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Welcome
to the Jazz Society of Oregon's Website
(Last
Update 8/2/2010)
We are proud to be part of a
vibrant Jazz community in the Pacific Northwest. On this site, you will
find original articles on local clubs, musicians, and events, as well
as, reviews of Jazz recordings, a great calendar and information about
Jazz Society activities.
Dive in, enjoy the articles,
give us some feedback.
August
Highlights:
Frank Tribble is the featured musician for August, and
updates have been made to the
jazz
calendar, the
upcoming events and the CD Reviews.
Become
a member and you will receive the monthly JazzScene magazine
containing features and articles not available on the website. Here is
an
excerpt from the August 2010 edition.
He arrived on the scene
just as the Swing Era
ended, but Sonny Russo worked
for the most famous bandleaders of the
day, and though he moved on to Broadway
and TV shows, for a section man
in the top big bands, 1947-1958 were ...
The
Best
Years
Sonnny Russo and the Big Band Era
By Lynn Darroch
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The music industry is always changing. And
the experiences of Sonny Russo in the 1950s show how one musician
navigated change in the 1950s.
Russo got his union card in 1945, when he turned 16, and he started
playing weddings and other casuals with his father. When he graduated
from high school in 1947, he went on the road with the Buddy Morrow
Band. A year later, the Swing Era had ended, and fewer and fewer big
band jobs were available for a trombone player. In fact, said Russo,
retired now and living in Milwaukie, Oregon, “The only bands
going then were Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie and Woody Herman; Benny
Goodman and Artie Shaw were on and off.”
Russo never had a problem getting jobs, though. And for the next 10
years, he played with the top bands that remained, on the road and in
recording and radio studios. By the time he’d finished with
Maynard Ferguson and taken a last tour with Benny Goodman in 1961, the
Brooklyn-born Russo was working full time in New York, on Broadway
shows and in TV and recording studios, working with the likes of Frank
Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Lena Horn.
He was aware that the industry was changing, and he moved with it.
“But it was great to be with these guys I had grown up
listening to on radio and records,” he said of those last
days on the band bus.
Here’s how Russo recalls those last great years of the big
bands in America.
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….continued
in the August 2010 Jazzscene ….
Get
your own
copy of JazzScene magazine by becoming
a Jazz Society member.
Join now!
For
over
30 years, the Jazz
Society of Oregon has had a simple mission: to promote "America's
Original Art Form" by promoting jazz musicians, sponsoring jazz
students and entertaining jazz audiences.
As a
non-profit
organization, we sponsor shows and educational workshops. And we've
helped hundreds of young musicians improve their skills by giving out
tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships and grants.
The
Jazzscene magazine is
Oregon's premier jazz magazine and keeps you in-the-know on who's
playing with whom in the northwest, where you can find them, what
they're up to, and more. Subscription is free with your paid membership
in the Society.
Ultimately,
the JSO is a
fellowship of jazz lovers: the musicians and their partners in the art
form--their audiences.
UNITED WE JAZZ
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