contemporary jazz
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Kombo Brings the Joy with Pretty Solid
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Kombo – the long-running contemporary jazz duo of Hammond B3 player Ron Pedley and guitarist John Pondel – return with Pretty Solid, their second album for Shanachie. The project highlights the pair’s 40-year musical partnership, first sparked at a Barry Manilow rehearsal in 1984 and strengthened through their time together in the funk-jazz band Uncle…
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Kombo – The Big Blast 1999 Debut Recording
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The Big Blast, the debut album by Kombo, is a rare but welcome musical happening: a “family” affair written, rehearsed, and recorded by two close friends. Propelled by Ron Pedley’s Hammond B3 organ along with vintage keyboards such as the Rhodes and Wurlitzer pianos, and Jon Pondel’s distinctive jazz-tinged guitar playing, The Big Blast recalls…
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Happy Birthday, George Whitty
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Celebrating the birthday of George Whitty today, September 4! Whitty is a keyboardist, composer, record producer, audio engineer, and music educator. I know him best for his recordings with Michael Brecker and Randy Brecker, including two of my favorites: Return of the Brecker Brothers and Out of the Loop. Looks like he just wrapped a…
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charts, contemporary jazz, david sanborn, george benson, george howard, lee ritenour, miles davis, spyro gyraStanley Jordan Tops the Top Jazz Albums – August 3, 1985
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ContemporaryJazz.com is looking back at the Billboard Jazz Chart from 40 years ago. This was published before the magazine split the chart into Top Contemporary Jazz Albums and Top Jazz Albums. There was quite a mix of artists on this chart: Sade to Maynard Ferguson to Yellowjackets to George Winston. Magic Touch, the debut recording…
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Allan Harris Blends Jazz and Verse in New Live Album
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Allan Harris’s The Poetry of Jazz: Live at Blue LLama is more than a live album—it’s a vibrant homage to the power of jazz as a storytelling art form. Recorded at Ann Arbor’s Blue LLama Jazz Club, the album blends Harris’s signature vocals and guitar with an inspired mix of jazz standards, original compositions, and…