Graeme Bell
When pianist Graeme Bell (1914-1912) retired in his early 90s, he was able to look back at a 70 year...
Month: May 2020
Jazz in Papua New Guinea
The country of Papua New Guinea, with its population of more than 8 million, maintains a jazz element in its...
Flora Purim
Flora Purim (born 1942) was born in Rio de Janeiro. She studeied piano and guitar, and then percussion with Airto...
Paloma Efron
Paloma Efron (1912-1977) was Argentina's first professional jazz singer, but is better remembered as a leading broadcast journalist. She grew...
Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba (1932-2008) was so important as an ambassador for African music and the struggle against apartheid, that her importance...
Manu Dibango
Manu Dibango (1933-2020) was a sad victim of COVID-19 when he died at 86 on March 24th 2020. He was...
Oliver Jones
Oliver Jones (born 1934) did not release his debut album until shortly before his 50th birthday. Much of his music...
Jazz in Canada
Canada's proximity to USA meant that it received authentic touring jazz groups before any other country. Freddie Keppard's Original Creole...
Jazz in China
Following the collapse of the Qing dynasty and the chaos of the Boxer rebellion in the early part of the...
Oleg Lundstrem
Oleg Lundstrem (1916-2005) ran the earliest (and longest lived) big band in Russia. He was born in Chita in Eastern...
