Articles by Karl Ackermann
The Black Entrepreneurs of Early Jazz
by Karl Ackermann
Preamble: In 2020, I published A Map of Jazz: Crossroads of Music and Human Rights (WS Publishing), a book that looks at the culture of jazz on a timeline with cultures of the world. At more than 500 pages, the book is incomplete by necessity; there is no well-marked path, and the history is sometimes nebulous. However, as a map of events and the chronology of jazz music, it leads to unfamiliar places. The series Backstories dives deeper into people ...
Continue ReadingThe Brief Reign of King Oliver
by Karl Ackermann
In 2020, I published A Map of Jazz: Crossroads of Music and Human Rights (WS Publishing), a book that looks at the culture of jazz on a timeline with cultures of the world. At more than 500 pages, the book is incomplete by necessity; there is no well-marked path, and the history is sometimes nebulous. However, as a map of events and the chronology of jazz music, it leads to unfamiliar places. The series Backstories dives deeper into people and ...
Continue ReadingThe Legacy of Lillian Hardin Armstrong
by Karl Ackermann
In 2020, I published A Map of Jazz: Crossroads of Music and Human Rights (WS Publishing), a book that looks at the culture of jazz on a timeline with cultures of the world. At more than 500 pages, the book is incomplete by necessity; there is no well-marked path, and the history is sometimes nebulous. However, as a map and as jazz music, it leads to unfamiliar places. The series Backstories dives deeper into people and places along the genre's ...
Continue ReadingThe Father of Early Jazz: James Reese Europe
by Karl Ackermann
In 2020, I published A Map of Jazz: Crossroads of Music and Human Rights (WS Publishing), a book that looks at the culture of jazz on a timeline with cultures of the world. At more than 500 pages, the book is incomplete by necessity; there is no well-marked path, and the history is sometimes nebulous. However, as a map and as jazz music, it leads to unfamiliar places. The series Backstories dives deeper into people and places along the genre's ...
Continue ReadingJazz: An Origin Story
by Karl Ackermann
In 2020, I published A Map of Jazz: Crossroads of Music and Human Rights (WS Publishing), a book that looks at the culture of jazz on a timeline with cultures of the world. At more than 500 pages, the book is incomplete by necessity; there is no well-marked path, and the history is sometimes nebulous. However, as a map and as jazz music, it leads to unfamiliar places. The series Backstories will dive deeper into people and places along the ...
Continue ReadingBerke Can Özcan & Jonah Parzen-Johnson: It Was Always Time
by Karl Ackermann
In 2023, baritone saxophonist and electronics artist Jonah Parzen-Johnson performed at a benefit concert in Istanbul following a devastating earthquake that took tens of thousands of lives in Turkey and Syria. Parzen-Johnson had worked with diverse colleagues ranging from John Zorn to Pearl Jam, but each of his recordings had been a solo project. Minutes before taking to the stage in Istanbul, he met Turkish drummer Berke Can Özcan, and the two performed that evening as a duo. Inspired by ...
Continue ReadingI Compani: Party @ Tivolux
by Karl Ackermann
From Fellini to Verde to Garbo, with detours into the world of food and sounds of the subway, I Compani is one of Europe's most original and versatile ensembles. Despite a decades-long legacy in Western Europe, the ensemble is not well known in the U.S. The Dutch group, under the direction of saxophonist/composer and founder, Bo van de Graaf are masters of ingenious arrangement and vivid expressiveness that all but jumps out from the speakers. On Party @ Tivolux, van ...
Continue ReadingJeppe Zeeberg: Six Additional Pieces of Piano Music
by Karl Ackermann
Over the decade starting in 2014, the Danish pianist Jeppe Zeeberg showcased his talents in a variety of settings, from duos to large ensembles. His first album with a quartet, It's The Most Basic Thing You Can Do on A Boat (Barefoot Records, 2014), featured a mix of swing and daring creativity. Zeeberg's improvisational style is characterized by audacious invention. His debut solo album, Eight Seemingly Unrelated Pieces of Piano Music (Barefoot, 2018), revealed his diverse keyboard skills, incorporating organ, ...
Continue ReadingJohn R. Lamkin II: Movin'
by Karl Ackermann
Movin' from John Lamkin II, and The Favorites Jazz Quintet, marks only the third album in a career that has spanned four decades. The trumpeter and composer is a native of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and had his first taste of jazz on Kentucky Avenue before casinos took over that space. Before joining the University of Maryland Eastern Shore faculty, Lamkin taught music in South Carolina and Baltimore, Maryland. To bring jazz to his students, he introduced his classes to ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith / Amina Claudine Myers: Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens
by Karl Ackermann
Since the beginning of the 2000s, Wadada Leo Smith has produced a number of small masterpieces in the form of themed box sets. The prolific composer/trumpeter has aged into a creative period analogous to few of his contemporaries. His monumental Ten Freedom Summers (TUM, 2013)--a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize--America's National Parks (Cuneiform Records, 2016), and Trumpet (TUM, 2021), have each taken disparate roads in redefining creative music. The relative brevity and contemplative atmosphere of Central Park's Mosaics of Reservoir, ...
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