Jazz Articles

like 389

Satoko Fujii Ma-Do: Desert Ship

by Troy Collins
March 11, 2010

On her 50th album as a leader/co-leader, prolific Japanese pianist Satoko Fujii reconvenes her newest acoustic quartet, Ma-Do, for its sophomore effort, Desert Ship. Following in the footsteps of 2008's brilliant Heat Wave (Not Two), this vivacious studio set continues to explore the darker regions of Fujii's oeuvre.

More heavily notated than some of Fujii's work, these labyrinthine compositions rely on a rigorous blend of intricate structure and unfettered freedom. Offsetting the quartet's predilection for massed sonorities, Fujii ...

like 281

Francesco Guaiana Triptyque: The Spoiled Tree

by Phil DiPietro
March 11, 2010

Palermo has, in turns, been designated Italy's cultural, economic, and tourist capital. It has not heretofore been acknowledged for its avant-garde, solo acoustic, spontaneous improv, or modern jazz scenes. Through his consistent issuance of aural postcards from his Byzantine outpost, guitarist Francesco Guaiana has quietly emerged as the region's most gifted practitioner at all of these sub-genres.

2002's Nojaz (Exaudi Records) melded free, inside-outside playing to textural atmospherics, while 2006's solo guitar outing, Clouds in Motion (FGR), adroitly employed loops ...

like 332

Don Williams' Tribute to Billy James

by David A. Orthmann
March 11, 2010

Don Williams' Tribute to Billy James Trumpets Jazz Club Montclair, NJ February 18, 2010

Revered by Hammond B-3 organ and soul-jazz aficionados, drummer Billy James, who died last November at the age of 73, is best known for his role in the bands of organist Don Patterson. James' galvanizing ride cymbal beat and tasteful fills were an important part of a number of Patterson's 1960s Prestige Records sides, which featured heavyweights such as Sonny ...

like 657

Ralph Towner / Paolo Fresu: Chiaroscuro

by John Kelman
March 11, 2010

Since moving to Italy over a decade ago, guitarist/pianist Ralph Towner's output as a leader has been woefully infrequent, with only two discs released this decade--2001's Anthem and 2006's Time Line, both on the label that's been his home for over 35 years, ECM. It's not that he hasn't been busy; he continues to work and record regularly with Oregon, the group that he co-founded nearly 40 years ago, heard most recently on the Grammy Award-nominated 1000 Kilometers (Cam Jazz, ...

like 397

Take Five With Adam Glasser

by AAJ Staff
March 11, 2010

Meet Adam Glasser:Adam grew up in South Africa influenced by township jazz. He took a UK English Literature degree, started gigging as pianist in Paris 1980, with a semester at Berklee in 1981. He gigged around London '80s/'90s with own trio and commercial gigs, tours with Jimmy Witherspoon, Martha Reeves, and for Manhattan Brothers, and produced their album Inyembezi. Harmonica on films, played with Sting, Joe Zawinul, Eurythmics, Carl Orr Band, Incognito, some orchestral gigs, and his own ...

like 275

Nilson Matta's Brazilian Voyage: Copacabana

by Jerry D'Souza
March 11, 2010

Brazilian music is given a shot of verve and vivacity by bassist Nilson Matta, as he succinctly captures the imperatives of the music through originals and standards. The music of his native land courses strongly through his veins, and his compositions blood that presence. He sets up several moods, encompassing them in arrangements that draw the nectar without forsaking the tang.

Matta turns on the seduction from the time he sets the tempo on bass for “Baden," a tribute to ...

like 249

The Jazz Tribe: Everlasting

by Chris Mosey
March 11, 2010

The vogue for Latin jazz began in the 1940s when Dizzy Gillespie hired Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo to play in his big band. At the time, most critics dismissed it as a passing fad. However, percussionist Ray Mantilla, part of a “goodwill ensemble" Gillespie took on a tour of Castro's Cuba in 1977, is today elder statesman of a still thriving genre. With Kansas City saxophonist Bobby Watson, Mantilla fronts The Jazz Tribe, a sextet successfully blending jazz with Cuban ...

like 721

Byard Lancaster: Sounds of Liberation: New Horizons

by Clifford Allen
March 11, 2010

In the years following saxophonist John Coltrane's death and the related dearth of opportunities to perform and record the New Music stateside, a significant body of musicians relocated to Europe, to ply their art in a more receptive atmosphere. Reedman Byard Lancaster was one of the second wave of American free jazz musicians to relocate to Paris in the late 1960s, recording and gigging as part of drummer Sunny Murray's Acoustical Swing Unit and leading his own ensembles with musicians ...

like 336

Roberto Fonseca: Akokan

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 10, 2010

In his follow-up to 2007's Zamazu (Enja/Justin Time), Cuban piano master, Roberto Fonseca deepens his journey into his quasi-mystical musical search. Like the mythical Gilgamesh, the pianist has embarked on a seemingly endless journey, a leap of faith into the musical unknown, to find the tonal center of pain and joy, heartache and ecstasy--and yes, in the tradition of the timeless myth, he has set the mystery and magic of artistry that courses through his veins down his hands, to ...

like 640

Roberto Fonseca: A Life in the Spirit

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 10, 2010

Recognition for the considerable talent of Cuban pianist, Roberto Fonseca has spread far and wide, and if there was another dimension to enter, it would be the one that qualifies an artist to greatness. However, Fonseca fights shy of any attention that distracts from his music. A deeply spiritual person, who just happens to express himself through his art, he prefers to defer to the mysterious and invisible force that compels him to make music.Fonseca worships at the ...