Articles by Douglas Groothuis
Joel Ross Live at Dazzle
by Douglas Groothuis
Joel Ross QuartetDazzlejny:Denver, COAugust 16, 2022 Vibraphonist Joel Ross held top billing with his hot quartet at Dazzle Jazz on Friday night. Ross's debut was the acclaimed 2019 KingMaker, on Blue Note. This was followed by Who are You? (2020) and the pensive and soulful octet recording, Parable of the Poet (2022), both on Blue Note. Having been mentored and taught by vibraphonist Stefon Harris in 2017, Ross won the DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star ...
read moreTop Jazz-Rock Fusion Recordings
by Douglas Groothuis
The emergence of jazz-rock fusion in American music in the late 1960s was controversial. To some, those who played it were traitors to the cause of jazz. Others thought it has saved jazz from extinction. Sometime in the 1960s, rock had eclipsed jazz in popularity in America, and many jazz aficionados were none too happy about that. Even folk had gone electric when Bob Dylan plugged in his guitar at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. At that, some shouted ...
read moreThe Sound I Saw
by Douglas Groothuis
This article was co-written with Joshua Bleeker. The Sound I Saw Roy DeCarava 208 pages ISBN: # 13: 978-1644230107 David Zwirner Books 2019 When two or more art forms combine, they may serve and harmonize and support each other or they may clash. The sound I saw combines felicitously three art forms: jazz, photography, and poetry. It is a large (10.25 x 1.2 x 13.25 ...
read moreChasin' the Bird: Charlie Parker in California
by Douglas Groothuis
Chasin' the Bird: Charlie Parker in California David Chisholm: writing drawing and lettering; Peter Markowski: colors 144 Pages ISBN: 978-1940878386 (13) Z2 Comics 2020 History remembers (and misremembers) the greats of human achievement. They are celebrated, critiqued, deemed over-rated, deemed under-rated, interpreted, and reinterpreted through myriad forms of expression, such as books, articles, films, poems, and plays. Charlie Parker (aka Bird), the alto saxophonist and composer, is one such great as a pioneer ...
read moreOn Missing Live Jazz
by Douglas Groothuis
This pandemic has snatched much from us through its reign of disease and death. We have lost family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances to COVID-19. Millions have lost jobs or fear losing them. By all accounts, the whole thing stinks. We try to cling to what remains, and we hope and pray for restoration. How does all this upheaval affect the jazz world? We have lost a host of old and not-so-old jazz luminaries to this disease, such as ...
read moreJazz and the Dream of Martin Luther King, Jr.
by Douglas Groothuis
Without jazz, there may have been no “I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr. Delivered at the August 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, this historic oratory is most known for improvisation--a skill without which there is no jazz--that was not found in his original written text. Moreover, the very spirit of the civil rights movement owes much to jazz, as Dr. King himself said, as we will find. Mahalia Jackson was ...
read moreGoodbye, Ellis Marsalis, Jazz Father
by Douglas Groothuis
The COVID-19 Reaper has claimed another senior statesman of pianist and educator, Ellis Marsalis, who left us on April 1. He was 85 and died in his home city of jny: New Orleans, which has recently ignited as a hot spot for the menace virus. We will likely lose many senior jazz performers in the coming weeks and months. As the Hebrew Psalmist wrote of God and death. You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, ...
read moreJazz and the Meaning of Life
by Douglas Groothuis
I find jazz meaningful and delightful for a happy riot of reasons: its grand tradition and respect for standards, its uniquely American (but also global) identity, its breaking of color barriers, its persistence through changing musical fashions (jazz will never die), its courageous freedom within beautiful forms, and more. Therefore, I was fascinated to find that the prolific literary critic and philosopher Terry Eagleton likens the meaning of life to a jazz performance. That sounds promising! In his ...
read moreEdward Green: Delighting in the Duke
by Douglas Groothuis
Duke Ellington's music can be enjoyed on many levels by many people. The simple lover of good music can revel in his more memorable tunes--snap their fingers or dance to “Take the A-Train," “Perdido" or “It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got that Swing." Or they may pause reflectively while listening to “Mood Indigo." They might watch video performances and delight in Duke's sly smile, ever-hip demeanor, and way with spoken words. The jazz aficionado, such as myself, ...
read moreGood Vibes, Bad Vibes: Jazz in Film
by Douglas Groothuis
Several films about jazz depict troubled and vice-ridden musicians, such as Charlie Parker, in Bird, and Chet Baker, in Born to be Blue. I walked out of the latter after twenty minutes of excessive obscenity, graphic vice, and general disgust. These films reinforce the idea that jazz is associated with illegal activities, illicit sex, and generally flawed character. The Miles Davies film, Miles Ahead, gives the same picture. I will not watch that movie, since I already know enough about ...
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