Articles tagged "jazz"

Music Review

Mulatu Astatke: New York, Addis, London; The Story of Ethio Jazz 1965-1975

by Deanne Sole

[17.Nov.09] :. Astatke has a great capacity for intelligent play, the James Joyce kind of innovation that isn't afraid to be slangy and entertaining at the same time that it chases a serious purpose.

Recent Music reviews

Capsule Reviews

Carla Bley: Carla’s Christmas Carols

by Richard Elliott

[11.Nov.09] :. These beautifully arranged pieces place this among the really enjoyable and surprising Christmas albums.

Capsule Reviews

Capsule Reviews

Mario Adnet & Philippe Baden Powell: Afrosambajazz: The Music of Baden Powell

by Richard Elliott

[4.Nov.09] :. Brazilian guitarist and composer Baden Powell has his music treated to rich and beautiful jazz arrangements.

Capsule Reviews

Column: Retro Remote

Pete Kelly’s Blues

by Kit MacFarlane

[20.Oct.09] :. Jack Webb's glum radio series 'Pete Kelly's Blues' is a sigh of a tribute to the roaring '20s, a melancholic parade of blistering jazz and the pointlessness of its own nostalgia.

Recent columns

Film DVD Review

Easy Virtue

by Alistair Dickinson

[23.Sep.09] :. Noel Coward's play is brought to the screen with Jessica Biel in the lead role, but the film loses much of the bite of the stage version.

Recent DVD reviews

Music Feature

Robert Glasper Loves the Groove

by Thomas Hauner

[27.Aug.09] :. On the eve of his third Blue Note release, Double Booked, jazz pianist Robert Glasper discusses his stylistic bifurcation, MC skills, and -- inevitably -- Michael Jackson's legacy.

Recent features

Upfull Living Or, A Tale of Two Album Covers

by Sean Murphy

[3.Aug.09] :. Part One: Pharoah Sanders Maybe you have to be a jazz aficionado to get excited by an album cover, but come on: How can you not love this? How can an album that looks like this not...

Ximena Sarinana: Mediocre

by Deanne Sole

[17.May.09] :. Her pop-soul tone has an indomitable spine.

Mélanie Dahan: La Princesse et les Croque-Notes

by Deanne Sole

[10.May.09] :. All of this is electric, attractive.

Ximo Tebar & Ivam Jazz Ensemble: Steps

by Deanne Sole

[5.May.09] :. There's heat in here, yet the listener is never allowed to forget that steady hands are in control.

Coltrane: The Story of a Sound by Ben Ratliff

by Zeth Lundy

[5.Apr.09] :. Ratliff eschews the typical trappings of routine biography to plumb more profound ideas of musical language, identity, and influence.

Jenny Scheinman: Crossing

by Will Layman

[10.Dec.08] :. The jazz/Americana/anything violinist creates a new set of riveting soundscapes.

Miles on Miles, ed Paul Maher Jr., Michael K. Dorr

by Michael Patrick Brady

[24.Nov.08] :. Davis never wanted to stop moving, always wanted to be doing something, pissing somebody off, and driving people wild.

Various Artists: Assemblage 1998-2008

by Mark W. Adams

[18.Jul.08] :. Cryptogramophone's triumphant 2-CD retrospective is highly listenable, accessible, and immensely engaging. What is the opposite of under the radar? Cryptogramophone is headed there.

Follow Your Heart: Moving with the Giants of Jazz, Swing, and Rhythm and Blues by Joe Evans

by Gabriel Baker

[28.May.08] :. It's fun discovering that Jackie Wilson used to be a prizefighter or imagining band members waking up a drugged-out Charlie Parker right before his solo.

Huong Thanh & Nguyen Le: Fragile Beauty

by Deanne Sole

[21.Feb.08] :. This, the fourth album from these two Paris-based musicians, is a combination of squashy-soft jazz guitar and needle-pointed Vietnamese voice, all angles and prisms. Huong Thanh sings, Nguyen...

Jazz by Bob Blumenthal

by Michael Patrick Brady

[12.Feb.08] :. This book serves as a shotgun blast, peppering the uninitiated with information as broadly and deeply as possible, and as a crash course in the genre.

Coltrane: The Story of a Sound by Ben Ratliff

by Chris Vognar [The Dallas Morning News (MCT)]

[8.Jan.08] :. Story of a Sound isn't just the story of a sound. It's a piece of jazz criticism that passionately questions and enhances the role of jazz criticism.

In the age of downloads, CDs still reign in jazz

by Howard Reich [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[20.Dec.07] :. Somehow, in the age of downloads, iPods, file sharing and what-not, great jazz keeps turning up on compact disc. The proof lies in this year’s best recordings, which range from the vastness of...

Various: The Rough Guide to the Music of Paris

by Deanne Sole

[17.Dec.07] :. It's as if World Music Network wanted to release a follow-up to their Rough Guide to Paris Café Music but for some reason decided that it wasn't complete without a bit of Putumayo tucked in front of it.

Jazz great Sonny Rollins says improvisation is in his blood

by Mark Stryker [Detroit Free Press (MCT)]

[9.Oct.07] :. 12 CLASSIC SONNY ROLLINS SOLOS “St. Thomas” (1956). Rollins’ landmark calypso inaugurated his lifelong fascination with Caribbean rhythms while the marriage of...

