In this episode of the Hot Box we celebrate the life of Jimmy Cobb who died last month aged 91, and legendary pianist McCoy Tyner who recently passed away. We also sample three new albums (*), two of which have diverse Irish interest!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:08:04 — 93.5MB)
Welcome to The Hot Box #058 in which we delve further into the alphabetical piano files with Part 2 of the File for W. There are some amazing artists in the episode.
Be sure to listen out for an interview where Marian McPartland hosts the great Mary Lou Williams on her long running radio show “Piano Jazz” on NPR in October of 1978. It is quite wonderful to hear Mary Lou Williams chat about music and list of all the names of bands and musicians she has worked with when she started out as a teenager right the way through to the modern era.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:12:43 — 99.9MB)
Over an hour of jazz music from Ireland, America, South Africa and Brazil, wide ranging in style and mood. You can hear tracks from The Duke Ellington Orchestra, Basil Coatzee, Dianne Schuur, Count Basie Orchestras, Christine Tobin, Scott Flanagan and more.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:13:28 — 100.8MB)
In this episode of The Hot Box we celebrate the music of four amazing musicians who have sadly left the stage in the past few weeks, Bucky Pizzarelli, Lee Konitz, Wallace Roney and Ellis Marsalis.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04:24 — 59.0MB)
Selected for the times we are living in, Xtra tracks from The Hot Box that should immediately improve your blood circulation and set the mood firmly to positive.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:04 — 60.5MB)
In this episode of the Hot Box we celebrate the life and music of Art Blakey whose centennial was not so long ago. We find ourselves in very unfamiliar times, gigs and festivals have been cancelled the wold over which means no work for thousands of jazz musicians who rely on live performances to earn a crust. Perhaps we can help by purchasing their recordings so check out the Jazz Ireland Shop for a range of albums.
On a brighter note it’s always very exciting for me, and a personal pleasure to put up a brand new Irish album and to be able to give it a 5 STAR rating, in Hot Box 057 I get to do that twice.
The first new album is from Dr Linley Hamilton called “For The Record”, it really is a charming album and happily it seems to be getting a lot of well-deserved attention and praise.
The second new album is from Carole Nelson whom you will remember released her album “One Day in Winter” to a great deal of critical acclaim in 2017 and now she has done it again with “Arboreal”.
All of the albums mentioned here are available in the Jazz Ireland Shop where 100% of the revenue always goes direct to musicians.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:32 — 60.9MB)
Welcome to The Hot Box #056 where we delve into the Piano in the key of W. We are getting to the end of the piano files and who knows what comes next. The W file is a very big file with so many great players that we might run into two episodes, which it gives us an opportunity to hear some slightly longer pieces that we would have had to cut out for the sake of time.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:06 — 56.8MB)
A nice big band welcome to the 55th edition of the Hot Box. The big success of Zandra Queen of Jazz from Darn Skippy Productions at the Smock Alley Theatre Dublin put me in mind to make an edition of the hot box centred on women in jazz. A fascinating glimpse into another world and caused me to reflect on the status of women in the jazz world over time.
So far as I am aware there are no recorded pieces from Zandra Mitchell but we can enjoy and talk about many other women in jazz. I had planned the Hot Box 55 to be a big band show, so why not combine the two.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:35 — 56.4MB)
Welcome to The Hot Box #054 where we get ever closer to the end of the long-running series The Piano Files! In this episode we explore pianists under the letters U… and V as well as a few omissions from the letter T. It turns out that the popularity of the letter V as the first letter in Cuban surnames becomes extremely focussed when it comes to piano players. All the Vs are Cuban. As for U, only one player was found with that initial letter!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:50 — 58.5MB)
A Special Christmas Edition of The Hot Box in which we try to avoid the schmaltzy Christmas songs you know and love…….
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:12:22 — 66.3MB)