Articles by Michael Fortuna

Stormy Weather Doesn't Dampen Jacksonville Jazz Festival

by Michael Fortuna
May 15, 2004

Jazz is unpredictable. So is Mother Nature. During the 2004 Jacksonville Jazz Festival, the two joined forces for an extended jam session along the banks of the St. Johns River. Sometimes it was musical bliss, other times it was a soaking mess.

But the music still swung like crazy. For four days beginning April 29 and ending May 2, a total of nearly 22,000 music lovers were treated to all kinds of jazz at ...

The Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration

by Michael Fortuna
November 25, 2003

The Marsalis family--father Ellis on piano with sons Branford on tenor and soprano saxophones, Wynton on trumpet, Delfeayo on trombone, and Jason on drums--has put an indelible stamp on the world of jazz. One problem: they've never played together as a family. That changed in August 2001, when the University of New Orleans decided to mark Ellis' retirement as a teacher there, as well as the school's establishment of a chair in his name. ...

Lizz Wright: Salt

by Michael Fortuna
June 25, 2003

Please don't take Lizz Wright's song away. To do so would be blasphemous. The 23-year-old vocalist from Hahira, Georgia has been singing in jazz clubs in Atlanta for a few years, eventually hooking up with the band In the Spirit. Last year she caused a stir when she performed at Billie Holiday tribute concerts in Chicago and Los Angeles. She now has an album under her belt, Salt, and it's an impressive debut. Wright's voice, which lurks ...

Ron Carter: Stardust

by Michael Fortuna
June 25, 2003

In an ever-expanding career encompassing nearly 3000 projects, jazz bassist Ron Carter has surrounded himself with some of the best musicians. Carter's latest album, Stardust, continues that tradition. Joining Carter in the studio are Benny Golson on tenor sax, Joe Locke on vibraphone, Sir Roland Hanna on piano, and Lenny White on drums. This quintet delivers excellent performances of songs from Carter, George and Ira Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael, and the late renowned jazz bassist Oscar Pettiford. Pettiford ...

Miles Davis: The Complete In a Silent Way Sessions

by Michael Fortuna
December 1, 2001

Miles Davis was an innovator from the moment he first picked up the trumpet. But for years, the public didn't have a clear enough picture of Davis' journey from jazz into the rock/funk sounds of James Brown and Jimi Hendrix as well as his use of electric instruments.At the time, all the public knew of was the funk groove and electric piano sounds of “Stuff" from Miles in the Sky, followed by more electric sounds on Filles de ...

Miles Davis: Live at Fillmore East (March 7, 1970): It's About That Time

by Michael Fortuna
September 1, 2001

The crowd at the Fillmore East may have been puzzled after trumpeter Miles Davis finished his sets at the New York concert hall in March 1970. At the time, the audience was hearing something revolutionary and controversial pumping out of the loudspeakers.Little did they know that Davis was about to unleash the electric jazz/rock album Bitches Brew onto the public a month later, causing a rift in the jazz community. Thirty-one years later, Columbia/Legacy Jazz has unearthed two ...

Art Blakey: A Night At Birdland, Vols. 1 and 2

by Michael Fortuna
September 1, 2001

We should all stand up right now and applaud Alfred Lion and Rudy Van Gelder of Blue Note Records for rolling the tapes at Birdland on a February night in 1954.Lion and Van Gelder captured drummer Art Blakey's quintet at the New York nightclub on a night when they were really cooking. Because of their efforts, listeners have been able to relive A Night at Birdland whenever they wanted to. Now, Van Gelder has digitally remastered the two-volume ...

Buddy Rich: Keep the Customer Satisfied

by Michael Fortuna
July 1, 2001

Traps the Drum Wonder stayed true to this album title.The recent reissue of Pacific Jazz's Keep the Customer Satisfied collects Buddy Rich and his big band's three-night stint at Las Vegas' Tropicana Hotel in 1970.Six of the 13 tracks didn't make the album the first time around, but now they've been polished off to give listeners an added bonus of the band's chops.Rich always demanded 110 percent of his musicians, and it shows immensely ...

Charlie Parker: The Washington Concerts

by Michael Fortuna
July 1, 2001

Only Bird could make a plastic saxophone sound amazing.Charlie Parker, the virtuoso alto saxophonist who started the bebop movement in jazz, gave a jaw-dropping performance with Joe Timer's orchestra at the Club Kavakos in Washington, D.C. in 1953.Eight songs taken from that concert (where Parker played a plastic saxophone) were released in 1983 by Elektra Records. Recently, producer Bill Potts has unearthed two more D.C. concerts (both from the Howard Theater), and Blue Note Records has ...

Soulive: Doin' Something

by Michael Fortuna
July 1, 2001

It may not be intentional, but if you say jazz-soul-funk trio Soulive's name slow enough, it succinctly describes their new album Doin' Something :So alive.The Boston trio -- Alan Evans on drums, his brother Neal on Hammond B-3 organ, Wurlitzer and piano, and Eric Krasno on guitars -- combines the improvisations of jazz and the driving backbeat of soul and funk to throw another wrench into the jazz idiom.That's not such a bad thing, ...