Arturo Sandoval is on a mission to elevate jazz

by Jordan Levin [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[11.Sep.07] :. Arturo Sandoval is a big man. Makes a big sound on the trumpet, big gestures, big talent, big cigar in his mouth whenever he’s not playing the horn. But it doesn’t slow him down. Right...

Joel Frahm: We Used to Dance

by Robert R. Calder

[29.Aug.07] :. A young tenor saxophonist of emotional range, with Kenny Barron in rhythm that can't be improved on.

At 67, Herbie Hancock hasn’t lost a bit of his go-for-broke attitude

by Mark Stryker [Detroit Free Press (MCT)]

[28.Aug.07] :. "Miles wanted to hear me. That set me free."

Akiko Tsuruga: Sweet and Funky

by Robert R. Calder

[24.Aug.07] :. A young organist for Japan who swings for herself.

Chris Byars: Photos in Black, White and Gray

by Jon Ross

[23.Aug.07] :. Though the CD bears his name, saxophonist Byars allows his quartet to solo, at length, on each of the album’s eight tracks. This could be an asset, but the musicians sound like they’re wandering through each instrument, trying to grab inspiration from the air.

Jazz drummer Max Roach dies

by Howard Reich [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[17.Aug.07] :. Like trumpet visionary Miles Davis, drummer Max Roach helped ignite several revolutions in jazz. From the bebop eruptions of the 1940s to the “cool jazz” style of the `50s, from the...

A Desire to Make Sound: The Arrival of Creative Guitar God Nels Cline

by Will Layman

[14.Aug.07] :. The jazz guitarist -- with Wilco, his trios, or anyone else -- opens up a conversation about how to keep this music living.

Jean Luc Ponty: The Acatama Experience

by Elizabeth Newton

[8.Aug.07] :. It is uplifting to hear modern jazz that is at once both easily accessible and startling creative.

Another jazz ‘Trane arriving on his own terms

by Tim Blangger [The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) (MCT)]

[17.Jul.07] :. More than 40 years after his death in 1967, John Coltrane, the iconic jazz saxophonist, still casts an imposing shadow over jazz. Ravi Coltrane, who never met his famous father, is well aware of his...

The Unconscious Realm: An Interview With Medeski, Martin & Wood Drummer Billy Martin

by Will Layman

[27.Jun.07] :. With the release of Mago, an album of duets with bandmate John Medeski, Billy Martin continues to pursue a personal vision of music without many boundaries, a pop-jazz-avant-garde combination that barely acknowledges the market while still sounding irresistible.

Somi: Red Soil in My Eyes

by Deanne Sole

[6.Jun.07] :. Red Soil is worth checking out, even if soft jazz is not usually your thing.

Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake: From the River to the Ocean

by Phillip Buchan

[24.Apr.07] :. A Chicago jazz vet surrounds himself with an eclectic mix of avant-garde musicians and post-rock types.

Pat Martino: El Hombre

by Will Layman

[23.Apr.07] :. A lovely Rudy Van Gelder-remastered reissue of the great guitarist's solo debut, a 1967 date with organ, flute, and speed

Ornette finally gets props

by Jason Gross

[19.Apr.07] :. It’s great that Ornette Coleman was honored by the Pulitzer board but looking back at his history and their history reveals some unpleasant truths about said board. ...

Jazz legend Dave Brubeck is still going strong at 86

by Michael G. Mooney [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[13.Apr.07] :. MODESTO, Calif.—There’s more to Dave Brubeck than the classic jazz composition “Take Five.” In fact, that haunting song, composed in 5/4 time, was written by the pianist and...

Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake: Back Together Again

by Patrick Sisson

[21.Apr.04] :. Back Together Again finally documents an amazing working relationship between two friends and musicians.

Fred Anderson: Back at the Velvet Lounge

by Robert R. Calder

[11.Feb.04] :. Fred Anderson has a lovely sound on tenor saxophone, bigger than Sonny Rollins and more on the lines of the sort of thing Charlie Rouse and Anderson’s fellow-Chicagoan Gene Ammons.

Pat Martino: Think Tank

by Scott Hreha

[12.Dec.03] :. Martino’s new release Think Tank is likely to raise more than a few eyebrows, as it marks a return to the modal-flavored hard bop upon which his reputation is largely based.

Fred Anderson: On the Run

by Marshall Bowden

[12.Nov.01] :. Fred Anderson is what jazz musicians have always been about—learning to craft their music over a lifetime, never feeling like they’ve “arrived”, and nurturing new generations of talent by providing an example and providing them with the opportunity to learn and grow in a supportive environment.

Pat Martino: Live at Yoshi’s

by Maurice Bottomley

[21.Jun.01] :. Martino, whose career stretches right back to supplying rock ‘n’ roll licks for the likes of Chubby Checker and Bobby Darin, first made his mark playing with some of the ‘60s’ best known organ combos. Even the most nostalgically inclined will have to admit that this current line-up is the equal to any of them. But remember—PLAY IT LOUD.