Jazz Articles

like 699

Take Five With Art Hodges

by AAJ Staff
April 22, 2010

Meet Art Hodges: Art Hodges is an American guitarist, composer, arranger, and teacher currently residing near Tokyo, Japan. For over 25 years, he has studied, mastered, performed, and taught a variety of guitar styles and musical genres (including jazz, rock, blues, and classical). At Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts, he avidly studied both jazz and classical guitar disciplines, as well as composition and arranging. He was also a student of guitar guru Tim Reynolds, and ...

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Chant: Ma Io Ch'in Questa Lingua

by Jerry D'Souza
April 22, 2010

Libero Mureddu, Cristiano Calcignile and Antonio Borghini, who have been together since 2000, find a unique realm for their music. They go through several levels and strata, never content to dwell on one plateau for any given length of time. They formulate, shape and delve into sounds with an instant tick of the imagination. And despite the fact that all of the music on Ma Io Ch'in Questa Lingua has a composed head, each piece reacts to the impulses of ...

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Chad Eby: Broken Shadows

by Raul d'Gama Rose
April 21, 2010

On Broken Shadows his wonderful second album, Chad Eby doffs his proverbial hat to the magnificent American music that came before him and in doing so, puts it in the current context. He also goes a step further, adding not only his own vocal-style interpretations of music from Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Thad Jones, Ornette Coleman and Branford Marsalis, but also a masterful last post in four parts he calls “Epitaph." This tribute is played in character--for Dewey Redman, Steve ...

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Greg Kelley: Flesh to Metal

by Gordon Marshall
April 21, 2010

Boston trumpeter Greg Kelley takes an atom and constructs a world out of it. Taking his cue from the metallic tubes of his instrument and how they are connected to his mouth, and ultimately his body, his sounds are never wholly disembodied but rather maintain the precise quality of that apparatus that, in his hands, is a physical/technological continuum.

Or something--efforts to characterize his art are bound to fail, turning back on themselves with the fatal realization that the only ...

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Brad Mehldau Trio: Kingston, Canada April 11, 2010

by John Kelman
April 21, 2010

Brad Mehldau TrioGrand TheatreKingston, CanadaApril 11, 2010

When a trio has been together as long as pianist Brad Mehldau's--the current incarnation, with original bassist Larry Grenadier and relative newcomer (but no stranger to either of his band mates), drummer Jeff Ballard, has been together for over five years, first heard on Day is Done (Nonesuch, 2005)--it's hard to imagine any gig being a bad gig. But time and place can still sometimes coalesce to create ...

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Bobby McFerrin: VOCAbuLarieS

by Mark F. Turner
April 21, 2010

For nearly thirty years, Bobby McFerrin's illustrious career has proven that there is no instrument like the human voice. With an ability to cover any vocal range, his spontaneous inventions have spanned inventive a cappella singing, wonderful mimicries and global dialects, through memorable performances and recordings with the likes of the Vienna Philharmonic, Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock, or demonstrating the power of the pentatonic scale at the 2009 World Science Festival. A true virtuoso, McFerrin is far ...

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Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau Stunning Duet Session in Saratoga Springs, NY

by R.J. DeLuke
April 21, 2010

Joshua Redman and Brad MehldauZankel Hall at Skidmore CollegeSaratoga Springs, NYApril 16, 2010Duets are not an uncommon format in jazz, but what might be less common is the supreme level of synergy and empathy that saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianist Brad Mehldau have for one another on their current mini-tour that made a stop in Saratoga Springs, NY, on April 16.

The tour runs to about the middle of May before the long-time ...

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Tony Marcus: Vanishing Point

by C. Michael Bailey
April 21, 2010

There are two ways to look at San Francisco-based guitarist-singer-song-writer Tony Marcus. The first is in the light of which guitarist-singer-songwriter he most closely resembles, Antonio Carlos Jobim; he could arguably be called the American Jobim, in fact. The second way is as a musical sommelier, one who knows music and all of the art that exists around it. Marcus is like Jobim in that his composing skills are superb, and he possesses the ability to express using different musical ...

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Habib Koité at the Highline Ballroom

by David Miller
April 21, 2010

Habiba Koité & BamadaHighline BallroomNew York, New YorkMarch 16, 2010Many shows at the Highline Ballroom are general admission, but the venue will change things up for certain shows by putting in tables and turning the hall into a large jazz club. They probably made the wrong decision by bringing out the tables for Habib Koité's dynamite show on a warm Tuesday in New York. No matter, the gregarious guitarist from Mali had them dancing in ...

like 180

Michael Musillami Trio: Old Tea

by Nic Jones
April 21, 2010

Guitarist Michael Musillami composed the music for this program in the wake of his son Evan's death. The fact that it's measured and profoundly beautiful is testament to what music can do, and the fact that it's so superbly realized comes down to the fact that this trio is supremely empathetic. Five recordings to date are testament to why this is, and of these this is arguably the one that hits the spot most resoundingly.

Knowledge is sometimes a debilitating ...