Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Joel Dorn, a Grammy Award-winning record producer who first made a name for himself while at Atlantic Records in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, died on Monday from a heart attack in New York City at the age of 65.
Dorn’s discography stretches from the multiplatinum soul sounds of Roberta Flack to the jazz of Rahsaan Roland Kirk. He helped introduce Bette Midler and the funky New Orleans r&b of the Neville Brothers. His name can be found on the back of recordings by Les McCann and Eddie Harris, Mose Allison, Yusef Lateef, Leon Redbone, Peter Allen, Don Mclean, the Allman Brothers Band, David “Fathead” Newman, Donny Hathaway and Mongo Santamaria.
From an early age, Dorn knew he wanted to be in the music business, specifically for Atlantic Records. At 14, he began correspondence with the label’s co-founder Nesuhi Ertegun.
In 1961, Dorn began his career as a disc jockey at the Philadelphia jazz radio station WHAT-FM.
Ertegun offered Dorn the chance to produce one record by an artist of his choice for Atlantic Jazz in 1963. Dorn chose Hubert Laws, a young flutist he had seen in Philly performing with Santamaria’s band. The resulting album, The Laws Of Jazz, would become the first of many production credits to follow.
When Rhino began to reissue the Atlantic jazz catalog in 1993, Dorn spearheaded the campaign, producing and annotating nearly two dozen titles. In addition to his work for Atlantic and Rhino, Dorn released archival recordings on his own labels Night, M, and 32 Records (including the Jazz For A Rainy Afternoon compilations).
At the time of his death, Dorn was completing a five CD box set for Rhino Handmade entitled Homage A Nesuhi, serving as a tribute to his mentor Ertegun and their years together at Atlantic. He was also the voice of Sirius Satellite Radio’s “Pure Jazz” channel.
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
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In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
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Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
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If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
Jan 16, 2025 2:02 PM
In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
