Articles by Karen Hogg

The Future of the Music Business: How to Succeed With The New Digital Technologies

by Karen Hogg
April 25, 2010

The Future Of The Music Business: How To Succeed With The New Digital Technologies Steve Gordon 362 pages (second edition) ISBN: 00331939 paper Hal Leonard 2008

Much has been written about the steady decline of CD sales and the rise of illegal downloading. The record industry has scrambled for a solution, only to alienate many of its customers with lawsuits targeting everyone accused of file sharing from students ...

Peter Mazza: Through My Eyes

by Karen Hogg
December 12, 2009

On Through My Eyes, guitarist Peter Mazza explores a diverse range of tones and sonic palettes, combining jazz sensibilities with a rock aesthetic. Mazza, a 1995 semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, might ruffle the feathers of jazz traditionalists with overdubbing and use of steel string acoustic (in open tunings no less), but the result of this forward thinking style is a recording that brims with energy and creativity. “Burned," a funky, danceable track, starts ...

Noah Baerman Trio: Bliss

by Karen Hogg
November 12, 2009

Bliss, the new CD from pianist Noah Baerman's trio, is a collection of nine original compositions by the leader, a respected player and jazz educator. It is extremely rare for a recording to translate effectively the energy an ensemble has during a live performance. Bliss successfully manages to be an exception to this phenomenon. For starters, CD opener “Second Sunrise" feels like the first song of a set. The tune, which features shifting time signatures, is a ...

Jazz Notes: Interviews Across the Generations

by Karen Hogg
September 12, 2009

Jazz Notes: Interviews Across the Generations Sanford Josephson Softcover; 208 pages ISBN: 0313357005 Praeger 2009 Jazz Notes is more than just a compilation of interviews with jazz greats. In addition to talks with luminaries like Hoagy Carmichael and Dave Brubeck, it includes updated conversations with those who are still living, as well as musicians who played with or were influenced by them. While admittedly not comprehensive, it does ...

Jeff "Siege" Siegel: Live in Europe

by Karen Hogg
August 2, 2009

Drummer/composer Jeff Siegel's Live in Europe presents highlights from two radio shows recorded overseas in 2005. Siegel's quartet--tenor saxophonist Erica Lindsay, pianist Francesca Tanksley and bassist Danton Boller--perform four of Siegel's compositions as well as tunes by Tanksley and Lindsay. Lindsay's opening “Elvin's Circle" is a moody, propulsive tribute to the great drummer Elvin Jones, with searing and rhythmic playing from its composer. Siegel's “Rag Tag" starts off with a hypnotic, repetitive groove and transitions into two ...

Michael Jefry Stevens: Eastern Boundary Quartet, Michael Jefry Stevens Trio, Conference Call & Southern Excursion Quartet

by Karen Hogg
March 7, 2009

Eastern Boundary QuartetEastern Boundary Quartet Biem Artisjus2008 Michael Jefry StevensFor AndrewKonnex2008 Conference CallPoetry in MotionClean Feed2008 Southern Excursion QuartetTrading PostARC2008 Pianist Michael Jefry Stevens has enjoyed a prolific musical journey but collaboration could be seen as the inspiration ...

Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever

by Karen Hogg
January 18, 2009

Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington Hardcover; 304 pages ISBN: 0312327854 Thomas Dunne Books 2008

Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever is an in-depth exploration of the music made by two jazz icons, trumpeter Davis and saxophonist Coltrane: the recordings they made both together ...

Guitar Duets: Elliott Sharp/Scott Fields & Garrison Fewell/Eric Hofbauer

by Karen Hogg
January 10, 2009

Elliott Sharp/Scott Fields Scharfefelder Clean Feed 2008 Garrison Fewell/Eric Hofbauer The Lady of Khartoum Creative Nation Music 2008

Guitar duos present many possibilities for intrepid musicians. Such pairings can be opportunities for boundary-pushing sonic explorations. Scharfefelder, a collaboration between guitarists Elliott Sharp and Scott Fields, is a frenetic ...

Gene Bertoncini / Roni Ben-Hur: Jazz Therapy, Volume 1: Smile

by Karen Hogg
November 19, 2008

Smile, the inaugural CD from Motema's Jazz Therapy series, comes from guitarists Gene Bertoncini and Roni Ben-Hur and benefits a very worthy cause. The proceeds from the album, the first recorded collaboration between the pair, go to the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial Fund at Englewood Hospital, providing free medical care to jazz musicians in need. The music is beautiful and, dare one say, therapeutic. The guitarists work well together, with Bertoncini's lyrical nylon string work complementing Ben-Hur's more ...

Brazilian Trio: Forests

by Karen Hogg
August 13, 2008

Forests marks the auspicious debut of the Brazilian Trio--pianist Helio Alves, bassist Nilson Matta and drummer Duduka Da Fonseca--three musicians already well known in Brazilian jazz circles, having played with an impressive list of Latin icons, including Paquito D'Rivera, Rosa Passos and Antonio Carlos Jobim. While the traditional piano trio format serves them well, the group's bicultural background takes the music deeper. All three hail from Brazil yet have made New York their home. Alves' improvising sounds ...