Recent Jazz Articles

Bray Jazz Festival Various Venues Bray, County Wicklow Ireland 3-5 May, 2013 For many years, the picturesque town of Bray's main claim to fame has been that it's the oldest inhabited seaside town in Ireland. That is, it was the main claim to fame until Bray local lass Katie Taylor won boxing ...

Doc Severinsen and the San Miguel 5 Musical Instrument Museum Phoenix, AZ May 1, 2013 Octogenarian bandleader Doc Severinsen has somehow added new fire to his legendary power and vibrancy in a sizzling coalition that melds Latin gusto with jazz zest. The trumpeter, who will be 86 on July 7, 2013, delivered pyrotechnical ...

Some artists maintain a busy release schedule, putting out an album a year--sometimes, in the case of musicians like guitarist Bill Frisell, even more frequently--while others, for a variety of reasons, are less prolific. Pianist Edward Simon has, in recent years, been issuing albums with broader distribution under his own name--which automatically discounts 2010's independently released ...

Astor Piazzolla invited jazz into the world of tango, birthing a hybridized form of music that's outlived its creator; jazz, proving equally hospitable, opened its doors to Piazzolla and nuevo tango. High-end artists like saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, vibraphonist Gary Burton, and guitarist Al Di Meola all collaborated with the legendary composer/bandoneon player, helping to raise his ...

Meet Felix Langford: At 13, I fell in love with the art of percussion and I credit my brother, John (Doc), as the one responsible for teaching me basic beats and exposing my ears to some of the hippest and most innovative cats on the jazz scene. He exposed me to trendsetters like John Coltrane, ...

Bassist Christian McBride is many things to many people. Leader, sideman, writer, and conceptualist are just a few of the hats that he happens to wear on these two quintet- centered dates. One album puts McBride's name up in lights, while the other finds him in a supporting role, but his work is central to the ...

Though economic indicators suggest we are slowly emerging from the Great Recession here in the United States, repercussions could echo through the jazz world for a generation. The past five or so years of extreme cuts to public school budgets--especially the arts programs-- could mean a dearth of well-trained, young musicians. “I am seeing students arrive ...

Meet Roger Aldridge: I am primarily a jazz composer. A wide range of influences are found in my music including jazz, tango, blues, samba, fusion, new music, and back to American roots music. My exploration of the jazz family tree does not stop at New Orleans. I've gone further back to old fiddle styles--especially, Appalachian--as ...

In the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, a blue note is defined as: “A microtonally lowered third, seventh, or (less commonly) fifth degree of the diatonic scale, common in blues, jazz and related musics."

Moving beyond musical theory, the term is most commonly associated with the groundbreaking jazz label Blue Note, founded in 1939 by Alfred ...

It's difficult to know what is most surprising about Tap: Jon Zorn's Book of Angels | Vol. 20. It's the first collaboration between guitarist Pat Metheny and saxophonist/composer/Tzadik label head John Zorn, two musicians who, at least on the surface, couldn't be more different. Of course, those who look beyond Metheny's more listener-friendly Pat Metheny Group ...

Meet Clay Grossman: Clay Grossman, a mainstay on the Chicago jazz scene for almost four decades, began his professional career at the age of the 19. He has been passing on his sage drum knowledge and wisdom to aspiring students of the drum- set over 20 years. He studied drums with Marshall Thompson and Ian ...

Ferenc Nemeth's versatility has positioned him in the front line of jazz drummers today. This Hungarian percussionist has developed a recognizable sound which has, over the years, resulted in his sharing the stage with renowned international jazzmen like saxophonists Wayne Shorter, Mark Turner and Chris Cheek, bassist Christian McBride, bassist John Patitucci, vibraphonist Dave Samuels and ...

Daniel Meron Quartet Metropolitan Room New York, NY May 4, 2013 After debuting his first album, Directions, when first moving to New York from Berklee in 2010, Israeli-born pianist Daniel Meron has moved on to new avenues relatively quickly. One of these is focusing on more song-based material (complete with lyrics), which has ...

Meet Armen Nalbandian: Armen Nalbandian (b.1978 in Manchester, England) is a jazz pianist, composer and humanitarian. In addition to the piano, he has been known to perform on the prepared Fender Rhodes mechanical piano, and contributes to produce jazz, improvised and experimental music in California. Nalbandian is the composer of over 1200 works in addition ...