Kevin Sun

Every weekday this month I'll be posting new content in observance of Jazz Appreciation Month (J.A.M.) , so-designated by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History beginning in 2001. International Jazz Day , so-designated by UNESCO in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, is on the last day of April, the 30th; it was first celebrated in 2012. Debating the relative merits of designating specific days or months for celebrating heritages, traditions, and the like aside, Jazz Appreciation Month is at the very least an excuse to dig into some material that I've been interested in for a while on the blog. Friday's installment featured an early solo by Scott LaFaro on "Crazeology" and a transcribed interview with Bill Evans on LaFaro. Tomorrow's will feature Freddie Hubbard playing Wynton off the stage at the Blue Note. †If you enjoy the content on this blog, please consider supporting my band's homegrown effort to get our...

Ben Webster, ca. 1947 (William P. Gottlieb) Ben Webster is one of the many great swing-era tenor players whom I've yet to check out to  any serious degree—some others include Don Byas, Lucky Thompson, and Chu Berry, as well as the legacy of husky-toned tenor players who came after (Stanley Turrentine, Ike Quebec, etc .). The monolithic Coleman Hawkins-Lester Young dipole of influence is daunting enough to engage with as it is, but in terms of pure sonic diversity, these sometimes overshadowed tenor players of the earlier chapters in jazz history present some fascinating alternatives to the couple of dominant mainstream tenor sound influences that seem to be everywhere these days. I honestly haven't checked out enough of Ben Webster's discography to tell how Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson  (1959) measures up to the critically agreed upon high points of his output, but I had this record lying around in my collection and thought it might make a fine point of entry as any...