Society, and also in Jazz Journal. His own tastes in jazz are (fairly) eclectic and include: Armstrong, Basie, Ellington, Peterson, Garner, Tatum, Terry Gibbs, Sonny Criss, Paul Desmond, Lester Young, Zoot Sims, Ben Webster, Paul Gonsalves, Clark Terry, Booker Ervin, Bill (and Gil) Evans, Shorty Rogers, Gerry Mulligan, Joe Pass, Tal Farlow, Jan Lundgren, Ahmad Jamal. In January 2015 he began contributing audio reviews, book reviews and other articles to Jazz Journal.

Reviewed: Bill Evans | Scott Hamilton | Art Pepper | Lluis Coloma & ‘Blue Lou’ Marini

Bill Evans: Further Ahead, Live in Finland 1964-1969 (Elemental Records 5990451) This Bill Evans treasure chest is yet another “discovery/recovery” by the indefatigable Zev Feldman...

Reviewed: Renee Rosnes | Doug MacDonald | Mon David DNA

Renee Rosnes: Crossing Paths (Smoke Session Records SSR-2408) Canadian-born composer and pianist Renee Rosnes is widely respected for a series of small-group albums she made...

Reviewed: Louis Armstrong-Dave Brubeck | Miles Davis | B.B. King | Cliff Korman

Louis Armstrong-Dave Brubeck: The Real Ambassadors (Jazz Wax Records JWR 4640) When this 1961 LP was reviewed in Jazz Journal in 1963 by then editor...

Reviewed: Richard Elliot | Grant Green | Oscar Peterson | Righteous Rooster

Richard Elliot: Straight Up Down (Shanachie 5516) This is the 21st album by “smooth jazz artist” tenor and soprano saxophonist Richard Elliott, born in Scotland...
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Obituary: Martial Solal

Born in Algiers to Algerian Jewish parents, Martial Solal was encouraged in music from an early age by his mother, an amateur opera singer....

Reviewed: Classic V-Disc Small Group Jazz Sessions | Chet Baker | Kenny Barron & Buster Williams | Tina Brooks | Al Jarreau & NDR...

Various: Classic V-Disc Small Group Jazz Sessions (Mosaic MD11-279) This 11-CD set is a collection of 1943-1949 swing-era and early bop recordings originally made exclusively...

Reviewed: Billie Holiday | Sarah Vaughan | Dinah Washington | Jimmy Smith

Billie Holiday: Solitude Songs By Billie Holiday (Number One Essentials LP 291009) The ever-alert Norman Granz took over Billie’s (faltering) career in the 1940s, and...

The Jazz Omnibus: 21st Century Photos And Writings

Edited by David Adler – who contributes a piece of “self-confessed shameless promotion” in a prolix introduction to this massive compendium states “I’m proud...
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Obituary: Quincy Jones

Rarely – if ever – has an American musician received such fulsome praise both during their lifetime and after their death. Such headlines as...

Reviewed: Filippo Dall’Asta | Félix Lemerle | Méva’s Journal | Paul Quinichette

Filippo Dall’Asta: The Hot Club Of Tenerife (filippodallasta.com) Italian guitarist Dall’Asta has achieved considerable success with his fusion of “gypsy jazz” and popular music to...

Duke Ellington: Copenhagen 1958 / Bonus After Hours 1950

On this unissued 1958 Danish radio broadcast Clark Terry and Johnny Hodges stand out and Paul Gonsalves perhaps surpasses his Newport solo

Sarah Vaughan: Her 50 Finest, 1944-1962

Another Vaughan collection, this of her 'Old Testament' work, suggests that the DJ-bestowed tag “the divine one” was not hyperbole
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