Jazz Articles

like 730

Joseph Jarman, Bob Wilber, Charles McPherson & Vinny Golia

by Martin Longley
April 6, 2010

Joseph Jarman/The Peter Apfelbaum New York Hieroglyphics QuintetBelarusan ChurchMarch 7 In the search for ever-more unusual venues, I journeyed to the Belarusan Church on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, the current home of Connection Works. This is an artist-operated, non-profit organization that divides its resources between gigs and workshop activities, featuring established players as well as less-familiar names. Their chief focus is local, hence the subtitle, Brooklyn Jazz Wide Open. The Connection Works advisory ...

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Absolute Ensemble Featuring Joe Zawinul: Absolute Zawinul

by Raul d'Gama Rose
April 6, 2010

Few musicians have left a stamp on modern music as indelible as Josef Zawinul. In an artistic life that spanned over fifty years, playing and absorbing the sounds of nearly every continent, Zawinul not only wrote and played beautiful music on the piano but also extended the horizons of the synthesizer in contemporary music. No one--not even Ralph Towner and Lyle Mays--has done more for the instrument in all its incarnations and Zawinul, probably out of a certain diffidence, made ...

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Sagy Segal: Global Village

by Eyal Hareuveni
April 6, 2010

The debut release of the international, Amsterdam-based quartet, led by an Israeli pianist and composer Sagy Segal, attempts to re-frame the traditional jazz quartet in a global perspective by adding traditional, localized ingredients into its lyrical recipe. Elements such as Sephardic Jewish songs, Brazilian, Argentinean Tango, Celtic, Indian, and even Chinese musical traditions affect the depth of the compositions, creating the idea of a musical travelogue packed in a short and busy cross-countries tour without really experiencing the travel itself. ...

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Steve Swell's Slammin' The Infinite: 5000 Poems

by John Sharpe
April 6, 2010

There was a time when the addition of a chordal instrument such as piano to a horn-led free jazz quartet would have been viewed as a nod to the mainstream. But not the case now and especially not when the pianist in question is John Blum and the group is trombonist Steve Swell's Slammin' The Infinite. Underground legend Blum stays on board for their fourth outing after his guest appearance on Live At The Vision Festival (Not Two, 2008) and ...

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Lester Young: Centennial Celebration Lester Young

by Andrew Velez
April 6, 2010

Although he'd lived a scant 50 hard years when he died in 1959, tenor sax giant Lester Willis Young was and remains one of the most vital and influential forces in jazz. He used words as singularly as he played, dubbing Billie Holiday “Lady Day"; theirs was an incomparable musical pairing and she returned the favor, calling him “Prez" for president. Prez proved to be the key link between the early jazz of Louis Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins with the ...

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Fat Cat Big Band: Face

by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
April 6, 2010

Face is an album with layers. Each of the ten tracks offers a nuanced explication of anticipation, heartbreak and spirituality. The glistening veneer of giddiness and celebration is attractive and reviving. But if you listen closely, there's also yearning and loneliness and a grasping for spiritual fulfillment. The entire album is soulful in the way some popular, accessible poets are soulful--you respond viscerally to the beauty of the art and only careful revisits will teach you how to appreciate it ...

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Tim Hagans: Trumpet and Musical Elegance

by R.J. DeLuke
April 6, 2010

Trumpeter Tim Hagans, it appears at times, can almost fly under the radar. His splendid playing has been heard in a variety of contexts over the years, always creative, expressive, expansive. Maria Schneider expresses glee when he's able to be a part of her orchestra and help interpret her musical creations. He's been part of the Stan Kenton organization and played alongside the wonderful Thad Jones. He brings a bright, buoyant style to every occasion. “Everybody that I ...

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Jeff Beck: Emotion & Commotion

by John Kelman
April 6, 2010

Of the three artists who emerged as “guitar gods" on the British rock scene of the 1960s--all three coming up through the same group, The Yardbirds--Jeff Beck is, more than perennial favorites Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, the one who has taken the most risks throughout his career. They don't always work, either; on the other hand, his performance at the Ronnie Lane ARMS concert in 1983 may have been less than a resounding success, but the guitarist deserved major ...

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Nguyen Le: Signature Edition 1

by John Kelman
April 5, 2010

Few musicians embody the word “fusion" more than Parisian-born guitarist Nguyên Lê. The son of Vietnamese immigrants, for the past 25 years he's been mining a combination of fusion by the more conventional definition--the infusion of rock energy into the jazz sphere--with fusion in a broader sense, the seamless integration of music from cultures around the world. More than many, Lê's music represents a cross-pollination that, at any given time, can combine his own electric guitar--often distortion-tinged and whammy bar-driven, ...

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Yuri Goloubev: Of Chocolate Cake & Other Simple Metaphors

by Ian Patterson
April 5, 2010

After a highly successful career in one of the world's greatest classical ensembles, the Moscow Soloists, Russian double-bassist Yuri Goloubev decided to turn his back entirely on this world to heed another calling: jazz.Responding to his lifelong passion, Goloubev established himself in Milan, Italy, where in the past five years he has recorded an impressive number of sessions and fully established himself on the national jazz scene.

As one-third of the short-lived but highly impressive trio ...