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BILLIE HOLIDAY: A POET´S MUSE part 4 of the inaugural S & D Joined Up Jazz Festival in association with Hot Biscuits

´With few exceptions, every major pop singer in the US during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius. It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years.´ FRANK SINATRA
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GIL EVANS : the lone arranger part 3 of the inaugural S & D Joined Up Jazz Festival in association with Hot Biscuits

Gil Evans wanted to get the feeling of what Berendt called ‘a cloud through sound, pierced by rays of sunshine which struck the listener as on an autumn morning, through the gentle veil of fog.’
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Bessie Smith – EMPRESS OF THE BLUES part 2 of the inaugural S & D Joined Up Jazz Festival in association with Hot Biscuits

She has been a primary influence for countless female vocalists, including the afore mentioned Billie Holliday, (subject of a later instalment of our jazz festival special here at sidetracks & detours) Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin and has been immortalized in numerous works.
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JOHN COLTRANE AND HIS LOVE SUPREME part 1 of the inaugural S & D Joined Up Jazz Festival in association with Hot Biscuits

´the first comprehensive statement of Coltrane's spiritual concerns and the cornerstone of many Coltrane collections´.
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JAZZ JOINS POETRY IN PLACE

Every student ought to have the opportunity to act, paint, dance, sing–whatever artistic impulse that helps them discover who they are and who they want to become.
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BRASS BAND BLOWING BACK

When this is over, will there be the same number of brass bands as there were 12 months ago? When you feel so passionately about something, it is important. The youth members are our future. Keeping the academy and training bands going is good for all brass bands.´
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IN THE DANCE BAND ON THE TITANIC

I am not being facetious, nor seeking to abuse the powers of my platform here at sidetracks & detours, when I say I would rather see our tomorrow´s history placed in the hands of today´s artists.
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CAPOTE IN COLD BLOOD

Even writer Norman Mailer, a contemporary who was not without ego himself, was forced to admit, ‘(Truman Capote) wrote the best sentences of anyone in our generation’.

WORLD LOSES JAZZ EXPLORER.

what Corea did best: eroding divisions between classical music, pop standard and dazzling jazz improvisation and providing a blueprint for the shape of jazz to come.
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JAZZ STILL JUMPIN´, JIVIN´AND ZOOMIN

Since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic the jazz press has been keen to alert readers of whatever alternatives are being delivered instead of live concerts.