Articles by Richard J Salvucci
Dominik Schürmann: The Seagull's Serenade
by Richard J Salvucci
Insularity is a funny thing. With globalization on everyone's mind--one way or another--it is ironic that parochialism affects the fine arts in any important way. It is not as if Pablo Picasso or Gustav Mahler were merely local celebrities. In classical music, composers have long been peripatetic figures--think of G.F. Handel, as likely regarded as British as he was German. And celebrated figures are nothing today, if not international. And yet--it is only an impression--jazz seems a bit different. Of ...
read moreAlbert Vila: Reality Is Nuance
by Richard J Salvucci
Notwithstanding a sojourn at the Manhattan School of Music, Albert Vila is better known in European jazz circles than in the U.S.A.. A native of jny:Barcelona, Vila does his touring in Europe but the appeal of his playing is much broader. If there ever was a jazz guitarist deserving of wider recognition" in US circles, it is Vila. Despite his profoundly Iberian touch (listening to him is a bit like listening to the renowned classical guitarist Narciso Yepes) his current ...
read moreThe Fox
by Richard J Salvucci
There was once a legendary trumpet player named Jack Purvis who was a disciple of Louis Armstrong. Purvis was an excellent player, but he was in and out of trouble for most of his life. So he spent some time in jail. In fact, so much time that Purvis once led (documented in the Fort-Worth Star Telegram, March 30, 1938) a broadcast from a Texas prison in Huntsville. Purvis led many lives, and was sometimes spotted in odd places like ...
read moreWanted: For Being Hip—Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe and the Birth of Salsa
by Richard J Salvucci
It may require some effort to imagine that there were once no Latin Grammy awards. The albums reviewed here truly appeared in a different world. Until 1970, there was, with one brief exception, no systematic attempt to compute the size of the Latino population of the United States. The first effort did not go well. The Bureau of the Census ultimately invented the term Hispanic," to aggregate people of different nationalities and ethnicities, although calling, for example, someone from Ecuador ...
read moreChris Mondak: Blank With Colour
by Richard J Salvucci
Chris Mondak is a fine, NEC-trained bassist who works in a variety of genres. But this recording really has him in a secondary role, as part of the rhythm section of what must be a version of his working band. The band is good; funky from soft to shout, turn up the volume. Dan Hitchcock's lead sax voice is strong throughout, and Jack Macklin and Gabe Feldman work very well with him. The rhythm section is terrific and provides the ...
read moreShelly Manne and His Men at the Black Hawk 1
by Richard J Salvucci
For many years, but certainly for most of the '50s and '60s, the top jazz drummer--by public opinion--was Shelly Manne. Although he was typically associated with West Coast Jazz, (a term he disliked), Manne had come West from jny:New York City in the '50s and settled in jny:Los Angeles in the halcyon days of the post-war boom. He was a guy of many parts; he raised horses, had married an ex-Rockette, and become part-owner of what was to become the ...
read moreIn With The In Crowd: Popular Jazz in 1960s Black America
by Richard J Salvucci
In With The In Crowd Mike Smith232 Pages ISBN: 978-1496851154 University Press of Mississippi/Jackson 2024 There is a legal adage that hard cases make bad law. Extreme circumstances make it difficult to accommodate less fraught or complex situations. Histories of jazz in the United States can be a bit like that. Controversial subjects, players or recordings can obscure the importance of less extreme ones. Lord knows, jazz in America has had more than ...
read moreArt Pepper: Smack Up
by Richard J Salvucci
There are certain players and recordings that make an indelible first impression. The circumstances usually involve a degree of ignorance: Who is that? What is he (or she) doing? How did this recording escape notice when so many others did not? A very personal reaction to Art Pepper. Urgency. Intensity. Listen to me. Before the name, there was the sound and the piercing tone that can only come out of some dark emotional depth. A listener did not ...
read moreSly Stone: Thank You (Falettinme be Mice Elf Agin)
by Richard J Salvucci
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir Sly Stone With Ben Greenman 297 Pages ISBN: 9780374606978 Auwa Books2023 Some readers may remember a time before Sly and the Family Stone. There was music--music you might reasonably call funky. The word funk" first appeared in the early seventeenth century. Its use in jazz went back to the 1950s, at least. But for a lot of people, there was before Sly and after ...
read moreNatalie Tenenbaum, Eitan Kenner: Duets/Solos
by Richard J Salvucci
The late Abbey Simon, an outstanding classical pianist of the twentieth century, could play jazz. At least he said he did, although one searches in vain for a recorded example (other than a snatch on You Tube). A listener might think, Well, Simon was of the old school, and Curtis-trained, so it would require some imagination." But then there is Natalie Tenenbaum, here paired with fellow Julliard product Eitan Kenner. Tenenbaum is a composer, player, and all around mistress of ...
read more