Articles by Thomas Conrad
Bill Anschell / Brent Jensen: We Couldn't Agree More
by Thomas Conrad
Wynton Marsalis recently said, “The hallmark of a first-class jazz musician is the ability to adapt." It is a paradoxical statement. But Marsalis is not using the term “adapt" in the Darwinian context of adaptation and natural selection. He does not mean adapting to, say, bad food on the road. He is referring to listening skills and lightning reflexes. Jazz improvisation is a moment-to-moment creative process of real-time interaction and discovery. It would be hard to find a ...
read moreHadley Caliman / Pete Christlieb: Reunion
by Thomas Conrad
At the end of the first decade of the new millennium, one of the most gratifying developments in jazz is the late blossoming of Hadley Caliman. In 2008, at 76, he released Gratitude, his first recording as a leader in 31 years. It was followed in 2010 by Straight Ahead. They created a buzz on the jazz street. It is not just that he has lasted long enough to finally get the attention he deserves. Hadley Caliman is currently playing ...
read moreRiccardo Arrighini: Cambio di Marcia
by Thomas Conrad
The first time I heard Riccardo Arrighini was at the Umbria Jazz Melbourne festival in Australia in May of 2005. It seems odd, as I look back on it, that I barely noticed him at the festival. The explanation is not that there were other, more famous Italian piano players there, like Stefano Bollani and Danilo Rea. The explanation must be that Arrighini appeared as a member of Francesco Cafiso's quartet. He only got to solo after Cafiso (15 at ...
read moreDino Betti van der Noot: Let Us Recount Our Dreams
by Thomas Conrad
The first time I heard the name Dino Betti van der Noot was in the early summer of 2023. My friend Enzo Capua called me and said that Dino was the best jazz composer in Italy and was looking for someone to write liner notes for his new album. I told Enzo I had too many commitments at the moment to take on another. Still, I was curious. Enzo is the Artistic Consultant to the Umbria Jazz Festival, ...
read moreAlfa Jazz Fest 2017
by Thomas Conrad
Alfa Jazz Fest 2017 Lviv, Ukraine June 23-27, 2017 Jazz festivals are different in Europe. There are more of them, and they are crucial to the economic viability, social solidarity and creative evolution of the jazz art form. Many European towns that host their own annual jazz events seem like unlikely sites for festivals. They are small, and/or industrial, and/or off the beaten path. In the case of Alfa Jazz Fest, in Lviv, Ukraine, ...
read moreBelgrade Jazz Festival 2016
by Thomas Conrad
2016 Belgrade Jazz Festival Belgrade, Serbia October 26-October 30, 2016 Because of the wars in the former Yugoslavia, the Belgrade Jazz Festival, like most good things in the Balkans, went dark for 15 years after 1990. When it started up again in 2005, it was small. By 2008, it was big enough to book names like The Bad Plus, Christian Scott and Patricia Barber. But even then, from the vantage point of the world jazz community, ...
read moreUmbria Jazz Festival 2014
by Thomas Conrad
Umbria Jazz Festival 2014 Perugia, Italy July 11-20, 2014 There are many jazz festivals held in beautiful places. There are many festivals that run for 10 or more days and consistently offer first-rate programs. There are even a few that claim a history as long as 41 years. But there is nothing quite like the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy. What sets Umbria apart is the atmosphere, the interaction with a particular ...
read moreTop Italian Jazz at Birdland: New York, NY, June 4-9, 2013
by Thomas Conrad
Top Italian Jazz at BirdlandBirdlandNew York, NYJune 4-9, 2013 Birdland is at 315 West 44th Street in Manhattan. Taxis can drop you at the door. But if you come by subway, you pass through Times Square, that outrageous canyon where night is bright as day, with its teeming, dazed multitudes. The assault on the senses that is Times Square makes Birdland feel like a cocoon, a safe haven. The lighting is subdued, and the ...
read moreBelgrade Jazz Festival: Belgrade, Serbia, October 25-28, 2012
by Thomas Conrad
Belgrade Jazz FestivalBelgrade, SerbiaOctober 25-28, 2012There are hundreds of jazz festivals around the globe every year, in places like Baku, Azerbaijan, and Sibiu, Romania, and Valletta, Malta. But there may be no more improbable setting for a jazz festival than Belgrade, Serbia.Not that long ago, in the late 1990s, during the horrific, genocidal wars in the former Yugoslavia, Belgrade was famous. So were other place names in Belgrade's general vicinity, like Sarajevo and Mostar and ...
read moreAnat Cohen: Clarinetwork: Live at the Village Vanguard
by Thomas Conrad
Anat Cohen is one of the major jazz success stories of the last decade. She arrived in New York from Israel in 1996 and, by the turn of the century, was an important factor in the reemergence of the clarinet as a solo jazz instrument. Yet her recordings have not captured the bacchanalian riot of Cohen in person, whirling on the stage, curls flying, unleashing clarinet notes in formally elegant torrents. Clarinetwork comes closer, in part because ...
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