Jazz Articles

like 281

Petrus Kapell: A Call For Silence

by Jakob Baekgaard
April 25, 2010

Whatever the reason may be, the influence of country music is rarely heard among modern jazz guitarists. Bill Frisell and Pat Metheny are among the relatively few that have explored the legacy of bluegrass and country and transformed it into a singular musical expression. Keeping this is in mind, it is all the more surprising to find Danish guitarist Per Lyhne Løkkegaard cultivating a country-inspired sound that supposedly could only thrive in the heartland of America. Filtering jazz, blues, country ...

like 345

The Future of the Music Business: How to Succeed With The New Digital Technologies

by Karen Hogg
April 25, 2010

The Future Of The Music Business: How To Succeed With The New Digital Technologies Steve Gordon 362 pages (second edition) ISBN: 00331939 paper Hal Leonard 2008

Much has been written about the steady decline of CD sales and the rise of illegal downloading. The record industry has scrambled for a solution, only to alienate many of its customers with lawsuits targeting everyone accused of file sharing from students ...

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La Fontegara at Americas Society, April 16, 2010

by Ernest Barteldes
April 25, 2010

La Fontegara Americas Society April 16, 2010 New York, NY

According to the program notes at Americas Society, music was an important part of colonial-era Mexico, where Spanish-born composers traveled to during the 17th and 18th Centuries to write music for recitals, religious services and other events.

Sadly, few musical documents survive from that era, but those that do give testament of how composers (some unknown) blended folk and ...

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Adam Niewood: Epic Journey, Volumes I & II

by Karl Ackermann
April 25, 2010

Post modern jazz musicians like New York-based multi-reed instrumentalist Adam Niewood are sometimes more adroit at pushing boundaries in terms of incorporating non-traditional instruments and equally non-traditional compositions. Niewood wrote most of the tracks on Epic Journey, Volumes I & II, composing with a mind toward letting the instruments speak in their own voices while overlapping a bigger picture as the main anchor of each piece. The result is what might be imagined, if the entire quintet had an even-hand ...

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Paul Wertico: Impressions Of A City

by Hrayr Attarian
April 25, 2010

Almost 40 years after its inception and despite many detractors among master musicians and critics, jazz-rock fusion continues to have a tenacious hold on both creators and consumers of instrumental music. Percussionist Paul Wertico's Impressions of a City puts a modern spin on the genre by creating a work that brings together jazz like improvisation and the sound of rock jam bands. The concept behind the CD is interesting; it is supposed to be free musical impressions ...

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Wellstone Conspiracy: Motives

by John Barron
April 24, 2010

The Wellstone Conspiracy is a collective venture for four of the more prolific jazz musicians residing in the Northwest region of the United States. The group consists of Idaho-based saxophonist Brent Jensen and from Seattle, pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop. The quartet, previously heard together on Jensen's One More Mile (Origin, 2008), hits the mark with Motives, a disc full of stunning interplay and individual showmanship. A highlight of the recording is the ...

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Gary Burton's Arrival: Celebrating 50 Years

by Michael Epstein
April 24, 2010

Gary Burton's Arrival: Celebrating 50 YearsBerklee Performance CenterBoston, MAApril 8, 2010 When was the last time you saw a concert that featured Gary Burton, Mick Goodrick, Abe Laboriel, Harry Blazer, Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Steve Swallow, Antonio Sanchez, Tiger Okoshi, Jim Odgren, Donny McCaslin, Makoto Ozone, Julian Lage, Vadim Neselovskyi, Luques Curtis, James Williams, and Chick Corea? Unless you were at the Berklee Performance Center on Thursday, April 8, the answer is never.

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Ken Peplowski: Noir Blue

by Raul d'Gama Rose
April 24, 2010

Ken Peplowski has much to say; not in the sense that he jabbers incessantly, as many men with horns (and embouchures for hire) sometimes do. However, in erudite and leaping ululations, and in warm, wafting glissandos he sings of the gaiety and sadness of life. This he does through clarinet or tenor saxophone, depending on the echo and longevity he wishes his harmonic monologues to have. An old soul, with a spectacular perspective on the past, Peplowski lives in a ...

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Pizzarelli / Ellington: Rockin' In Rhythm

by Nick Catalano
April 24, 2010

John Pizzarelli unveiled the contents of his new Telarc CD John Pizzarelli Rockin' In Rhythm: A Tribute to Duke Ellington at Birdland recently and the result was a musical explosion. It is easy to become bored with the plethora of “tribute" CDs issued almost every week these days, but this effort is truly something special.

From the moment Pizzarelli ascended the bandstand with his “Swing Seven" cohorts the room began rocking. Not only were patrons finger popping and foot stomping ...

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Sopla, Andrea Brachfeld! Blow!

by Javier AQ Ortiz
April 24, 2010

A visit to a New York afterhours dive during the heyday of salsa in the mid 1970s would most likely afford the chance to see charanga groups such as Típica Novel, Orquesta Broadway or Charanga 76, furiously competing against each other-- with flutist Andrea Brachfeld holding her own among a bunch of hardcore characters, musical and otherwise, who were adding their own distinctive chapters to the history of this Cuban music. It's a style that owes much to its New ...