Jazz Articles about Elvis Costello

Michael Leonhart Orchestra: The Normyn Suites

by Angelo Leonardi
March 28, 2022

Gli eclettici sviluppi orchestrali di Michael Leonhart, tra maestosi affreschi evocativi e trascinanti momenti rock e soul, tornano a entusiasmarci con questo magistrale The Normyn Suites, dove la poetica della leggerezza convive con scelte di vivo impatto ritmico e timbrico. Le due forti propensioni musicale dell'autore sono ben bilanciate: quella impressionista (che ha caratterizzato opere ammalianti come Lovers di Nels Cline e il suo The Painted Lady Suite) e quella legata alla popular music, maturata nelle collaborazioni con Steely Dan, ...

The Costello Jazz Show, Part 2

by Ludovico Granvassu
September 11, 2021

Certain musicians like to stick to a formula. Others, like Elvis Costello (featured today), continually reinvent themselves. Looking back at Costello's career, it seems like his sense of adventurous restlessness has been both the cause and the effect of his many high-profile collaborations, including those in the jazz world—from Michael Leonhart to Roy Nathanson, from the Mingus legacy project to the New Orleans connections, and more. Happy listening! PlaylistBen Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash ...

The Costello Jazz Show, Part 1

by Ludovico Granvassu
September 7, 2021

Jazz is one of the most recurrent motifs in the multi-layered quilt that Elvis Costello's discography is; and one of those which make that eclectic patchwork both cohesive and uniquely appealing. The son of a jazz trumpeter/singer with a passion for 40s American jazz and a record seller with ears wide open, it's perhaps not surprising that Elvis recorded a rendition of “My Funny Valentine" as early as the late '70s, while he was in the middle of ...

Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued

by Doug Collette
May 31, 2015

Elvis Costello/Jim James/Marcus Mumford/Taylor Goldsmith/Rhiannon Giddens Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued Eagle Vision 2015 Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued was originally broadcast on the Showtime network at the time of the release of The New Basement Tapes: Lost on the River (Harvest, 2014), in part to take the place of extensive live performance. In the form of DVD/Blu Ray, it serves the same purpose, as depiction of the circumstances by which the otherwise ...

Aa.Vv.: Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life

by AAJ Italy Staff
March 26, 2007

Strettissimo collaboratore di Duke Ellington per quasi trent’anni, Billy Strayhorn è uno dei grandi autori della storia del jazz. Basta scorrere i titoli dei brani contenuti in questo album per rinfrescarsi la memoria. Oggi, a quarant’anni dalla sua scomparsa, l’etichetta Blue Note pubblica questo CD, nel quale alcune delle sue più famose composizioni vengono interpretate da un nucleo di artisti davvero impressionante. Al di là del singolo brano, o della declinazione che ad esso viene attribuita dai singoli musicisti, quello ...

Elvis Costello: My Flame Burns Blue

by AAJ Italy Staff
May 19, 2006

Elvis Costello sembra essere l’uomo per tutte le stagioni. Da artefice strampalato e geniale, prima nel periodo punk (My Aim Is True), poi nella stagione della new wave più raffinata (Get Happy!!, Imperial Bedroom), poi ancora con le grandi collaborazioni (Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach) e infine con i progetti collaterali (Brodsky Quartet, Bill Frisell) che lo portano diritto a My Flame Burns Blue. Continua così la collaborazione per la blasonata Deutsche Grammophon (quarto disco finora prodotto). E il lavoro è ...

Elvis Costello: North

by Alexander M. Stern
November 12, 2003

A long time ago – it seems like a lifetime – Elvis Costello glared out at the listener from the cover of This Year’s Model as the voice emanating from the speaker snarled words of revenge and guilt: “Don’t say you love me when it’s just a rumor/Don’t say a word if there is any doubt/Sometimes I think that love is just a tumor/You’ve got to cut it out...”

Oh, how the times have changed.