Articles by Gregory J. Robb

Collateral: May-June 2004

by Gregory J. Robb
May 3, 2004

Dinah Washington risked it all to establish herself as one of the most controversial singers of the mid-20th century. Fellow musicians loved her. Some critics still think Dinah developed her distinct vocal style in order to sell it out across music genre: R&B, blues, jazz and pop. Despite seven marriages and a turbulent life (ended by accident with sleeping pills and alcohol), Dinah Washington vocalized an unsentimental, gritty grip on the universal domain of lost love. For that, the jazz ...

Going the Distance: March-April 2004

by Gregory J. Robb
March 8, 2004

We have instruments and we have the imaginations to use them.

Miles Davis was a boxing fan because he could relate to it in two ways: boxing (like jazz) is a remarkably honest sport, and boxing (like jazz) is a remarkably rough business. The work of great boxers, like the work of great jazz musicians, speaks for itself. Boxers and jazz players share a mutual mandate: transcending human limitation. Fight fans live for such resilience. Jazz fans are the ...

Priorities of Survival: January-February 2004

by Gregory J. Robb
January 6, 2004

The Musical Meaning of Globalization

Vancouver is the ultimate ethnic potpourri. Since 1986, Asian business, trade and culture have swarmed to our West Coast as our European descendants did over 136 years ago. Vancouver culture is completely inclusive; Vancouverites pursue their hopes and dreams within autonomous political, social and cultural contexts. That is what makes our city so modern: buy fresh fruit in China Town and you could be in Hong Kong; visit Nick’s Spaghetti House on ...

Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind

by Gregory J. Robb
January 6, 2004

Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind is an outstanding Digital Video Disc (DVD) of the Canadian folk singer who discovered life in art, and kept on dreaming of better times. Producers Susan Levy and Stephanie Bennett leave room for us to make our own sense of Mitchell’s narrative. Through a highly creative blend of concert footage, paintings and retrospect, viewers cannot help but be arrested into self-assessment. “It’s hard peeling the layers off your own onion,” says Mitchell. That ...

Alive: Michael Brecker in Vancouver

by Gregory J. Robb
December 13, 2003

“Thank you for being here.” It was a lone voice in a lone moment but, considering the circumstance, the fan unwittingly summed up Michael Brecker’s concert in Vancouver on December 10. If this Michael Brecker was jet-lagged (“you have no idea...”), one would be frightened to watch him work out.

The Michael Brecker Quintet woke up in New York City and went to bed in Vancouver on the same day. In between, the group journeyed as far in geography ...

Pat Metheny Group: Speaking of Now Live

by Gregory J. Robb
December 8, 2003

The Pat Metheny Group's Speaking of Now Live visually presents a new generation of prime players to the PMG's established musical core. This two-hour Digital Video Disc (DVD), recorded in Japan, serves to remind us how change refreshes the human tendency towards habit. In this case, it makes a good concert video.

Initiating new blood into the guts of an aging band is a harsh mandate. Metheny was wise to fill this DVD with material from 2002's Speaking ...

Linton Garner: I Never Said Goodbye

by Gregory J. Robb
November 24, 2003

Linton Garner: I Never Said Goodbye is an excellent 53-minute memorial to the fabulous proceeds of a lifetime musician, as well as the human legacy that Linton Garner forged in the shadows of a famous sibling. For a man who could have sought much greater fame, Linton Garner changed many lives. I Never Said Goodbye was an eight-movement suite from Linton to his brother, the great Erroll Garner, but it is now a documentary lesson in human achievement.

Curiously, the ...

Terence Blanchard Live: The Interplay

by Gregory J. Robb
November 10, 2003

Terence Blanchard makes solo playing an intriguing puzzle that leaves us grasping to understand. That’s what happened to 350 patrons of Capilano College’s Theatre for the Performing Arts in North Vancouver (Canada) on November 8.

Terence Blanchard plays with great autonomy. He is as comfortable holding a note until rapture as he is sizzling us with trumpet voicing. Curiously, this concert’s successes occurred more with Blanchard playing in solitary articulation than in a robust group framework. The most ...

Borne of the Elements: November-December 2003

by Gregory J. Robb
November 1, 2003

The elements of nature and the elements of people are truly amazing.

The “Fall rains” (known to many here as six months of liquid depression) arrived in Vancouver with as much fury as did the summer sun. By mid-month, Vancouver was pounded by precipitation in record amounts. On October 16, the Vancouver Airport received 89 millimetres (3.5 inches) of the west stuff in 24 hours. Coquitlam, a suburb of Vancouver, set a new 24-hour record of 150 mm (5.9 ...

When Pat Metheny Sits Down...

by Gregory J. Robb
October 21, 2003

When Pat Metheny sits before the audience at New York's Beacon Theatre, on November 14, he will start the concert by playing an instrument that the native of Lee's Summit, MO left alone until 2001: the baritone guitar.Pat Metheny changed gears again with his 2003 release of One Quiet Night (Warner Jazz). The album features rewritten old material, new songs and improvisations. It is a distinctly different record. One Quiet Night contains no overdubs, no arrangements, no orchestrations--nothing ...