Pateira

This one is from TEDTalks: A leading interpreter of Mahler and Beethoven, Benjamin Zander is known for his charisma and unyielding energy -- and for his brilliant pre-concert talks. Here he is helping us all realize our untapped love for classical music -- and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections. Great talk!

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth album by The Beatles. It is their biggest hit and one of the most influential albums of all time by prominent critics and publications.  The album was released on June 1, 1967 in the UK and the following day in the United States.

The album probably is the most important rock & roll album ever made, an unsurpassed adventure in concept, sound, songwriting, cover art and studio technology by the greatest rock & roll group of all time. For the Beatles, it was a decisive goodbye to matching suits, world tours and assembly-line record-making. "We were fed up with being Beatles," McCartney said decades later.  Sgt. Pepper defined the opulent revolutionary optimism of psychedelia and instantly spread the gospel of love, acid, Eastern spirituality and electric guitars around the globe. No other pop record of that era, or since, has had such an immediate, titanic impact.

The Beatles on making Sgt Pepper

The Times They Are a-Changin' is a song written by Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, 1941) and released on his 1964 album of the same name. 

A protest song, it is often viewed as a reflection of the generation gap and of the political divide marking American culture in the 1960s. Dylan, however, disputed this interpretation in 1964, saying "Those were the only words I could find to separate aliveness from deadness. It had nothing to do with age." A year later, Dylan would say: "I can't really say that adults don't understand young people any more than you can say big fishes don't understand little fishes. I didn't mean ['The Times They Are a-Changin'] as a statement... It's a feeling."

"Times are changing" - Bob Dylan

Luís Villas-Boas (1924 -1999)

Founder of the Hot Clube de Portugal (1950 / ...) organizer of the Cascais Jazz Festival (1971 - 1988), record producer, journalist, the face behind: the radio show "Hot Club" from the mid forties to 1969, the television series - "Clube de Jazz" in the 80s  - "the father of the jazz in Portugal".  My hommage to you, com saudade.

The Hot Club of Portugal (Hot Clube de Portugal) is the oldest club of jazz in portugal and has uninterruptedly developed its activity since 1948. It occupies a cellar in Praça da Alegria, in Lisbon and it is a must for jazz lovers, offering always high quality musical programming.   It has its own jazz school founded in 1979 by bass player Zé Eduardo.

It was in March 1948 that Luis Villas-Boas became member number 1 of the Hot Club of Portugal, the first Jazz club created in Portugal. He had been the first to spread the taste for jazz music in Portugal at the microphones of the radio, at the end of 1945, in a program called “Hot Club”. It was then that the idea was born to create an Association with the objective of making this musical expression known and practiced in Portugal.

Hot Clube Portugal - Lisboa

Since 1966, José Duarte manages to do the unthinkable:  to broadcast an only five minutes radio show. For the last four decades, 3 generations of listeners had stood by this unique jazz radio program.

Forty years ago, a young guy was invited by the Portuguese catholic radio station "Rádio Renascença" to present a jazz program.  That young entertainer was José Duarte and the show called "Five Minutes of Jazz" became a true legend of Portuguese radio.  No other radio program shows similar record.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5 minutes of jazz", that was the opening phrase that immortalized the show, on air on until 1975 and afterwards on Rádio Comercial.  José Duarte is ainda co-founder and editor of Jazz Portug@l, on the Internet since 1997, on www.jazzportugal.net

Louis Armstrong - Satchmo - (born in New Orleans, 1901 - 1971) is regarded as the most influential jazz musician in history. This distinction is coupled with his stewardship of jazz around the world as the earliest and greatest ambassador of America's first true musical art form.  Vital and productive from the 1920s to the 1960s, Louis Armstrong provided jazz with its quantum leap forward - his Hot Five and Hot Seven group recordings for the OKeh Records label between 1925 and 1928. They were the culmination of all he had accomplished in music to that point. Armstrong was a charismatic, innovative performer whose inspired, improvised soloing was the main influence for a fundamental change in jazz, shifting its focus from collective melodic playing, often arranged in one way or another, to the solo player and improvised soloing.

His influence - not only on every trumpet player from Fats Navarro and Dizzy Gillespie to Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis and beyond, but also on jazz, blues, and pop musicians across the musical spectrum - is not likely to be equaled in our lifetime.

What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong

One of the 20th century's greatest female singer of jazz and American popular song, Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) is one of the few singers whose work transcends generations and musical genres. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.

Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra. She worked with all the jazz greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole, to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman.  In 1987, United States President Ronald Reagan awarded Ella the National Medal of Arts. It was one of her most prized moments. France followed suit several years later, presenting her with their Commander of Arts and Letters award, while Yale, Dartmouth and several other universities bestowed Ella with honorary doctorates.

Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was born  1899 in Washington, D.C. (1899 - 1974). By the time of his passing, he was considered amongst the world’s greatest composers and musicians.

Ellington called his style and sound "American Music" rather than jazz, and liked to describe those who impressed him as "beyond category", including many of the musicians who served with his orchestra, some of whom were themselves considered among the giants of jazz and remained with Ellington's orchestra for decades. While many were noteworthy in their own right, it was Ellington that melded them into one of the most well-known orchestral units in the history of jazz.

