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Jazz Articles about Jack Wilkins
My 'Other' Brother -- Remembering Jack Wilkins: 1944-2023
by Peter Rubie
Prologue This piece, in a shorter form, appeared as a post on my Facebook page a few days after my friend Jack Wilkins died on May 5, 2023. On behalf of a group of close friends I also helped write a remembrance piece for WBGO, one or two quotes of which are also included here. I thought that was it. I had written out my grief, certainly in terms of public displays anyway. Then we discovered that the ...
read moreThe Boyé Multi-National Crusade For Harmony
by Stefano Merighi
Che trionfo per Julius Hemphill! A dispetto delle poche pagine--o righe--che le recenti storie del jazz dedicano al maestro di Fort Worth, Hemphill emerge da questo cofanetto di inediti come sassofonista-improvvisatore-compositore tra i più profondi della musica afroamericana nei decenni compresi tra gli anni '70 e '90. E questa preziosa edizione non solo torna a far luce su repertori e organici già conosciuti dai cultori, ma porta in superficie una gran mole di musica fresca, sorprendente, che ...
read moreJulius Hemphill: The Boyé Multi-National Crusade For Harmony
by Mark Corroto
There is something inherently objectionable when a billionaire acquires an artistic masterpiece by say, Leonardo DaVinci or Claude Monet, only to sequester it from public view. You might feel the same about Julius Hemphill's recordings Dogon A.D. (Mbari, 1972) and 'Coon Bid'ness (Arista/Freedom, 1975). Both five star recordings, now out of print, cost a small fortune to acquire. Years ago saxophonist Tim Berne, a disciple of Hemphill, endeavored to rescue the saxophonist's Blue Boyé (Mbari, 1977) by rereleasing it in ...
read moreTony Adamo: Was Out Jazz Zone Mad
by Nicholas F. Mondello
The translation of “Adam" from Hebrew--from which the surname Adamo springs--means from the “ground" or “soil." It also derives from the Hebrew word for red, a la “red clay." Perhaps that is why any work from Tony Adamo is rare earth--gritty, and flaming crimson. Was Out Jazz Zone Mad Adamo's latest, his first for Ropeadope, is all of those things and more.Adamo is the Heavyweight Champion of “hipspokenword," wherein lingo meets vocalizing at the corner of jazz and ...
read moreTony Adamo: Was Out Jazz Zone Mad
by Chris M. Slawecki
Some African cultures preserved their history not by the written but by the spoken word, kept by oral cultural historians known as griots. On Was Out Jazz Zone Mad, vocalist Tony Adamo aspires to serve in this same role, as a verbal historian of both official and unofficial African-American jazz and blues culture. This type of jazz jive might wear quickly thin but Adamo writes about jazz and jazz musicians with such detailed intimacy and vision that his words snap, ...
read moreScenes From The Life Of A Young Jazz Musician
by Jack Wilkins
Foreword Jack Wilkins is an iconic jazz guitarists of the 1970s who is still playing his ass off today, after a career leading and accompanying a host of groups with musicians such as Stan Getz, Buddy Rich, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Jimmy McGriff, Zoot Sims, Sonny Stitt, Eddie Gomez, Jack DeJohnette, Phil Woods, and the Brecker Brothers to mention just a handful. One thing about Jack that many people don't know was that as young musician he also played vibes ...
read moreJack Wilkins: Windows
by Chris May
Guitarist Jack Wilkins' debut on producer Bob Shad's Mainstream label lay gathering dust for almost forty-five years before being reissued on CD by Solid Records in 2017. That disc, and now WeWantSounds' 2018 vinyl edition, have restored to general circulation an album that can be filed alongside such mid-twentieth century jazz-guitar gems as Johnny Smith's Moonlight In Vermont (Roost, 1956), Wes Montgomery's Incredible Jazz Guitar (Riverside, 1960) and Grant Green's Idle Moments (Blue Note, 1964), from each of which Windows ...
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