Jazz Articles
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House Rent Party
by Jason Young
Nothing sparks musical intrigue like a trip back in time. Such was the case when in 1992, Delmark Records released Sunnyland Slim's House Rent Party, featuring Jimmy Rogers, Willie Mabon and St Louis Jimmy. A part of their Apollo series, it gave blues enthusiasts an audio lens into the budding of Chicago blues.Tracing back to St. Louis, Missouri, Delmark has been a trusted label for jazz and blues music since 1953. In 1962, label owner Bob Koester purchased ...
read moreKahil El'Zabar: What It Is!
by Howard Mandel
Behold and behear: What It Is!, the 58th recording to feature composer-drummer/percussionist-bandleader-music director and interdisciplinary arts activist Kahil El'Zabar. The album debut of a six-year-old band comprising three Generation Next players who've emerged from the school of Chicago's renowned AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) with chops benefitting from 59-year-old Kahil's mentorship, What It Is! is an hour of now-jazz that looks to the future while embracing the past. It's a statement of the joy of interactive play, ...
read moreGeof Bradfield, Ben Goldberg, Dana Hall Trio: General Semantics
by Troy Dostert
A fortuitous meeting between veteran clarinetist Ben Goldberg and two up-and-coming stalwarts of the Chicago creative jazz scene, saxophonist Geof Bradfield and drummer Dana Hall, General Semantics is a tribute to the power of spontaneous interaction among like-minded musicians. Although Bradfield and Hall have worked together extensively since Bradfield's quintet album Our Roots (Origin Records, 2015), neither had performed with Goldberg. But when the three met at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival in 2017 and discovered their sympathetic, wide-ranging musical ...
read moreJavier Red's Imagery Converter: Ephemeral Certainties
by Troy Dostert
Pianist Javier Red hails from Mexico, but since 2015 he's been part of the ever-dynamic Chicago jazz scene, enabling him to team up with three other Windy City-based colleagues on Ephemeral Certainties, the debut disc from a band he calls Imagery Converter. With a shared commitment to finding purpose through diverse melodic fragments and disparate rhythmic figures, the group plays with disciplined energy and a respect for the unexpected, always leaving room for new directions to emerge within these eight ...
read moreGeof Bradfield: Yes, and...Music for Nine Improvisers
by Jerome Wilson
The Compass Players was a legendary theatrical ensemble in Chicago whose members developed several improvisational games to stimulate their creative instincts. One of these was called “Yes, and..." where one person would start telling a story and everyone who followed would have to continue the story however they wished from the point the previous speaker ended. Saxophonist Geof Bradfield has applied the concept of that game to this project, writing a suite for nine improvising musicians where each movement builds ...
read moreGeof Bradfield: Yes, and...Music for Nine Improvisers
by Troy Dostert
Since the early 2000s, saxophonist and composer Geof Bradfield has been an integral part of the ever-fertile Chicago jazz scene, bringing his substantial talents to music that easily bridges the divide between the traditional and the avant-garde. His records have explored a remarkable range of styles and themes: from African Flowers (Origin Records, 2010), which traced the intersections between African folk forms and American jazz, to Melba! (Origin Records, 2013), Bradfield's tribute to trombonist/arranger Melba Liston, to Our Roots (Origin ...
read moreJason Stein Quartet: Lucille
by Mark Corroto
Jason Stein continues to curve a niche in the jazz world, but it's not what you might assume. Listeners straightaway assume that he is an idiosyncratic outlier because his sole instrument is the bass clarinet. We've grown accustomed to saxophonists like Eric Dolphy and David Murray doubling on the bass clarinet. Stein's constancy to this one woodwind instrument, like Germany's Rudi Mahal, is unequivocal, yet the sound of the instrument doesn't define his trajectory.Stein plots an unconventional and ...
read moreJosh Berman Trio: A Dance And A Hop
by Mark Corroto
There is a permanent exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago of 68 miniature rooms. These dollhouses for adults recreate American, French, and English rooms from last century and three centuries ago at a scale of 1 inch to a foot. Visitors lean in to marvel at the amazing detail. Drapery, carpets, and tea cups are reproduced with uncompromising skill. Same can be said for A Dance And A Hop from cornetist Josh Berman. His vest-pocket music approach invites you ...
read moreHumphrey Lyttelton: In Canada
by Hrayr Attarian
The most prolific of the British trad jazz revivalists, trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton had a long and varied career both as a musician and a broadcaster. In 1983 Lyttelton lead a Toronto based group on a session for Sackville interpreting eight songs penned by him. In Canada now reissued on Delmark showcases not only Lyttleton's superb trumpet mastery but also his skills as a composer and a clarinetist. The most memorable tune on the album is the Calypso flavored ...
read moreWild Bill Davison: The Jazz Giants
by Hrayr Attarian
Cornetist Wild Bill Davison had a fiery, extroverted approach to playing that originated in the 1920s Chicago and mirrored his hard living. By 1968, when he recorded The Jazz Giants for the Canadian label Sackville, he had mellowed and his tone had become more melodic. A democratic leader, Davison allows the five, underrated practitioners of “prebop jazz," who join him on the date, plenty of room in the spotlight. The result is a collaborative effort that comprises delightful interpretation of ...
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