Jazz Articles

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George Kahn: Secrets from the Jazz Ghetto

by Edward Blanco
June 16, 2010

West Coast jazz pianist George Kahn revisits past successes on Secrets From The Jazz Ghetto selecting some of his best compositions from five of his previous six albums for this compilation recording. This seventh outing contains 26 pieces covering a range of styles from contemporary to bebop, and from Bossa Nova to Latin and Cool jazz. Though the main repertoire on this two-disc set album reprises music recorded between 1998 to 2008, there are seven new recordings revealed here as ...

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Howard Riley: Five Decades in Music

by Maxim Micheliov
June 16, 2010

Howard Riley gave his performance in Vilnius, Lithuania in September, 2009. It was his first visit to the country in a five-decade career, and one of just a few eastern Europe destinations made at the time, by the British free jazz pianist. The concert was recorded and released in 2010 as the double-disc set, Solo in Vilnius, by No Business Records. All About Jazz: Describe your musical background. Howard Riley: I was born in 1943 ...

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Manu Katche: Third Round

by Ian Patterson
June 15, 2010

Drummer Manu Katché's third album as leader on ECM, largely follows suit of his previous two on the legendary German label. A spectacularly inventive drummer, Katché demonstrated on Neighborhood (ECM,2005) and Playground (ECM, 200 7) that he's also a composer of highly attractive tunes, characterized by strong melodies and a gently lilting lyricism, guided by his very personal drumming style. Third Round serves up more of the same though with subtle textural changes which reflect the change in personnel from ...

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David Weiss & Point of Departure: Snuck In

by Mark F. Turner
June 15, 2010

A keeper of the flame, but a resolute practitioner of forward thinking music, David Weiss has been active for more than twenty years in New York. His horn swings with élan, representing modern post-bop trumpeting whether playing in Charles Tolliver's Big Band, producing other recordings (Robert Glasper, Jeremy Pelt and Marcus Strickland), or at the helm of firebrands such as (Myron Walden, Jimmy Greene, and Dwayne Burno) in his New Jazz Composers Octet. Weiss is deep in this game and ...

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John Skillman’s Barb City Stompers: DeKalb Blues

by Nic Jones
June 15, 2010

The Barb City Stompers is a trad through swing band that was formed in 2004 but the pedigree of some of the players goes back well beyond that date. Clarinetist John Skillman has been a member of the Buck Creek Jazz Band for thirty one years, for example, while Roy Rubinstein has offset his career as a physicist with over fifty years of trombone playing. In fact with the exception of drummer Aaron Puckett the whole band has pursued careers ...

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Fred Hersch: Whirl

by Dan Bilawsky
June 15, 2010

Fred Hersch Whirl Palmetto Records 2010

Many of the greatest jazz musicians have refused to let physical setbacks derail their artistic journey. When Les Paul discovered his broken arm would be permanently set in one position, he made sure it was at a proper angle for guitar playing. Guitarist Pat Martino suffered a brain aneurysm and had to relearn to play the guitar--and rediscover his very being. Pianist Fred Hersch can now be added ...

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Erica Lindsay / Sumi Tonooka: Initiation

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
June 15, 2010

Long Ago Today (Artists Recording Collective, 2008), pianist Sumi Tonooka's previous release, generated two immediate reactions. First, it seemed astonishing that so singular, strong and distinctive a player could have been flying beneath the radar for so long. Second, the rhythm section--Tonooka, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Bob Braye--played with an unusual empathy that held the promise of ever-richer future collaborations; sadly, such hopes were dashed when Braye died in 2007, after Long Ago Today was recorded.For both ...

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Jose Conde Band at Central Park Summerstage, June 6, 2010

by Ernest Barteldes
June 15, 2010

Jose Conde Central Park Summerstage New York, New YorkJune 6, 2010

On his new musical project, Brooklyn-based Jose Conde clearly wanted to break from his salsa roots, presenting instead a set of newly written material in which funk and rock are carefully blended with Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz sensibilities. That was evident as soon as his solid six-piece band kicked off the show with a tune in reggae style, following that with two funk-inflected ...

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Third Round

by John Kelman
June 15, 2010

It would be beyond cute to suggest that Manu Katché marches to the beat of his own drummer. Still, in a career spanning three decades and regularly crossing over between pop, jazz and world music, the French kit-meister has demonstrated a unique propensity for groove and a distinct (and refreshing) avoidance of the “look at me" pyrotechnics so often encountered with drummers this talented. Since releasing his first album as a leader for ECM in 2005, Katché has consistently surrounded ...

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Manu Katche: Play As You Are

by Ian Patterson
June 15, 2010

Manu Katché is one of the most original drummers anywhere, defying categorization and straddling musical genres with ease and flair. A French national of Ivorian background, he has turned his hand to pop, rock, fusion and jazz, and his exposure to all these elements, plus his classical training, is indelibly stamped in a playing style all his own. For over 20 years, Katché has toured and recorded with such iconic figures as Sting and Peter Gabriel, bringing his ...