Jazz Articles

like 994

Sheryl Bailey: Homecoming

by Matthew Warnock
May 24, 2010

Sheryl Bailey has been rising to the top of the jazz guitar world ever since she burst onto the national scene by taking third place in the 1996 Thelonious Monk Guitar Competition. Following her top three finish in the competition, and graduating from the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Bailey has released five albums as a bandleader, a DVD and two instructional books, all while maintaining a seemingly constant touring schedule and holding down an associate professorship at ...

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Sunny Jain: Taboo

by Mark F. Turner
May 24, 2010

The sentences “Some things shouldn't be discussed in public" or “Don't ask, don't tell," are archaic phrases that still persist when speaking about forbidden subjects. South Asian drummer/composer Sunny Jain addresses some of these forbidden topics in Taboo, a scintillating project where he artfully uses his music as a platform to address social issues such as “sexual orientation, inequality and violence upon women, and the juxtaposition of religions." While such topics may continue to be controversial, this release is equally ...

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Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville: Day 3 - May 22, 2010

by Gordon Marshall
May 24, 2010

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Festival International Musique Actuelle VictoriavilleVictoriaville, Quebec, CanadaMay 22, 2010

In a sense, by definition, experimental artwork can never fail because, as it constitutes experiments, even when the outcome is not the desired one, there is still something to be learned that moves a process forward. It is this kind of “heads I win, tails you lose" idea that often enough makes the evaluation--and even the creation--of ...

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Slavic Soul Party: Taketron

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 24, 2010

The massive Baltic brass band Slavic Soul Party (SSP) has played in Istanbul and Carnegie Hall, Macedonia and the Kennedy Center, Serbia and the Knitting Factory, and currently resides Tuesday nights at Club Barbes in Brooklyn, which released this fifth SSP album on its own label. “I think Taketron really shows our original style, more so than any of our other records," says Taketron's leader, percussionist Matt Moran. “We get something electrifying: it sounds kind of Balkan and kinda not; ...

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The Waitiki 7: New Sounds Of Exotica

by Chris May
May 24, 2010

The Waitiki 7New Sounds Of ExoticaPass Out Records2010 As kitsch as a Jeff Koons Valentine card, and as camp as a Liberace Christmas TV special, exotica first flourished, primarily in the US, between the mid-1950s and the early 1960s. As the Pacific returned to peace after the second world war, and as the US economy entered a newly prosperous, consumer-driven age, increasing numbers of Americans began taking long haul vacations, first ...

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Ray Vega / Thomas Marriott: East-West Trumpet Summit

by John Barron
May 24, 2010

East-West Trumpet Summit is a rollicking showcase for longtime friends Ray Vega and Thomas Marriott. Vega, a New York native and the elder of the two, has served for many years as a mentor to Seattle's Marriott. The two first met when Marriott was a student at the University of Washington in Seattle, and Vega was in town touring with the late Tito Puente. Friends ever since, the two trumpeters share an affinity for hard-blowing, grounded-in-bebop jazz. New York pianist ...

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Take Five With Amir Perelman

by AAJ Staff
May 24, 2010

Meet Amir Perelman: Amir Perelman (42) has been playing string instruments since he was 15. He grew up in Israel and partly in the U.S., living in the Netherlands and France for ten years, where as an active musician he performed at various jazz clubs and festivals throughout Europe. He taught music at the Rotterdam Conservatory and composed scores for the theatre, as well as for commercial television. During his formative years, Perelman was exposed to many different musical influences ...

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David Binney: Aliso

by J Hunter
May 24, 2010

For Aliso, reedman David Binney wanted to get back to “doing things that have been part of my life since I was a kid." It's clear that any time is a good time for a happy childhood, because both Binney and his band dive into Aliso like 10 year-olds on vacation at Disney World.

The opening title track has a gritty New York feel reminiscent of the mid-century era Criss Cross likes to revisit. The groove is complex and rich, ...

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The Continuing Adventures of the Mad Musician and the Bipolar Genius

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
May 24, 2010

For those interested in the continued rumors about bipolar geniuses and mad musicians, here's the latest installment of my campaign against those popular myths. This article appeared in the May/June issue of The National Psychologist, the 19 year-old newspaper for independent psychology practitioners that prints what's really going on in the trenches, as opposed to the “party line" of the American Psychological Association. It is reprinted here with their permission. Great talent always comes at a ...

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Vince Guaraldi: Peanuts Portraits

by Larry Taylor
May 24, 2010

Charles Schulz's Peanuts has been an enduring newspaper cartoon classic since the late 1940s. Its popularity peaked in the 1960s when the series was adapted for the first of many animated television specials, with music written by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi. The strips continue to run today in newspapers, 10 years after Schulz's death in 2000.For Peanuts Portraits, Concord has compiled many of the most popular tunes from the series, originally recorded on LPs; selections that should appeal ...