Jazz Articles
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Speaking in tongues with Andrew Bird
by Leo Sidran
Andrew Bird has been searching for meaning in sound since he was a young boy growing up outside of Chicago, learning to play violin. He got a degree in violin performance from Northwestern University in 1996, and although his college training set him up for a career in music, it also disoriented him. He was at home playing classical and folk music, he loved rock & roll, and listening to jazz piano trio recordings from the 50s. Specifically ...
Continue ReadingLarry Carlton at Blues Alley
by Mark Edelman
Larry Carlton Blues Alley Washington, DCOctober 27, 2024 When you've recorded with everyone from Sammy Davis, Jr, Dolly Parton and the Partridge Family to Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt and Steely Dan, the term “eclectic' may not be expansive enough. In a tight set at Blues Alley, Washington, DC's premier jazz club, Larry Carlton proved convincingly just how wide that definition goes. In a career spanning over one hundred Gold and Platinum albums and a motherlode ...
Continue ReadingJason Stein: Anchors
by Jerome Wilson
Six years after releasing his previous album, bass clarinetist Jason Stein returns with a new trio recording that goes outside the realm of conventional jazz. He has been undergoing healing therapy in those six years to combat physical injury and this album is inspired by that process. Aided by bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer Gerald Cleaver, Stein constructs trio music that is both meditative and explosive, with the three musicians tightly focused on their collective sound. Stein's playing ...
Continue ReadingKevin Sun: Quartets
by Mark Corroto
Sometimes, talent calls out, other times, it is acknowledged with a nod. For saxophonist and composer Kevin Sun, both are obvious. The mastery of his instrument is a given; it is just that his music is never flashy or overindulgent, thus the nod. That fact is evident in previous discs on his Endectomorph Music label; the live trio recording The Fate Odyssey The Tenor (2023), 3 Bird (2021), (Un)Seaworthy (2020) and The Sustain Of Memory (2019). Sun's growing discography is ...
Continue ReadingMonique Chao, Kit Downes, Kurt Elling, Ben Kono & More
by Ludovico Granvassu
Henry Hey, Kurt Elling and Kit Downes provide the thread of today's set, which also focuses on the large ensembles led by Monique Chao, Ben Kono and Rob Mazurek.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Monique Chao Jazz Orchestra “Chester Is Boss" Time Chamber (Da Vinci) 0:16 Host talks 8:52 Ben Kono “Sansei" Voyages (Self-produced) 10:46 Forq “Va!" Big Party (GroundUp) 17:20 Host talks 23:17 Kurt Elling, Sullivan Fortner ...
Continue ReadingRobin Simone: Robin Simone Hollywood Orchestra
by Edward Blanco
Three-time charting singer-songwriter and band leader Robin Simone fronts a seventeen-piece big band and dedicates her debut album “To those artistic dreamers, the lovers of Hollywood films and its incredible music." An industry musician who has worked on various national TV shows and who was inspired at a young age by her loving mother who sang songs from the movies, Simone chose this special concept album to share her musical dream for all to remember and enjoy the music of ...
Continue ReadingJazz Advice: The Practical and the Profound, Part 2
by Monk Rowe
The jazz life is not an easy one and the life skills learned along the path can be relevant to anyone, in any field of endeavor. Season 4 ends with profound statements from Charles McPherson, Stefon Harris, Karolina Strassmayer, Maria Schneider, Denis DiBlasio, Joe Williams, Harold Ousley, and Gregory Caputo. ...
Continue ReadingErik Davis: The Beatification of Blotter Art
by Lawrence Peryer
What can be scarier than Halloween ghouls? How about a trip through the LSD underground? Today, the Spotlight shines On Erik Davis, and this trip is no bummer. Erik is an author, award-winning journalist, and teacher in San Francisco. He is the author, most recently, of Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium (MIT Press), a study of LSD blotter art. And that's what he's joined us to talk about. Erik also wrote one of ...
Continue ReadingMonk Meets Bears on Caleb Wheeler Curtis's Latest
by Lawrence Peryer
Caleb Wheeler Curtis, the Brooklyn-based saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, is set to release his most ambitious project yet. The upcoming double album not only showcases his considerable talents but also reimagines the music of Thelonious Monk for modern listeners. The new release with the intriguing title The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery (Imani Records), manifests Curtis's creative restlessness through a willingness to place his own compositions side-by-side with a great. A Tale of ...
Continue ReadingTribute to Monk at Smoke Jazz Club
by Paul Reynolds
Tribute to Monk Smoke Jazz and Supper Club New York, NY October 25, 2024 Jazz demonstrated its resilience on Friday at Smoke. At 4.30 pm on that day, tenorist and bandleader Joe Lovano got the bad news that master drummer {m: Al Foster was not going to make the gig that night. Serendipity intervened. Bill Stewart was in town and available, and the shows proceeded, albeit with no rehearsal with the new drummer ...
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