Some of Ellington’s greatest works include “Rockin’ in Rhythm,” “Satin Doll,” “New Orleans,” “A Drum is a Women,” “Take the 'A' Train,” “Happy-Go-Lucky Local,” “The Mooche,” and “Crescendo in Blue.” Duke Ellington wrote and recorded hundreds of musical compositions, all of which will continue to have a lasting effect upon people worldwide for a long time to come.

Duke Ellington - Satin Doll

Chesney Henry “Chet” Baker Jr. (born,  in Yale, Oklahoma, 1929 - 1988). Raised in a musical household in Oklahoma (his father was a guitar player) Baker found success as a trumpet player in 1951 when he was chosen by Charlie Parker to play with him for a series of West Coast engagements.  Specializing in relaxed, even melancholy music, Baker rose to prominence as a leading name in cool jazz in the 1950s. Baker's good looks and smoldering, intimate singing voice established him as a promising name in pop music as well.

Baker recorded extensively throughout his career, mainly because of his overwhelming need for money to buy drugs. As a result, his discography is considered widely uneven. However, some of Baker's European recordings, made near the end of his career, reveal a more mature and, at times, brilliant talent with simplicity and depth beyond his previous work.

Chet Baker - Live In '64 & '79

One of the most admired pianists in jazz, Oscar Peterson (born in Montreal, Quebec, 1925 -2007)  has rightfully claimed the same sort of status as earlier greats such as Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, and Bill Evans. Possibly the most successful artist produced by Canada, he appeared on well over 200 albums spanning six decades and won numerous awards, including eight Grammys. During his career he performed and recorded with, among others, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker. He was beyond doubt an authentic jazz piano virtuoso, with a remarkable and prolific legacy of recordings and performances.

Peterson wrote pieces for piano, for trio, for quartet and for big band. He also wrote several songs, and made recordings as a singer. Probably his best-known compositions are "Canadiana Suite" and "Hymn to Freedom," the latter composed in the 1960s and inspired by the U.S. civil rights movement.

Oscar Peterson - You Look Good To Me

Dexter Keith Gordon was born in L.A., California, (1923 - 1990) and is considered to be the first musician to translate the language of Bebop to the tenor saxophone.  In 1944, Dexter joined the Billy Eckstine band, the source of many of the Bebop innovators of the time and many of the most prominent bandleaders in the future.

Many would characterise Gordon's sound as being 'large' and spacious (a feature partially owed to his big'n'tall physical stature), and his tendency to play behind the beat is discernible. One of his major influences was Lester Young. Gordon, in turn, was an early influence on John Coltrane. Similarities in their styles include their clear, strong, metallic tones, their tendencies to bend up to high notes, and their abilities to single-tongue and still swing. One of Gordon's idiosyncrasies was to recite the lyrics of each ballad before playing.

Dexter Gordon - Alone Together, Part 1

Eunice Waymon known as Nina Simone was born in Tryon, North Carolina, (1933 - 2003).  In the late 50's Nina Simone recorded her first tracks for the Bethlehem label. These are still remarkable displays of her talents as a pianist, singer, arranger and composer.  Although she disliked being categorized, Simone is generally classified as a jazz musician. She preferred the term "Black Classical Music" herself.

Sometimes her voice changes from dark and raw to soft and sweet. She pauses, shouts, repeats, whispers and moans. Sometimes piano, voice and gestures seem to be separate elements, then, at once, they meet. Add to this all the way she puts her spell on an audience, and you have some of the elements that make Nina Simone into a unique artist.

Nina Simone - Ain't Got No...I've Got Life

Over the past 40 years, Keith Jarrett (Born, 1945 in Allentown, Pennsylvania) has come to be recognized as one of the most creative musicians of our times - universally acclaimed as an improviser of unsurpassed genius; a master of jazz piano; a classical keyboardist of great depth; and as a composer who has written hundreds of pieces for his various jazz groups, plus extended works for orchestra, soloist, and chamber ensemble.

Keith Jarrett was the first musician to ever perform improvised music at several of the world's most important music venues. In 1978 he performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York; 1990 at the Musikverein in Vienna; 1991 at the Vienna State Opera (Staatsoper); and 1995 at La Scala in Milan. Also in July 2004, he was presented with the Miles Davis Prize by the 25th Anniversary of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal.  He played with Miles Davis at the opening of the Cascais Jazz Festival in 1971.

Keith Jarrett Solo Concert

Throughout a professional career lasting 50 years, Miles Dewey Davis Jr  (born in Alton, Illinois, 1926 -1991) played the trumpet in a lyrical, introspective, and melodic style, often employing a stemless harmon mute to make his sound more personal and intimate. But if his approach to his instrument was constant, his approach to jazz was dazzlingly protean. To examine his career is to examine the history of jazz from the mid-'40s to the early '90s, since he was in the thick of almost every important innovation and stylistic development in the music during that period, and he often led the way in those changes, both with his own performances and recordings and by choosing sidemen and collaborators who forged the new directions.

His greatest achievement as a musician, however, was to move beyond being regarded as a distinctive and influential stylist on his own instrument and to shape whole styles and ways of making music through the work of his bands, in which many of the most important jazz musicians of the second half of the Twentieth Century made their names.  In 1971, Miles Davis was the musician that started the Cascais Jazz Festival.