Jazz Articles

Osmosis: Osmosis

by Glenn Astarita
February 25, 2018

Here's a band that largely went under the radar after its lone LP release for RCA Records in 1970. Based in Boston, renowned reedman Charlie Mariano looms as the only well-known musician in this septet. But that's not to say the other members lacked any technical acumen and/or a fertile imagination, especially when looking back into the advent of the jazz rock and jazz fusion movements that sprouted during this time. The updated liners by journalist Sid Smith ...

Quartetto Di Lucca: Quartetto

by Hrayr Attarian
January 15, 2008

When one thinks of jazz in Italy few names come immediately to mind: Enrico Rava, Stefano Battaglia and maybe even Carlo Actis Dato, but definitely not Quartetto di Lucca, a short lived Modern Jazz Quartet-inspired group from the late 1950s. In 2006, RCA Europe's The Vibe subdivision released the group's only album, originally released in 1962, augmented by three bonus tracks.

Quartetto was founded by double-bassist Giovanni Tommaso, together with a group of like-minded musicians, and was named after their ...

Nina Simone: Remixed & Reimagined

by Jim Santella
January 13, 2007

Mixing any recording can be an adventure. Most popular dance club music varies greatly from what the individual artist laid down. With nearly all recorded music, however, the featured artist has an opportunity to listen to and approve the final mix. The objective is to make the artist sound his or her very best. Through a lot of hard work, this usually works out fine.

This Legacy release of Nina Simone's work keeps her voice and her music ...

Eliane Elias: Around the City

by Bridget A. Arnwine
September 30, 2006

Eliane Elias is comfortable in her own skin. The pianist/composer learned to play piano in her native Sao Paulo at the age of seven and began transcribing jazz recordings by the age of twelve. For years she worked to introduce herself through her music, relying on her natural proclivity for infusing the music she loves with her cultural self.

Elias has maintained an unyielding commitment as a pianist/composer who just so happens to be a Brazilian female, in an industry ...

Nina Simone: Silk and Soul

by Jim Santella
January 11, 2006

Originally released in 1967 as an LP, Silk and Soul followed Nina Simone's blues album by combining pop songs with soulful musical statements that included strong threads from gospel and blues. Two bonus tracks are included, both originally released as singles in '69.

Pianist Billy Taylor wrote one of the keystone selections for this album, “I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free. It's a spiritual piece that opens the door for Simone's crusade against ...

Nina Simone: Forever Young, Gifted and Black: Songs of Freedom & Spirit

by Jim Santella
January 11, 2006

While this compilation combines Nina Simone's mastery of the blues and soul singing, its emphasis remains on what she said. As an active participant in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, she wrote songs and interpreted those of others--songs that helped to raise an awareness of our social ills. We need her music as much today as we did then. Several previously unreleased versions of her classic songs appear on Forever Young, Gifted and Black.

The thirteen-minute ...

Nina Simone: Nina Simone Sings the Blues

by Jim Santella
January 10, 2006

She was known as the High Priestess of Soul for good reason. Nina Simone knew how to move you. Every time she sang the blues, you could feel it in your bones.

Recorded in 1966, this album consists of a reissued LP with two bonus tracks. There's an alternate take from the same session, and then there's “What Ever I Am (You Made Me), which was originally issued as a single in 1969. That one was done with ...

Dave Douglas: Strange Liberation

by John Kelman
February 24, 2004

Some artists take years to reach a point of individuality. Others, like trumpeter Dave Douglas, have demonstrated a personal vision from such an early stage that, although his voracious appetite for all things artistic clearly informed his work, it was immediately recognizable as his, regardless of the context.

Douglas' current quintet first explored a space that owed something to late-1960s Miles Davis on 2002's The Infinite ; but now, with a couple of years of touring behind them, and the ...

Dave Douglas: Strange Liberation

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
February 19, 2004

Continuing a pattern of alternating between experimental and straight-ahead releases, trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas has made Strange Liberation an inside, song-oriented alternative to last year’s more outside, exploratory Freak In. This is not to say that Strange Liberation does not break new ground—it just follows a more familiar route of solid playing without studio enhancement. Eschewing modern covers, the CD contains all original Douglas compositions written specifically for his quintet and special guest, guitarist Bill Frisell. The performances show ...

Dave Douglas: Strange Liberation

by Jim Santella
February 4, 2004

With an exotic title track that reminds us where jazz is headed, Dave Douglas and his ensemble of all-stars takes the listener on a tour on this Strange Liberation. With the kids in the back seat and a self-invited brother-in-law doing the driving, the family is all nestled in the SUV for a vacation of jazz impressions. From New Orleans, up the Mississippi River, out to New York, then back to Chicago, stayin’ a spell in Kansas City before heading ...