Jazz Articles

like 201

Nels Cline Singers, Richard Crandell and Good For Cows at Johnny Brenda's

by Nick Millevoi
July 13, 2010

Nels Cline Singers, Richard Crandell, and Good for Cows Ars Nova Workshop at Johnny Brenda's Philadelphia, PAJuly 7, 2010 For one of the closing concerts of the 2009-2010 season, Ars Nova Workshop brought the Nels Cline Singers to Fishtown's Johnny Brenda's. Cline has developed the reputation of being a guitar superhero, and the Singers are the purest manifestation of his work, so it was a rare treat to see the group in Philadelphia for ...

like 352

Danilo Perez: Providencia

by John Barron
July 13, 2010

Inspired by the wonderment and challenge of contributing to a healthy future for his two daughters, Panamanian pianist Danilo Pérez presents an eleven-track suite of globally conscious music, fusing elements of jazz, classical and Latin American folk music. Providencia, Pérez's debut for Mack Avenue Records, is an ambitious project, incorporating his longtime trio-mates, bassist Ben Street and drummer Adam Cruz, with an eclectic cast of guest musicians. The result is a genre-defying foray into highly-structured compositions heightened by intense improvising. ...

like 324

Phronesis: Alive

by Chris May
July 12, 2010

Copenhagen-born, London-based bassist Jasper Høiby has made a lot of noise--in both senses, all of it good--since graduating from the Royal Academy of Music and forming Phronesis in 2005. Høiby is a mainstay of several bands associated with the Loop and F-IRE musicians' collectives, and Alive is his third album with his own Phronesis, following Organic Warfare (2007) and Green Delay (2009), both on Loop Records. It was recorded over two nights at London's Forge Arts venue in March 2010 ...

like 241

Julian Waterfall Pollack: Infinite Playground

by Bruce Lindsay
July 12, 2010

It seems at times as if the world is filled to the brim with technically adept young jazz players--musicians whose speed and dexterity earn immediate respect. But technique is not all there is. Indeed, it's not even half. Heart and soul need to be in the music as well. At only 22 years of age Julian Waterfall Pollack is already extremely technically adept--but he also invests his playing on Infinite Playground, his third album, with masses of heart and soul, ...

like 1,403

Norwegian Road Trip, Part 2: Kongsberg Jazz, July 9-10, 2010

by John Kelman
July 12, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 [Editors Note: From July 6 to July 26, 2010, All About Jazz Managing Editor John Kelman will travel throughout Norway to cover both the Kongsberg Jazz Festival (also participating in Silver City Sounds) and Molde Jazz. He'll also spend a week between the two famous festivals in Oslo, where he'll check out the scene, talk to musicians and labels, ...

like 1,500

Jennifer Zarine: Fresh Made Cuppa Tea

by C. Michael Bailey
July 12, 2010

A seizure of nostalgia has gripped the jazz vocals community and shows no evidence of abating. Retta Christie continues her excellent survey of obscure cowboy movie tunes with Dave Frishberg. Lawrence Lebo strips the American musical vernacular to the quick in her three volume series, and Jennifer Zarine successfully mashes up 75 years of Americana with prewar Berlin Cabaret.Fresh Made Cuppa Tea is very familiar, but completely lacking that sepia-toned attic smell; rather, these songs are crisp like ...

like 584

Talent

by Chuck Anderson
July 12, 2010

Since it is so difficult to define or even recognize, talent, or the lack of it, has created more than its share of anxiety in aspiring musicians. Perhaps the greatest problem centers around the fact that talent is a fact in retrospect. Only after it has been developed does it become obvious that it exists. So how does one know that talent is within him? Is intuition or hope the only recourse? Though there is no way to prove the ...

like 2,088

Lorraine Feather: The Girl With the Lazy Eye

by Carl L. Hager
July 12, 2010

While writing the tune “Scrabble" for her recently released CD Ages (Jazzed Media, 2010), lyricist and singer Lorraine Feather's songwriting partner, Dick Hyman, had an unusual request that bordered on a dare: could she work the name of the venerable pianist/composer's family friend Dushka into the lyrics? After all, the middle section of his stride composition “Barrel of Keys," the musical basis for what was becoming “Scrabble," was called “The Dushka Stomp."“Figuring out how to work the name ...

like 1,072

Norwegian Road Trip, Part 1: Kongsberg Jazz, July 7-8, 2010

by John Kelman
July 11, 2010

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 [Editors Note: From July 6 to July 26, 2010, All About Jazz Managing Editor John Kelman will travel throughout Norway to cover both the Kongsberg Jazz Festival (also participating in Silver City Sounds) and Molde Jazz. He'll also spend a week between the two famous festivals in Oslo, where he'll check out the scene, talk to musicians and labels, ...

like 254

Steve Lacy: November

by Nic Jones
July 11, 2010

The world of improvised music lost one of the greats when Steve Lacy ceased walking this earth. His music was as singular as that of anyone who has graced that world, and the fact that he chose to communicate exclusively through the medium of the soprano saxophone had the effect of elevating him to a rare position. All the singularity with which he pursued his muse is here on this his last recorded solo recital from 2003.

Lacy's approach to ...