Articles by Chris M. Slawecki

Interview

Leonardo Pavkovic: The Other Side of the Mountain

by Chris M. Slawecki
July 20, 2026

From July 22-25, the MoonJune-iverse will orbit around Teramo, Italy, to present the fourth MoonJune Festival and simultaneously celebrate MoonJune Records' 25th anniversary, a gathering convened by MoonJune founder Leonardo Pavkovic. In the following interview, Pavkovic explains the journey that brought him and MoonJune Festival 2026 to Teramo. “I love the idea of celebrating MoonJune's 25th anniversary in a city at the foot of a big mountain!" he explains. “Since 2026 coincides with MoonJune's 25th ...

Interview

Sonny Rollins: Still a Student

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 27, 2026

This article first appeared on All About Jazz sometime in Spring 1999. Considering his five decades as a fixture among the tenor greats, it's pretty safe to say that in 1999 most jazz fans under the age of sixty have never known a time when saxophonist Theodore “Sonny" Rollins was NOT on the scene. From the time he emerged on tenor late in the 1940s to his release of Global Warming in early 1999, Rollins has ...

Catching Up With

Chuck Mangione: Friend For Lovers

by Chris M. Slawecki
July 26, 2025

This article first appeared on All About Jazz in September 2000. Chuck Mangione is best known as the trumpet player and composer of that ubiquitous tune, which taught millions worldwide that music “Feels So Good." But Chuck Mangione boasts serious Jazz chops: Before flying solo, he cut his teeth in the Woody Herman and Maynard Ferguson big bands and in Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, where he assumed the trumpet chair previously occupied by Clifford ...

Interview

Meet Andy Bey

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 12, 2025

From the 1995-2003 archive: This article first appeared on All About Jazz in February 2000. Listening for the first time to Andy Bey is like stepping into a quiet, still lake. Your foot first parts a surface that's smooth and tranquil, but you can't really tell from that surface how deeply your foot must go to reach bottom. The first time you hear Bey's delicate yet muscular voice alone, accompanied only by his own piano, or in larger ...

Interview

Roy Haynes: Still Lighting It Up

by Chris M. Slawecki
November 15, 2024

This article was first published on All About Jazz in June 1997. Drummer Roy Haynes isn't just cool--he's cooooolllll. In conversation, Roy Haynes is languid and relaxed yet full of fire, yet playful, mysterious and serious. Similarly, his music--and he's played alongside the best--is simultaneously passionate and precise, free-swinging and loose, but erudite and eloquent. In short, the Roy Haynes you meet in conversation speaks volumes about his drumming; and Haynes' music, more than with many ...

Interview

A Classic Jazz Curriculum with Label M's Joel Dorn

by Chris M. Slawecki
February 12, 2024

This article was first published at All About Jazz in April 2001. Ah, the classics. In every art form painting, literature, architecture, dance, music there are works which possess timeless beauty, works with themes that resonate emotionally across decades, through centuries, and are masterfully presented. Joel Dorn's name is indelibly written in the book of jazz classics, though he's never written, hummed, strummed, blown, or otherwise struck a single musical note. He produced albums, in the ...

Multiple Reviews

Blue Note Series of Rare Summer Grooves

by Chris M. Slawecki
February 12, 2024

This article was first published at All About Jazz in September 2002 under the old Combing the Blue Note Catalog column. The Rascals knew all about it. They expressed it perfectly in one of their biggest hit singles: Ain't nothing like groovin' on a Sunday afternoon. Not much serves the purpose of that groove better than the right music. To enjoy an exceptional groove, you often need some exceptionally groovin' music. Exceptional grooves--or, if you prefer, Rare Grooves. ...

Interview

Meet Grammy Award Winning Producer Joel Dorn

by Chris M. Slawecki
February 4, 2024

This article was first published at All About Jazz in 1997. The Song Remains The Same If you're a serious jazz fan, even if you're any kind of jazz fan at all, there's an excellent chance that in your collection you've got at least one piece of music that was produced by Joel Dorn. In the 1960s, Dorn parlayed his tenure as a disc jockey on WHAT-FM, a pioneer 24-hour jazz station, into a slot as ...

Interview

Les McCann: Never Say No Again

by Chris M. Slawecki
January 2, 2024

"Be who you are and not who you ain't. Because when you are who you ain't, you're not who you are." Keyboardist, vocalist, bandleader, songwriter and photographer Les McCann really talks like this. About his music, about musicians, about his career--about everything. I learned this during the following interview, scheduled to discuss Omnivore Records' March 2015 reissue of McCann's improvisational landmark Invitation to Openness, generally out of print since its original 1972 Atlantic Records' release; this reissue was ...

Album Review

Luiz Millan: Brazilian Match

Read "Brazilian Match" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
September 20, 2023

Brazilian Match is a tour-de-force of classic and contemporary Brazilian music written by and featuring singer-songwriter Luiz Millan. Millan's fifth album is a leader is his first for Jazz Station Records and Brazilian jazz impresario Arnaldo DeSouteiro, whose storied history includes working with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Eumir Deodato, Dom Um Romão, João Donato, and other legends, and who called Millan “a composer's composer." “A great melodist who also happens to be a great poet, a fabulous storyteller; a ...