Jazz Articles
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Lady Blackbird: Slang Spirituals
by Gareth Thompson
In the aftermath of George Floyd's killing in 2020, the relatively unknown Marley Munroe dropped a cover of Nina Simone's 1966 song “Blackbird." Having adopted the title into her new stage name of Lady Blackbird, she took sombre pride in seeing this version chime with a fiercely engaged Black Lives Matter community. This came purely by zeitgeist chance after decades of endeavour to establish herself. “Blackbird" was also a taster for her 2021 debut album Black Acid Soul ...
Continue ReadingBobby Wellins Sextet: Homage To Caledonia
by Jack Kenny
Bobby Wellins said about the composition of “The Culloden Moor Suite:" “It was something that came to me after reading John Prebble's book about the Battle of Culloden and the way he described events leading up to it and the dreadful aftermath... I wanted to capture, not just the terrible sadness that must have resulted from what was a pretty horrific event, but also the sense of expectancy and celebration, even if it turned out to be misplaced, in the ...
Continue ReadingTyshawn Sorey Trio, Mary Halvorson and Jason Robinson
by Hobart Taylor
Music from Tyshawn Sorey Trio, Mary Halvorson and Jason Robinson. Playlist Bill Frisell Kit Downes Andrew Cyrille “Este a Székelyeknél" from Breaking The Shell (Red Hook) 0:00 María Grand “Canto Manta “ from Reciprocity (Biophilia) 3:55 SML “Feed The Birds" from Small Medium Large (International Anthem) 7:44 Terry Gibbs “ Softly as in a Morning Sunrise" from Vol. 7: The Lost Tapes, 1959 (Whaling City) 13:50 Host Speaks 19:40 Altus “The Last Gift" from Mythos (Biophilia) 21:26 Jocelyn ...
Continue ReadingJohn Coltrane, Ted Curson, and Gretchen Parlato
by Jerome Wilson
This show gets into venerated “New Thing" masters such as John Coltrane and Ted Curson as well as current musicians such as Gretchen Parlato, Joel Harrison, and Kris Davis. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Joel Harrison “Shady Grove" from So Long 2nd Street (ACT) 00:53 Bill Frisell “It's Nobody's Fault But MIne" from Beautiful Dreamers (Savoy Jazz) 5:49 ...
Continue ReadingDexter Moses, Christian Sands, Anne Sajdera, Chris McDonald and more
by Benjamin Boddie
Today's Music--Right Now!... Fantastic music by Dexter Moses, Christian Sands, Anne Sajdera, Chris McDonald, Ryan Keberle, Leslie Pintchik, Danny Jonokuchi, Misha Tsiganov, David Weiss, Eric Jacobson, Michael Dease, Warren Wolf, Orrin Evans, Emmet Cohen, Tom Harrell, Natalie Jacob, Tracy Yang, Caity Gyorgy, Monika Herzig, Jeff Coffin, Ed Neumeister, Javon Jackson and more. Playlist Dexter Moses “New Perspective" from New Perspective (Dexter Moses) 00:00 Christian Sands “Ain't That The Same" from Embracing Dawn (Mack Avenue) 06:06 Anne Sajdera “It's ...
Continue ReadingSeppo Kantonen Trio at the Loimaa Arts Center
by Anthony Shaw
Seppo Kantonen Trio Loima Arts Center Art in Autumn Loimaa, Finland September 17, 2024 When a two hour drive through the bucolic Nordic autumn countryside culminates in a location as tasteful as any artistic milieu of the city, the subsequent musical experience is almost certain to be positive. For keyboard maestro and composer Seppo Kantonen it was another stop on the journey of 40 years that has taken him around Finland and Europe, working ...
Continue ReadingMy Summer with Sonny
by Patrick Burnette
Raise your hands, jazz fans, if you've been thinking about jazz legend Sonny Rollins during the last few months. After all, the great man is still with us at age 94. Reaching such an age is an accomplishment for anybody, but a miraculous feat for an African-American jazz musician born in the early decades of the twentieth-century, who saw so many of his predecessors and peers die young from drugs, alcohol, hard living, and the stresses of omnipresent racism. Rollins ...
Continue ReadingRemembering Dan Morgenstern
by Sanford Josephson
This article previously appeared in Jersey Jazz Magazine. In 1938 when Dan Morgenstern was eight years old, he and his mother fled Nazi-controlled Austria for Copenhagen. Nine years later, they arrived in New York, and Morgenstern was not interested in seeing the Statute of Liberty or the Empire State Building. He just wanted to go to 52nd Street. Morgenstern, jazz writer, historian, jazz advocate and fan (and Jersey Jazz columnist), passed away in New York on ...
Continue ReadingMike Holober: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters
by Dan McClenaghan
We live on a rock. A few billion years of the workings of the complexities of carbon chemistry put us here. The systems and intricacies of every element that has unfolded to maintain us should be respected and preserved. Mike Holober's This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters, featuring Holober and his Gotham Jazz Orchestra, digs into this theme in a sprawling, two-disc big band jazz outing. Like life itself, and the resulting ecosystems, this multi-movement suite--an effort that is the ...
Continue ReadingMelanie Scholtz: Seven
by Dan Bilawsky
Seven years is both an eternity and the blink of an eye. Enough of a stretch for individual circumstances to turn on countless dimes, it's also just a brief moment in the sea of existence and the greater, grander scheme. Seven is life itself...yet it's also one of its component cycles. South African-born vocalist Melanie Scholtz is well aware of these contradictions and truths, and, more importantly, the spiritual charge, gifts toward personal growth, well-placed challenges and overall wonder embedded ...
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