Gallery 41 Interview with a Jazz Legend - David Axelrod (#15)

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DATE :
Entered in Database : 2007-05-02 13:00:00
length : 14474243
Link to the Show / Show Notes

Composer, Arranger, Producer David Axelrod, born and raised in Southern California was there making history in the center of a thriving Jazz scene in South Central Los Angeles that rivaled any other. A young author, a truck driver, a light-welterweight boxer who lost only 1 of his 16 bouts before turning to music in the 1950’s when he learned how to operate a sound board and began producing records by Gerald Wiggins and Buddy Collette. The album most often credited as his first Jazz project is The Fox by saxophonist Harold Land featuring the underrated trumpeter Dupree Bolton and pianist Elmo Hope. In the 1960’s he produced the first Jazz recording to earn a place in the top 10 on the Billboard charts (number 2 with a bullet to be more exact)….Mercy, Mercy, Mercy written by Joe Zawinul and recorded by Cannonball Adderley. David and Cannon, as he refers to him, were the closest of friends. Other projects through the 60’s and 70’s included multiple hits by Lou Rawls / eclectic rock by The Electric Prunes / and the hard-swinging big band of Stan Kenton. He’s earned 1 Grammy, 5 nominations, and 7 Gold Records.

Now there is a new project. A wonderful package that contains both an audio cd and a dvd of a concert at Royal Festival Hall in London as part of the Ether Festival on March 17, 2004. The project was produced and directed by his son Dana Axelrod.

Recorded and produced for Gallery 41 by Ron J. Pelletier

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