Episodes
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Big Bands! A selection of recordings of big bands modern and not-so modern.
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Stimulated by the upcoming release of John Donegan’s album Light Streams featuring his Irish Sextet, Hot Box 107 checks out some new releases, and a couple of returns to recent albums for a second look.
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Missing episodes?
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Hot on the heels of a little exploration of the role of the Hammond organ in jazz (HB104) a listener suggested we take a look at the role of another “minority” instrument in jazz music – the vibraphone. So we have. Starting at the beginning we hear from Lionel Hampton through to some modern-day masters like Warren Wolf and Stefan Harris. And we find Roger Beaujolais along the way. Who?
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This edition of the Hot Box is comprised 9 pieces of new material, with all of it coming from USA and Canada.
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In which we devote over an hour to the Hammond organ! In vogue during the 1960s and having star exponents like Jimmy Smith, and latterly Joey DeFrancesco, the Hammond B3 occupied a secure slot in instrumental jazz. Has it lost that?
Hot Box this time is Organic!
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Tony Bennett died on July 21st, aged 96, representing in a very real sense “the end of an era”. Across much of the history of crooning and singing jazz, Bennett succeeded in transferring a reputation amongst older fans of the Great American Songbook to an entirely new generation. He never lost his conviction that good music, good songs would eventually triumph.Hot Box 103 peeks into his enormous catalogue………
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Some jazz journalists have been using phrases like “the end of an era” since the death of Wayne Shorter and Ahmad Jamal. In this Hot Box we pay tribute to a few of the jazz greats who have left us in recent years…….or stopped performing.
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As the title suggests, this is a new record for the hot box. Five fantastic tracks, one hour show! Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim) kicking things off with 13 minutes of magic.
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We made it! 100 episodes of The Hot Box. Thank you to all our listeners and subscribers for sticking with me. In this episode we feature two tracks from our good friend Linley Hamilton, with Gerry Buckley starting us off.
The new Hot Box website is now online,
http://www.hotboxjazz.com
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This episode brings us one away from 100 epsiodes of The Hox Box. Included this week are some new releases and two tracks from the Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.
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New Stuff!
Its Donald’s first show on JazzÉIRE!. This show features all new releases for this Hot Box
www.jazzeireradio.com
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After the great reaction to Hot Box 96, we decided to do a second edition devoted to the fantastic 42 volume series of solo piano recitals known as the Maybeck Series. Recorded over 6 years from 1990 to 1996, the concerts took place in the wood lined hall designed by the now iconic architect Bernard Maybeck, with just 50 seats in the audience and a perfectly tuned Yamaha grand piano.
Long unavailable on LP or CD it is now available on Spotify, but here Donald takes us through more of the stellar pianists who featured - Gerry Wiggins, Toshiko Akyoshi, Cedar Walton and more. -
The 96th edition of The Hot Box!
This an all-piano affair that marks the re-release (on Spotify) of all 42 albums recorded in the 90’s, of the solo piano recitals branded as The Maybeck Recitals. Recorded by the independent Concord Jazz label, they present a who’s who of jazz pianists of the last decade of the last century. The real biggies aren’t there - the Herbie Hancocks, the Oscar Petersons - perhaps Concord couldn’t afford their fees - but taken overall the recordings represent a diversity of brilliance. From stride to modernism.
In this edition we sample 9 of the players, from JoAnne Brackeen to Jim McNeely, and have cause to celebrate the amazing acoustics of the hall itself - lined with rosewood panels and an audience of only 50 - and the Yamaha grand piano at its centre. If the very best piano music is your bag, tune in to The Hot Box. -
The Hot Box 95: What’s in it?
Some great new music that’s what. Two from America, one from Belgium, and two from Ireland.
The album Tim Fitzgerald’s Full House was awarded to Daniel Cervigni who emailed [email protected], and now you can contact Donald to “win” the copy of Chick Corea’s Acoustic Band double album “Live”, which marks the second anniversary of Chick’s death. -
The Box goes abroad this time, heading south east to Italy, where some exceptional and distinctive jazz can be found. In this edition we highlight the marked attention to lyricism which informs so much Italian jazz, as though perhaps the traditions of Italy’s great classical tradition and opera lie beneath much of the contemporary jazz scene. We start however at the inception of jazz in Italy, banned as it was by the Fascist regime in the 1930s.
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Why do some bands choose brand names rather than the name of their leader? A very brief investigation in the Hot Box #093.
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The 92nd Hot Box is hot with guitars all the way. And there’s a reason. The new album from Chicago-based guitarist Tim Fitzgerald. Better still, you could become the lucky owner of a copy. An album that has been Album of the Month in Downbeat with a four and a half star review! So check in to the Box and see how you could get lucky!
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The 91st Hot Box takes a look at Christmas (already!)
A selection of jazz from all eras that celebrates or satirises Christmas from the personal collection of Donald Helme.
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A cornucopia of delights from new recordings makes up the 66-odd minutes of this edition, starting out with a track from one of the new jazz superstars.
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Tracks this time are exclusively (well almost) from brand shiny new albums. The exception sadly is another of those remembrance pieces, this time for the singer Tina May who died earlier this year.
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