Jazz Articles

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Dave Holland Octet: Pathways

by Alain Londes
June 7, 2010

With bassist Dave Holland setting up the foundation for the band, during the live taping of Pathways at New York's Birdland in 2009, the rest of the octet paves the way for baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan to develop the title track in the similar vein to his earlier big band recording What Goes Around (ECM, 2002).

At first it's possible to imagine listening to the entire big band due to the fullness of the sound. Some of its core musicians ...

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Take Five with Martin Stehl

by AAJ Staff
June 7, 2010

Meet Martin Stehl:Looking back, everything started in the early' 80s in Frankfurt, Germany, when Martin made his debut as a drummer. Listening to a vast variety of music, he soon became captivated by the sound of jazz fusion. As a member of his award-winning first fusion band, Ghoa-Concept, he was able to contribute his first compositions, by which time he was also playing the keyboards. Besides touring Tokyo with Ghoa-Concept, he has toured over Europe with many different ...

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Anthony Braxton: Creative Orchestra (Koln) 1978

by Jeff Stockton
June 7, 2010

Jazz is often viewed as a progressive art form, one that by its very nature is constantly changing and reinventing itself. The paradox is that change isn't always what the audience wants to hear, so it frequently takes awhile simply to catch up. Such seems to be the case with the music of Anthony Braxton, one of music's most demanding theorists as well as a prolific talent whose well of creativity seems bottomless. In 2009 Mosaic compiled and issued a ...

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Sarah Manning: Dandelion Clock

by Raul d'Gama Rose
June 7, 2010

It takes a long time for the delightful shock of first hearing Sarah Manning's emphatic, almost blasé, voice--rich, tunefully accented and almost bronzed, as full as a sudden blast of sunshine. The first sounds of her alto saxophone are so indelibly burned in the memory that virtually everything else becomes a blur except undulating glissandos of her melodic outbursts that often end in shy tremolos. The brilliant alto saxophonist waxes eloquent in a forthright, exacting voice, with fluid and bright ...

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Jon Mayer: Nightscape

by Ken Dryden
June 7, 2010

Jon Mayer was working professionally as a jazz pianist as a teen back in the '50s, while attending the Manhattan School of Music. As well as working as a sideman with Tony Scott, Kenny Dorham, Chet Baker, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Sarah Vaughan and others, along with taking part in record dates with John Coltrane and Jackie McLean, Mayer contributed original pop songs to a number of vocalist record dates, though he did not make his recording debut as ...

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Kenny Dorham: Kenny Dorham - The Flamboyan, Queens, NY, 1963 - featuring Joe Henderson

by Francis Lo Kee
June 7, 2010

Kenny Dorham's big splash in the bebop business was taking over the trumpet chair in Charlie Parker's Quintet. He then became one of the most productive members of the Blue Note community, and his composition “Blue Bossa" has since become a jazz standard. This excellent live set is another wonderful and important issue from Uptown Records. The copious notes describe how the young (and not-yet-well-known) tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson began his productive musical relationship with Dorham, and why this live ...

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Susan Tedeschi: Dreams and Legends

by Alan Bryson
June 7, 2010

A string of Grammy-nominated albums, along with a critically acclaimed and commercially successful DVD of her appearance on the American television program Austin City Limits, have helped to establish Susan Tedeschi as one of today's premiere blues artists. On top of that, she's performed in front of millions of music lovers by headlining numerous festivals and opening for music legends like B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Bob Dylan, The Allman Brothers Band, and the Rolling Stones.Her appeal extends well ...

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The Diva Jazz Orchestra and Johnny Mandel at Dizzy's Club, NYC

by Dan Bilawsky
June 6, 2010

Diva Jazz Orchestra Dizzy's Club Coca Cola New York, New York May 26, 2010

While The Diva Jazz Orchestra often gets press that relates to their status as an all-female big band, gender is irrelevant when discussing their musical acumen. Drummer Sherrie Maricle and company have proven themselves time and time again-- with ample demonstrations of taste, talent and chops to spare--on recordings and in live settings. This particular set was part of a ...

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Evan Parker: Whitstable Solo

by John Eyles
June 6, 2010

Whitstable Solo is the first Evan Parker solo soprano saxophone recording since Lines Burnt in Light inaugurated his Psi label back in late 2001. Since then, the label has steadily rereleased Parker's earlier solo soprano albums, with the notable exception of Monoceros (Incus, 1978; Chronoscope, 1999).

Culled largely from a July, 2008 performance at the Whitstable Biennale event with artist Polly Read and filmmaker Neil Henderson--seven tracks taken from the concert and one from before the audience arrived--Whitstable Solo was ...

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Roland Hanna, Tete Montoliu, and Andre Previn

by Sean Dietrich
June 6, 2010

Throughout the line of musical history, certain pianists have changed the way audiences hear music. Musicians who dare to peek above a sea of bobbing heads, and create something unique. These specially cursed individuals have looked within themselves, and somehow added flesh to fantasy.While there are scores of brilliant pianists from years gone by, there are many excellent artists who aren't typically included in pre-gig-conversation. Fantastic players who've slid underneath the radar of pop-jazz citation. Somehow these players ...