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Jazz Articles about Will Calhoun
David Sancious: Eyes Wide Open
by Glenn Astarita
After leaving Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band in 1974, keyboardist and guitarist David Sancious formed the band Tone, which was centered on jazz fusion, progressive rock, and melodic overtures. At the time, he became a highly respected artist, especially due to his drawling synth tones, fiery guitar work and penetrating rhythmic outbreaks. Moving forward, he performed with Jack Bruce and Friends, Peter Gabriel, Sting, and other notables, securing his A-list session guru status. Here, the artist sings and performs instrumentals, ...
read moreWill Calhoun: Celebrating Elvin Jones
by Dan Bilawsky
Properly paying tribute to a figure like the late Elvin Jones is about more than aping a style of drumming and referencing songs; it's about acknowledging a specific life force, how it fueled the music, and how it lives on in those who Jones influenced on the bandstand, in the studio, and through his recorded work. Drummer Will Calhoun hits the mark in all of those ways on Celebrating Elvin Jones. For Calhoun, Jones was both a ...
read moreWill Calhoun: Life in This World
by Luigi Sforza
La biografia artistica di Will Calhoun dice molto sul suo modo di concepire il jazz, la sua tecnica gli ha consentito di suonare con molti musicisti, da B.B King a Mick Jagger, da Jaco Pastorious a Jack DeJohnette, da Paul Simon a Lou Reed. Inoltre la notorietà di Calhounn è legata ai Living Colour e Public Enemy. Non sorprende quindi la quantità di elementi presenti nell'ultima produzione del l'energico batterista del Bronx intitolata Life in This World. Riferimenti ...
read moreWill Calhoun: Native Lands
by Brian P. Lonergan
On Native Lands, the electronics of drum programming and guitar loops mix convincingly with indigenous acoustic instruments from around the world. Will Calhoun is able to combine such seemingly disparate sounds, styles and even people into one landscape and still maintain the integrity of the album as a whole. It may be due to the unifying thread throughout, Calhoun's honest rhythmic experiments, as well as the varied cast joining the effort: Pharoah Sanders, Mos Def, Kevin Eubanks, Stanley Jordan, Orrin ...
read moreWill Calhoun: Live at the Blue Note
by Craig Jolley
Percussionist Calhoun has hired most of Bobby Watson's Horizon quintet, but this session is not a case of Watson uncomfortably grimacing as a sideman in his own band. For one thing Calhoun's band has a more modern feel. As might be expected Watson is the strongest soloist, but he limits his contributions to playing, and he is careful not to steal the show. He plays tenor (instead of his usual alto) on a couple of cuts, giving the band a ...
read moreWill Calhoun Quintet: Live At The Blue Note
by AAJ Staff
In a blending of genres that makes categorization irrelevant, drummer Will Calhoun, previously of Living Colour, has released his first CD as a leader of a jazz group. Recorded live at the Blue Note two days after Christmas in 1999, the Will Calhoun Quintet has a familiar ring for a previously unrecorded group. That's because saxophonist Bobby Watson teamed up with his trumpeter from Horizon, Terell Stafford, to create the front line.The signature Watson alto brightness, combined with ...
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