Jazz Articles

like 1,233

Stan Kenton Alumni Band / Dave Lisik Orchestra / New Zealand School of Music Big Band

by Jack Bowers
April 5, 2010

Stan Kenton Alumni Band Have Band Will Travel Summit Records 2010

There was a time (often referred to as “the good old days") when the phrase Have Band Will Travel would have been commonplace, as popular touring bands traversed the country on an almost daily basis to brave one-night stands or longer engagements in ballrooms, nightclubs, auditoriums or other venues. These days, one can count the number of traveling bands on the ...

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Billy Jenkins: I Am A Man From Lewisham

by Chris May
April 5, 2010

It's hard not to warm to a bandleader who once took a party of jazz musicians along to a motorcycle race meeting so that they could get the “risk" of improvising into perspective. That's London guitarist Billy Jenkins: an instinctive enemy of pretension and convention wherever he encounters them--a licensed celebrant of humanist funerals, chess punk, satirist, prankster and the one-time captain of a lawn bowling team, a position and a pastime widely regarded as the preserve of geriatrics. Jenkins' ...

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The State of Jazz Lyricists 2010: Mose Allison and Jim Pearce

by C. Michael Bailey
April 5, 2010

There exists a unique and storied subset of jazz artists who pen the most clever music and lyrics this side of Tin Pan Alley and way that side of modern-day Nashville. Besides Bob Dorough and Dave Frishberg, who are in a class by themselves, are Mose Allison and Jim Pearce, who are also part of that rarefied class. That three of these four--all pianists and singers as well as composers--are Southerners should not be a surprise because the American South, ...

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Pablo Aslan: Tango Grill

by Raul d'Gama Rose
April 5, 2010

To the unsuspecting ear, Pablo Aslan may sometimes appear to be just a fabulous bassist, with sublime technique and a virtuoso of limitless possibility. But dig a little deeper, especially into Tango Grill, and the impossible will seem to appear. Aslan takes the relatively rigid structure of the written music and dance form--the Tango--into a stratospheric space where no one else has ever dared to venture--not, at least, since Astor Piazzolla reinvented the form as Nuevo Tango over 60 years ...

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Playdate: Playdate

by John Barron
April 5, 2010

Playdate brings together a trio of long time friends and musical collaborators. Guitarist Amanda Monaco, saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, and pianist Noah Baerman have known each other since high school, studying music together at the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, Connecticut. The ensemble is rounded out by bassist Henry Lugo and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza for a lively quintet set of originals and lesser-known jazz gems. The disc opens with Monaco's spirited hard-bopping swinger “Copper Tone," a ...

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Dan Pratt Organ Quartet: Toe the Line

by Woodrow Wilkins
April 5, 2010

Toe the Line is a phrase which signifies unwavering obedience to a doctrine, structure, or rule, but the Dan Pratt Organ Quartet defies such a rule. The group conforms to the rule of playing with flair, but little else.

Pratt, who plays tenor saxophone, was a member of the Monterey Jazz Festival High School All-Star Band, and his professional career includes work with Joe Lovano, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and the Christian McBride Big Band.

“Houdini," the first of eight ...

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For the Grand Prize: April Is . . . ?

by Jack Bowers
April 4, 2010

Did you know that April is Jazz Appreciation Month? Neither did I until I chanced upon a press release to that effect. According to the Smithsonian Institution's Smithsonian Jazz website, there are “celebrations in all 50 states and 40 countries." If I'm not mistaken, New Mexico is one of those 50 states, and no one here has planned anything special to commemorate the month, at least not to my knowledge. Aside from the regular Thursday night events at The Outpost ...

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Jeff Davis: We Sleep Outside

by Troy Collins
April 4, 2010

The tightly knit Brooklyn scene has yielded a number of exceptional ensembles in the past few years, including Michael Bates' Outside Sources, Kris Davis' Quartet, Jon Irabagon's Outright!, Kirk Knuffke's Quartet, Eivind Opsvik's Overseas, the RIDD Quartet and Tone Collector. The common denominator uniting these various bands is drummer Jeff Davis, a former student of pianist Art Lande and trumpeter Ron Miles. An inventive improviser partial to unconventional textures and unpredictable rhythms, Davis' capricious creativity and alert responsiveness have made ...

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Royal Hartigan: Ancestors

by Karl Ackermann
April 4, 2010

On paper, combining the musical influences of West Africa, America and Asia can appear a bit overwhelming. That's not the case at all on Royal Hartigan's Ancestors. The pianist/percussionist's trilogy--Blood Drum Spirit (Innova, 2004), Blood Drum Spirit Live in China (Innov a, 2008), and now Ancestors--reflects a universal viewpoint without being neatly categorized as world music. Jazz is pervasive throughout this collection, and the various musical ethnicities serve as reminders of where the genre came from and where it could ...

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Stan Kenton Alumni Band: Have Band Will Travel

by Nicholas F. Mondello
April 4, 2010

Stan Kenton Alumni Band Have Band Will Travel Summit Records 2010

In the golden era of television, the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was a popular Western series titled Have Gun Will Travel. It starred Richard Boone as the San Francisco-based Paladin, a dressed all in black (but good guy), cowboy private eye. This gunslinger scoured the West righting wrongs and besting opponents with his intelligence and lightning fast pistol draw. ...