Dick Katz, Newport Archives, EyeShot Jazz: The Friday Link Dump

by Patrick Jarenwattananon

RIP Dick Katz, great jazz pianist, Milestone Records co-founder and general Mensch, at age 85. The New York Times obituary. Also, remembrances and a short video from WNYC.

--Newport Jazz Festival Archives Released: The big news of the week is that the audio archivists at Wolfgang's Vault have finally unveiled the first batch of recordings from their massive cache of historical Newport Jazz Festival tapes. Some time ago, festival head-dude-in-charge George Wein sold the entirety of his festival recording archives to Wolfgang's Vault, who have spent millions of dollars cataloging and doing digital transfers. (As an aside, earlier this year I got to visit the Wolfgang's archives in their Manhattan office building, where they have a small room with four heavy-duty reel-to-reel tape players and like nine twenty-something interns cutting tape. Amusing sight.) The sound is good, the music is great and there's much more to come. Related: NPR/WBGO/WGBH recordings of the 2009 Newport Jazz Festival.

--Jazz Photographs From Seattle: A Seattle-based photographer named Daniel Sheehan recently wrote in to plug his jazz photoblog. I was like, yea, OK, whatever -- but I had a look, and there's some really vivid stuff in there. Sheehan happens to have written in just after the Earshot Jazz Festival ended, and took some great shots that really capture the excitement of what happened. (Cyro Baptista and John Hollenbeck, for example, are wearing phenomenal hats.) It's at eyeshotjazz.com.

--Nextbop Artists Select Their Favorite Music: Our friends in Montreal asked some of the artists featured on their Web site to help them create a playlist of songs: any music, in any genre, that they're currently listening to. Cool idea -- looks to be happening on the regular too. Have a listen.

--Seven Overlooked Jazz Guitar Albums: Man, I am a sucker for any list of records billed as "overlooked." This one features some live Jim Hall, Pat Metheny with Gary Burton, Jimmy Raney and more.

--Clifford Brown, Pulling Strings: Finally, trumpeter Jason Palmer shares a great story about talking to Clifford Brown's widow. Learn about Brownie's doughnut addiction, and the true story behind Clifford Brown With Strings.

12:23 PM ET | 11-13-2009 | permalink

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