Jazz Articles

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Salsamba Latin Jazz Group: Mojito Blues

by Jack Huntley
March 31, 2010

Salsamba is a Pittsburgh-based quintet that has 25 years under its members' collective belts, and the musical familiarity makes it incredibly tight, both rhythmically and melodically. Mojito Blues, showcases their Latin jazz roots along with the band's accomplished musicality. Whether it's the quintet's original compositions or its reworking of Jazz standards, Salsamba excels at upbeat Latin grooves as well as traditional ballads.

The album jumps off with two festive numbers: “Have You Met George Jones," a reinvention of the standard ...

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Siegfried Loch: 50 Years on the Music-Making Scene

by R.J. DeLuke
March 31, 2010

With a half-century in the music recording business, Siegfried Loch, known to friends and associates as Siggi, has had a huge impact on the jazz music scene in Europe. Jazz isn't the only thing he's been involved in as a producer over all those years, but having his own jazz label--ACT Music, based in Munich, Germany--was always his dream. It's a vision he brought to fruition in 1992, resulting in more than 250 recordings that have received accolades in Europe ...

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Part 9 - Fela Kuti Live In Berlin 1978

by Chris May
March 31, 2010

Fela KutiAnthology 2Wrasse Records2010 (1975-80) This terrific three-disc compilation on the British label Wrasse offers a gold standard selection of Fela Kuti's recordings from the latter half of the 1970s. The 11 tracks featured on the two audio discs include eight landmark album tracks, and a 90-minute DVD contains four more pieces performed at the 1978 Berlin Jazz Festival. The video footage has not previously been released in its entirety.

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Brian Landrus: Forward

by Bruce Lindsay
March 31, 2010

Forward, multi-instrumentalist Brian Landrus' first album, begins by looking back--with a version of Thelonious Monk's “Ask Me Now." This is, perhaps, a nod of recognition to past masters but Landrus' arrangement adds a freshness made even more effective by his use of the baritone sax as the lead instrument. The rest of the album, which was recorded in 2007, features Landrus' original compositions, with equally inventive arrangements, and makes it clear that he's a player to watch. ...

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Archivo Digital del Tango and Pablo Aslan Quintet featuring Paquito D' Rivera at Americas Society

by Ernest Barteldes
March 31, 2010

Archivo Digital del Tango Pablo Aslan Quintet Featuring Paquito D' Rivera Americas Society New York, NY March 24, 2010

According to Americas Society music director Sebastian Zubieta, March 23rd is a national day of remembrance in Argentina, marking the anniversary of the 1975 military coup that took control of the country for over a decade, and this was the date chosen to introduce the audience of a landmark ...

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Paul Keeling: The Farthest Reach

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 31, 2010

The cultures of several musical idioms collide in the music of pianist Paul Keeling on his album, The Farthest Reach. There is a distinct channeling of the pulsating rhythm of late-1960s bop, the gospel of which was spread by musicians such as Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard. Keeling also channels the glacial imagery of musicians who took inspiration from the European stream that was given life by the impressionism of Maurice Ravel. Thus Bill Evans may be heard in Keeling's ...

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William Parker: At Somewhere There

by Mark Corroto
March 31, 2010

Bassist William Parker's music reveals the ever presence of two things: energy and color. Sure, a band's timekeeper is also its dynamo, but Parker's music has always radiated more than pulse. His playing gives off a spiritual vibration that translates easily into color fields.

He is a human mood ring.

This live recording, from July 2008 in Toronto, comprises one long (48 minute) bass solo and two shortish pieces for dousn'gouni and double flute.

The bassist keeps a busy schedule ...

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The Marshall Tucker Band: Way Out West: Live in San Francisco 1973

by Doug Collette
March 31, 2010

Of all the band's on Phil Walden's Capricorn label during the heyday of Southern rock in the 1970s, The Marshall Tucker Band came closest to The Allman Brothers in its ability to write memorable material and improvise with a real sense of adventure. Way Out West: Live in San Francisco 1973, forcefully illustrates the band's virtues.

MTB distinguished itself even further from its forebears by its eclectic mix of influences. Blues was no more or less important than country music, ...

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Michel Berthiaume: Departure

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 30, 2010

Michel Berthiaume is clearly one of the most classically-molded percussionists around. Drummers are supposed to keep time, to find the pulse of the song, and create the rhythmic content of composed and improvised pieces. Inspired percussionists feel, hear, and play melodies. The truly inspired ones can even provide harmonic lift to music from the skins they brush and call to life and the cymbals they tickle and clash. Berthiaume is one of those musicians and he provides a fine display ...

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Ben Goldberg: Clarinet Communion

by Warren Allen
March 30, 2010

The diversity of clarinetist Ben Goldberg's musical interests may only be matched by the intensity of his study. He grew up on The Beatles and classic jazz, started playing Klezmer music at the University of California, Berkeley in the early '80s, and studied with renowned classical clarinet teacher Rosario Mazzeo. In 1984, he became the clarinetist for The Klezmorim, touring throughout the U.S. and Europe, where he also met and learned from the legendary soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy. In 1987, ...