Every city loves its homegrown musical heroes. Here in the Valley, alternative bands Meat Puppets and, lately, Gin Blossoms have scored huge national successes, and we’ve rightfully cheered them every inch of the way. Now, imagine having played on more than 100 albums, not one of which your old Phoenix…

You’re a quiz-show contestant asked to define the word “jazz.” Uh-oh. Is it the old-timey, street-marching, New Orleans music of Louis Armstrong, the squealing cacophony of saxman Ornette Coleman, or the big-band sounds of Duke Ellington? Does your definition also cover the slick, cool, West Coast 50s sounds of Chet…

The young female clerks of Gabriella’s, Rio de Janeiro’s most famous chain of open-air record markets, dance in the store aisles to both American jazz and traditional Brazilian music. No question, there are a lot worse ways to shop for music than watching these dark-haired Cariocas twist and jabber in…

Arizona’s ties with the world of jazz are flimsy. Trumpeter Art Farmer was raised in Phoenix, and sax giant Charlie Parker probably spent the night in cactus country on his way to a lengthy stint in Los Angeles. And, uh, did I mention Art Farmer? At first, another Arizona jazz…

If you think that sex and music began with the cock-in-a-sock antics of the Red Hot Chili Peppers or the funkin’ rhythms of the earthiest hip-hop bands, think again. James Brown and 70s artists like Funkadelic and Rick James blatantly built careers on the theme of “getting in the groove”–hardly…

One Foot in the Grave Lookin’ Good! Who’s Your Embalmer? (Triple X) Move over, California, Arizona now has the dubious distinction of being the novelty-rock-act capital of the world. We’ve even got both ends of the age spectrum covered–tots (Litl’ Willie) and the tottering (One Foot in the Grave). In…

You may think your city is glutted with local talent, but vocalist Jerry Lawson of a cappella group the Persuasions remembers when live music was on every street corner in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant section. The year was 1962, and the neighborhood’s homegrown music was a far cry from today’s horde of…

After 365 days and nearly that many albums listened to, the Sun Tracks staff (with a little help from their friends) gets serious and decides on the best of 1992. Robert Baird Sun Tracks editor 1. Jimmy Scott, All the Way (Reprise). Album of the millennium. Lured out of retirement…

There was a time when jazz pianists sounded so unique they could be identified in just a handful of notes. Bill Evans’ light touch was pensive and intellectualized. Bud Powell tore off roller-coaster twists of classical-influenced bebop. And Thelonious Monk hammered out lazy lines of chordal weirdness. Pianist McCoy Tyner,…

Sex Madonna (Warner Books) Give the woman credit. She pushes our buttons and we open our wallets. It’s that simple. Never mind that Erotica, the album that goes with the book, is a dance-beat stiff. That’s not a concern, because money, not music, is Madonna’s muse. Despite the hype, this…

While a big-band arranger and pianist in the Forties, Herman “Sonny” Blount developed a fascination for Egyptian mythology and science-fiction-laced mysticism. The influences became obsessions, leading him to change his name and begin insisting he had been born on Saturn. Taking the name Sun Ra, after the Egyptian sun god…

It’s an unfortunate fact that crooners and saloon singers tend to age into a fine whine. Frank Sinatra has become the grumpy, croaking godfather; Wayne Newton the willing Vegas parody; Andy Williams and Robert Goulet the desperate guests on third-rate daytime talk shows. Only Tony Bennett stands as an undated,…

This installment in New Times’ occasional review of local music product could be called “The Young and the Restless.” Along with a couple of debut tapes by young bands, we also take a look at a tape and a single by the recently split Cryptics, led by Valley music veteran…

In 1963 the Who’s Pete Townshend made a shocking musical discovery. A fellow art-school student played an album by American jazz-blues pianist Mose Allison. My American friend,” recalls Townshend in the liner notes of an old Mose Allison reissue, grins like his eyeballs are on fire and produces the cover…

There’s something very intriguing about photographs of jazzman Al Di Meola. In every recent shot, the guitarist’s handsome looks are overshadowed by an uncomfortable intensity. Even when smiling, Di Meola conveys the kind of anger and pain seen in someone recently jilted. And in a sense, the jazz guitarist has…

It’s time for a long-overdue look at what kind of “product” is coming out of the local music scene. The number of tapes submitted was so large this time that one week won’t cover them all. Be prepared for a second installment to run soon. The variety of local music…

It began when Elvis Presley became Mr. Sex” by humping the air on The Ed Sullivan Show. It spread when the Rolling Stones secured their bad-boy image by grinning through drug arrests, and when John Lennon declared himself a saint through his more popular than Jesus” pontificating. Shock value and…

Although every record label wants to claim it was the first, no one really knows who invented the boxed set. Usually comprising a cardboard box, a handful of CDs and a book full of pictures, boxed sets focus on the music of a single artist, time period or genre. A…

AZMC ’91: PLAYING FOR KEEPS Ahhh . . . there’s nothing like a music conference. Musicians of every size, taste and hair style steal into town. Music-business people–everyone from writers and deejays to promoters and record-company executives–fly in and schmooze themselves silly. During the day, everyone drifts in and out…

Several years ago, jazz pianist Billy Taylor received an unusual request. The prestigious Juilliard String Quartet asked him to compose a piece that combined jazz with classical music. Although George Gershwin and Aaron Copland had explored the jazz-classical overlap, the area was largely uncharted territory. The work Taylor came up…

Evelyn Grgurich remembers the first time the lineup for this year’s Sedona Jazz on the Rocks festival was discussed. “I brought up Pat Metheny’s name a few times,” she recalls, referring to the experimental jazz guitarist. A seven-year member of the Jazz on the Rocks board, Grgurich also served a…