Jazz Articles

like 416

Dave Holland & Pepe Habichuela: Hands

by Chris May
July 5, 2010

Centuries old, an accretion of musics absorbed by north Indian migrants as they travelled, one stream through the Balkans, the other through the Maghreb, towards their final desination in southern Spain, flamenco is not easy for a non-Gypsy convincingly to perform. Intricately codified, rich in lore and tradition, its broad mannerisms can be mimicked quickly enough, but to inhabit its soul, its cante jondo (deep song), takes much, much longer. Some would say a lifetime, more or less.

like 640

Chu Berry, Joe Harriott, and Yusef Lateef

by Sean Dietrich
July 5, 2010

The role call for sax genius is a lengthy one. But upon briefly thumbing past names like Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins, one finds a glow beneath the surface radiating from lesser known players. Members of the vast sax community, who don't often get the same press other celebrated players receive.

like 439

Eric Darius: On A Mission

by Jeff Winbush
July 5, 2010

There are times when it feels as though even Eric Darius isn't entirely sure what he wants to do with his immense talent. On A Mission is a restless search by a young man confident in his abilities but not fully committed to any one direction.With 24 musicians, five producers and eight studios from Canada to Jamaica, On A Mission positively screams “overproduction." There's a lot going on across these ten tracks, and Darius almost gets swallowed up ...

like 787

Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone

by Larry Reni Thomas
July 5, 2010

Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone Nadine Cohodas Hardback; 464 pages ISBN: 10-0375424016 Pantheon 2010

Nadine Cohodas' Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone is a desperately sad but riveting tale about the troubled life and career of this uniquely talented vocalist, pianist, songwriter and activist, born in North Carolina in 1933. It is not the first Simone biography. There are four others, including one ...

like 132

Bernardo SassettiTrio: Motion

by Mark Corroto
July 5, 2010

Quite often, when hearing compositions by pianist Bernardo Sassetti, it's easy to mistake him for an American. His folksy charm has that Aaron Copland-meets-Bill Frisell kind of Americana. But no, this huge talent is Portugal's own son.

He is back again in a trio setting with bassist Carlos Barretto and drummer Alexandre Frazão. The three recorded Sassetti's critically acclaimed Nocturno (Clean Feed, 2001) and Ascent (Clean Feed, 2005). But Sassetti can also be heard in accordionist Wil Holshouser's ...

like 533

Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra Rekindles Cuban Fire Suite

by Jack Bowers
July 4, 2010

On June 5, 2010, with the temperature in Albuquerque hovering around 100 degrees, the Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra couldn't have wished for a better time to perform Johnny Richards' incendiary Cuban Fire suite, first recorded in 1956 by the Stan Kenton Orchestra. The sold-out concert was the opening event in the city's annual Jazz and Blues Under the Stars series at the Albuquerque Museum of Art, and the AJO treated its audience to an explosive and occasionally ear-shattering rendition of the ...

like 280

Silvio Rodriguez: Segunda Cita

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
July 4, 2010

Jazz fans will be familiar with Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez as the composer of “Rabo de Nube," a musical air of impossible loveliness highlighted as the title track of a 2008 album on ECM by Charles Lloyd; there's also an earlier version by Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, on their Dream Keeper (DIW, 1990). Lloyd, in fact, is the dedicatee of “Huracán," the jazziest- sounding number on Rodriguez's Segunda Cita, which features a fine saxophone break by José Carlos Acosta.

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Ottawa Jazz Festival 2010: Days 7-9, June 30-July 2, 2010

by John Kelman
July 4, 2010

Days 1-3 | Days 4-6 | Days 7-9 | Days 10-11 radio.string.quartet.vienna / Tord Gustavsen EnsembleTD Ottawa International Jazz Festival Ottawa, Ontario, Canada June 30-July 2, 2010 As the 30th Anniversary of the TD Ottawa International Jazz Festival enters the home stretch, it once again provided a day of free programming on Canada Day, July 1, in collaboration with the National Capital Commission. With the city closing down the streets in the downtown ...

like 443

Jackie Greene: Till The Light Comes

by Doug Collette
July 4, 2010

Jackie Greene's Till The Light Comes is an exercise in style the likes of which there is no precedent in his discography. The precocious California rocker's certainly made the most of his opportunities, since Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh “discovered" him in 2007, but this collaboration with Tim Bluhm (with whom Greene often performs as a duo called The Skinny Singers) is a wholly self-produced affair that bears only slight resemblance to the last two outings overseen by Los Lobos' ...

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Fred Hess Big Band / Timucua Jazz Orchestra / Michael Treni

by Jack Bowers
July 4, 2010

Fred Hess Big Band Hold On Dazzle Records 2010

When listening to Hold On, composer / arranger / saxophonist Fred Hess' fourteenth album as leader but first in front of a big band, one question immediately arises: What took him so long? As it turns out, recording his own big band has been a long-held dream, one Hess has been considering “for years." Following a number of well-received albums including nearly half ...