Jazz Articles

Kenny Garrett: The Value of Ancestors

by R.J. DeLuke
December 6, 2021

Saxophonist Kenny Garrett has always respected the music of his predecessors. He knows its importance. He knows the value of the tradition, knowledge and innovation passed on to new generations of musicians. He's recorded, for example, dedications to John Coltrane (Pursuance, Warner Bros., 1996), as well as Joe Henderson and Sonny Rollins (Trilogy, Warner Bros., 1992)). Heck, Garrett, undoubtedly one of the finest alto saxophonists (any style saxophone, for that matter) of his generation, has played with many ...

Fredrik Rasten: Svevning

by John Eyles
December 6, 2021

Fredrik Rasten is a guitarist, vocalist and composer who was born in Norway in 1988, these days being based in Oslo and Berlin. He works in the field of experimental improvised and composed music. In recent years he has been working with just intonation. He has been inspired by Wandelweiser music, traditional British folk, and early music. His first album release, Giraffe, was issued in 2018, on Edition Wandelweiser, and featured Rasten on guitar, playing compositions by Johan Lindvall rather ...

The Art Of Aging Gracefully Through Music

by Leo Sidran
December 6, 2021

Craig Taborn: Shadow Plays

by Mike Jurkovic
December 6, 2021

Recorded with stunning clarity of sound and a brave vision, at Vienna's Mozart-Saal of the Wiener Konzerthaus in March 2020, Craig Taborn's visceral variations on a theme and quixotic poetics rise and fall majestically on Shadow Plays, a bold, fully-rendered successor to his last solo ECM outing Avenging Angel (2011) The rapturously inquisitive Taborn absorbs listeners immediately into his creative space by employing chiming arpeggios (like flocks of birds) and chords of doom to introduce the venturesome, seventeen-minute ...

Late Fall Releases, New Holiday Music Plus A Birthday Shoutout to Bertha Hope

by Mary Foster Conklin
December 6, 2021

This broadcast presents new releases from Paul Jost, Elena Maque, Carn Davidson 9, Amanda Ekery with a single from Duchess, plus holiday music from The Moore McColl Jazz Society and June Bisantz, with birthday shoutouts to Bertha Hope, Maria Schneider, Etta Jones, Ethel Ennis, Gloria Lynne, and more. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by purchasing their music during this time of pandemic so they can continue to distract, comfort and inspire. Playlist Bertha ...

OSU Jazz Orchestra: Room 118

by Jack Bowers
December 6, 2021

Room 118 honors the space in the Seretean Center for the Performing Arts wherein the splendid Oklahoma State University Jazz Orchestra and other on-campus jazz groups held their rehearsals for many years. There must be something special there, as the OSU ensemble is one of the most well-rehearsed university-level jazz ensembles you're likely to encounter this side of the University of North Texas--and even that comparison marks a very close call. Director Tommy Poole had the band burnished and ready ...

Vijay Iyer Trio and Kurt Elling with the ZJM Big Band Orchestra at the Zagreb Jazz Festival 2021

by Nenad Georgievski
December 5, 2021

Zagreb Jazz Festival Lisinski Concert Hall Zagreb, Croatia November 5-7, 2021 Held in the historical Lisinski concert hall, the 12th Zagreb Jazz Festival--directed by the tireless Dražen Kokanović-unfolded over three days, although this review covers only the first two, which featured Vijay Iyer's trio with bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, and Kurt Elling with the ZJM Big Band Orchestra. Traveling with the ZJM Orchestra was a blast but ...