Jazz Articles

like 329

OM: Willisau

by Nic Jones
May 22, 2010

The Swiss improvised music scene is often unfairly overlooked. Whilst the efforts of other musicians from western European countries--principally perhaps Germany and Holland--have long since staked a claim to international attention, the same isn't true of Switzerland, at least until now. This isn't to suggest that the music on OM's Willisau has any kind of nationalistic aspirations, but there is something singularly compelling about it. Recorded live for Swiss Radio DRS, at the festival that gives the disc its title, ...

like 232

Randy Klein: Sunday Morning

by Dan Bilawsky
May 22, 2010

Certain things, whether intentional or not, are suggested with an album title like Sunday Morning. A placid, gentle aura to the dawn of this day of rest is often ascribed. While jazz created with this image in mind could mean bland music for coffee sipping, pianist Randy Klein shows that it doesn't have to be that way. Klein covers a wide range of musical possibilities, demonstrating his masterful mood-setting skills throughout this collection of duo recordings. Trombonist Chris Washburne and ...

like 691

Beale Street Music Festival 2010

by C. Michael Bailey
May 22, 2010

Beale Street Music Festival, Memphis in May 2010 Tom Lee Park, FedEx Blues Tent, Memphis, Tennessee May 2, 2010

April, indeed, may be the cruelest of months, but I doubt that a blue-blood like Thomas Sterns Eliot ever spent the sweaty seasons in Hell that are Spring and Summer in the cultural fault line of the United States: Memphis, Tennessee. The weather there in the Mississippi Valley is as conflicted as the region's psyche--serene and as ...

like 387

Hector Martignon: Second Chance

by Edward Blanco
May 22, 2010

Columbian-born jazz pianist Hector Martignon firmly believes in second chances in life; whether as a form of redemption or renewal, they serve as important new opportunities. On his second ZOHO release, Second Chance presents an exciting blend of Latin-flavored music, drawing on influences ranging from Brazilian and Colombian idioms to elements of Afro-Cuban rhythms, in a vibrant frame of Latin jazz. Penned for wife Amparo, Second Chance has many meanings, the from personal to the second chances we all have ...

like 588

Free: Free Forever

by Doug Collette
May 22, 2010

Free Free Forever Eagle Vision 2010 (2006)

Free was one of the most distinctive bands to emerge from the British blues-rock boom of the late 1960s, albeit a one-hit wonder to the audience that enjoyed its biggest mainstream success, “All Right Now." The full-length version of that single appeared on Fire And Water (A&M, 1970), the disc that was three albums in for the quartet which continued, somewhat haltingly, through three more albums before ...

like 194

Willie Buck: The Life I Love

by John Barron
May 22, 2010

Although blues singer Willie Buck has been leading his own bands in Chicago for over forty years with some of the city's best sidemen, the Houston, Mississippi native is relatively unknown on a national level. Hopefully, this will change with the reissue of The Life I Love, his one and only full-length release from the early 1980s. Originally titled I Wanna Be Loved in a limited edition LP, the newly remastered version includes five bonus tracks, recorded live in 1984 ...

like 642

Blue Music Group

by Marcia Hillman
May 22, 2010

Blue Music Group (BMG) is a record label that has positioned itself for the 21st century. Not only does it fulfill the demand for instant gratification and portability, but also it has succeeded in filling the gap created by the loss of many retail record store outlets due to the recession. As a matter of fact, the company has been able to do well because of and in spite of the negative economy. Keeping up with the ...

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Take Five With Ryan Kauffman

by AAJ Staff
May 22, 2010

Meet Ryan Kauffman: “What is not to like about a throaty tenor saxophone with a big aggressive sound, a full voiced soprano saxophone or a hauntingly velvety flute?" --Craig W. Hurst

Ryan Kauffman is a saxophonist and private teacher in central and eastern Pennsylvania. He currently leads his own jazz trio and quartet, and has performed throughout the Central PA region, including appearances at Bethlehem Musikfest, Central Pennsylvania Friends of Jazz, Lancaster Jazz Festival and Rehoboth ...

like 227

Lokesh: Utopia

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 22, 2010

Lokesh embodies the sprawling global village that the age of internet music has ushered in. He was born and grew up studying computer science in New Delhi, but now lives and works as a DJ and producer in San Francisco, where he also contributes to the pan-global electronic musical co-ops Vishnu Operative and Ultraviolet Carnival. “I was into electronic music when I was in India," he explains, “I kind of moved on from the stereotypical genres to the more experimental ...

like 301

Silvie Rider: Je Te Connais

by C. Michael Bailey
May 21, 2010

Munich borne Silvie Rider moved to her husband's (Red Young) home of Austin, Texas and recorded a half-Anglophone/half-Francophone album. If that is not the top of multicultural blending, then nothing is. Okay, but first, who is Red Young? Oddly, he would be the keyboard player of late of Eric Burdon and the Animals. Could this story grow stranger? Perhaps, only if Tiny Tim made an appearance and, gratefully, that did not happen. And if that is not enough, this is ...