Articles by Louis Heckheimer

27th Havana International Jazz Festival: Havana, Cuba, December 15-18, 2011

by Louis Heckheimer
January 11, 2012

27th Havana International Jazz Festival Havana International Jazz Festival Plaza Havana, Cuba December 15-18, 2011 [Note: This is the second of a series of articles reporting on concerts and other activities that took place, as well as profiles of Cuban musicians who took part.] The Havana International Jazz Festival originated in 1979 when Cuban trumpet player Bobby Carcasses and others held a jazz festival at the Casa de la Cultura de Plaza in ...

Havana Plaza Jazz Festival 2011: US Interests Section Jazz Party

by Louis Heckheimer
December 28, 2011

27th Havana Plaza Jazz FestivalHavana, CubaDecember 15-18, 2011 [Note: The Havana Plaza Jazz Festival took place in Havana, Cuba from December 15th through the 18th, 2011. This is the first of a series of articles reporting on concerts and other activities that took place as well as profiles of Cuban musicians that took part.] Jazz has found a home in Cuba due to the close proximity of Havana to New Orleans; documentation suggests ...

Tom McDermott / Evan Christopher: Almost Native

by Louis Heckheimer
November 12, 2011

Avant-garde art has been described as seeking innovation through experimentation, preferring novelty to formula and defying existing convention. The term “avant-garde traditionalism" could be a way to describe the music of New Orleans pianist Tom McDermott. Although it is rooted in the traditions of his adopted city, he pushes boundaries with his quirky compositions and interest in eclectic styles, such as Brazilian choro, McDermott, active there since 1984, is not as well known outside of New Orleans as he deserves ...

Gerald Wilson: New York, NY, September 30, 2011

by Louis Heckheimer
October 22, 2011

Gerald Wilson, Anthony Wilson, Eric Otis and the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, New York, NY September 30, 2011 There are jazz players who've had extended careers, and then there's Gerald Wilson. The veteran composer, arranger and big band leader might well be able to claim the longest major recording career in jazz. First recorded in 1939 as a member of Jimmie Lunceford's Orchestra, Gerald Wilson celebrated the release of his most recent CD, ...

Denny Zeitlin: Slickrock

by Louis Heckheimer
June 1, 2004

Denny Zeitlin, one of the most senior but least known of the great jazz piano innovators to arise from the ‘60s, makes his MaxJazz debut with Slickrock. With bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt Wilson (his working trio), he explores a collection of three originals, six arrangements of jazz standards and a suite reminiscing about his mountain biking trips in Utah.

They open with a swinging “You and the Night and the Music," expanding into a probing of ...

Various: The Big Horn: The Complete History of the Honkin' and Screamin' Saxophone

by Louis Heckheimer
May 20, 2004

Prior to the late 1930s the trumpet was king of the jazz jungle. Coleman Hawkins, along with Lester Young and Chu Berry, established the solo role of the tenor sax in the jazz world and showed what it was capable of. It was not until the 1940s with the rise of Lionel Hampton's Big Band and Illinois Jacquet's solo on “Flying Home” that the voice of the tenor sax became confirmed as the dominant horn in the popular mind.

'The Last of the First', A Jazz Documentary

by Louis Heckheimer
May 19, 2004

This year's Tribeca Film Festival was held from May 1st through the 9th. The Last of the First , a documentary by Anja Baron was of interest to jazz fans. This film explores the world of the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band, a group put together by Al Volmer, an orthodontist and amateur jazz musician in 1973 to give an opportunity to play for aging musicians who were veterans of the big bands of the 1920s and 1930s. It is ...