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Joni Jazz, Part 1
by Chuck Lenatti
Born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943, child of the Canadian Prairie, Joni Mitchell showed signs of becoming an artist at a young age. In Joni Mitchell in Her Own Words (ECW Press, 2014), a collection of conversations recorded over the years, musician and reporter Malka Marom wondered what inspired her friend's early urge to draw and paint. Mitchell said her obsession with art was triggered by watching the fire scene in the movie Bambi ...
Continue ReadingRita Payés At Jazz à La Villette, In Paris
by Pierre Lavoie
On September 6, 2025, the Jazz à la Villette Festival in Paris presented Rita Payés, a 26-year-old Catalan singer, trombone player, composer, arranger, and lyricist, who has been on stage since her early teens.This performer is in a category of her own, pursuing her personal musical projects with a singularity that has become her signature. Born to a family of musicians, she sings and writes in Catalan, Castilian Spanish, and Portuguese--and sometimes in English, having spent her adolescence ...
Continue ReadingChildren of the Light: Forging New Footprints
by Jiaowei Hu
"The trio is a real laboratory for colours, voices, and ways of playing interactions," says the Panamanian-born jazz pianist Danilo Pérez. With bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade, Pérez has forged a bond over two decades in Wayne Shorter's last and yet groundbreaking Footprints Quartet. After Shorter withdrew from the public eye, the three sidemen continued to explore cosmic and existential themes. They nod to Shorter's mentorship and named their trio as “Children of the Light"--a twist on Shorter's ...
Continue ReadingA Brief Guide To Ukrainian Jazz: Part 4
by Ian Patterson
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 The fourth installment of A Brief Guide To Ukrainian Jazz--a series developed with the cooperation of the Ukrainian Institute--introduces four more highly talented jazz artists/groups from Ukraine. The vast range of personal musical identities attests to the strength, depth and originality of contemporary Ukranian jazz. Dima Bondarev Classically trained from an early age, trumpeter Dima Bondarev was a jazz convert by his late teens. By ...
Continue ReadingJohn Engels Just Turned 90, But Who’s Counting?
by Joan Gannij
What do you give a man for his 90th birthday, who has everything in terms of chops, contentment, experience, and energy? How about a special edition of an Edison Prize, combined with a birthday tribute concert. Amsterdam's Bimhuis was packed to standing room, filled with friends, family, musicians and music lovers. This was no ordinary birthday celebration, although there was a cake, flowers, balloons and some special gifts, including an invitation from Sonor to visit their factory in Germany. John ...
Continue ReadingA Brief Guide To Ukrainian Jazz: Part 3
by Ian Patterson
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 The third installment of A Brief Guide To Ukrainian Jazz--a series developed with the cooperation of the Ukrainian Institute--introduces five more highly talented jazz artists/groups from Ukraine. The vast range of personal musical identities attests to the strength, depth and originality of contemporary Ukranian jazz. Leléka Victoria Leléka is the voice and driving force of Leléka, a multi-national folk-jazz quartet founded in Berlin in 2016. ...
Continue ReadingA Brief Guide To Ukrainian Jazz: Part 2
by Ian Patterson
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 The second installment of A Brief Guide To Ukrainian Jazz--a series developed with the cooperation of the Ukrainian Institute--introduces five more highly talented jazz artists/groups from Ukraine. In addition, we profile the jazz festivals and jazz clubs that are keeping the Ukrainian jazz flame burning brightly in these most difficult of times. Pokaz Trio Pokaz Trio takes its name from pianist and composer Andrew Pokaz, ...
Continue ReadingVagif Mustafa-Zadeh: Azerbaijan's Jazz Pioneer
by Mehman N Mamedov
March 16, 2025, would mark the 85th birthday of one of the most outstanding jazz composers and performers, Vagif Mustafa-Zadeh. He can be considered a pioneer of ethno-jazz in the Soviet Union and, on a global scale, a unique and virtuoso jazz performer and composer who fused ancient Eastern musical traditions with Western music. First steps in music Vagif Mustafa-Zadeh was born on March 16, 1940 in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. His father, a military doctor, originally ...
Continue ReadingMoving On Music: Literal Magic
by Ian Patterson
2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Moving On Music (MOM), one of Ireland's finest music promotion companies. There will probably be little hoopla, no big party and probably not even a cake. Instead, it will be business as usual for the small but industrious team of four, and that means bringing the best music of all stripes to the island. Jazz, traditional Irish, folk, electronic, contemporary classical, indie-rock, choral... and plenty that slips between the ever-widening genre ...
Continue ReadingA Brief Guide To Ukrainian Jazz: Part 1
by Ian Patterson
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 The history of jazz in Ukraine can be traced fairly precisely according to academic, literature teacher and jazz journalist Alexander Yudin. Writing in The History Of European Jazz: The Music, Musicians And Audience in Context (Equinox Publishing, 2018), Yudin credits Yuliy Meitus with leading the country's first jazz band. Meitus' band, which consisted of vibraphone, violin, drums and percussion, reportedly gave the first jazz concert in Ukraine ...
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