Jazz Articles

like 458

Live In Montreux 1996

by Jeff Stockton
March 6, 2010

Wayne ShorterLive at Montreux 1996 Eagle Eye Media2009

Wayne Shorter may look 20 years younger than 76, but he is quite simply one of the last giants, every bit as influential and artistically significant as Sonny Rollins, perhaps second only to John Coltrane when one considers his compositions and just how many of them have become jazz standards. Much of Shorter's legendary artistic output dates from the ...

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Frank Macchia: Folk Songs for Jazzers

by Edward Blanco
March 6, 2010

Never the conventionalist when it comes to music, Grammy-nominated composer/arranger and saxophonist Frank Macchia develops another theme album, this time reinterpreting time-honored traditional American folk songs in another innovative frame of jazz on Folk Songs for Jazzers. With a history of releasing concept albums like the saxophone-heavy Saxolollapalooza (Cacophony, 2008), the Third Stream-tinged classical jazz Landscapes(Cacophony, 2007), the orchestral Emotions (Cacophony, 2006), and the previous Animal series recordings, Macchia once again summons his creative juices in recording some classic American ...

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Accordion Three-Fer: Triphilia; Nice Guy Trio & Will Holshouser

by Donald Elfman
March 6, 2010

Alan Bern/Michael Rodach/Paul BrodyTriophiliaJazzwerkstatt2009 The Nice Guy TrioHere Comes The Nice Guy TrioPorto Franco2009 Will Holshouser Trio + Bernardo SassettiPalace Ghosts and Drunken HymnsClean Feed2001 Because it was portable and reflected the many cultures that came to the US in the 20th century, once upon a ...

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Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin: The TLG Collection

by John Kelman
March 6, 2010

With momentum building in recent times for once progster, now popster Dave Stewart and longtime partner, vocalist Barbara Gaskin, it only makes sense to keep it going. With reissues of the groundbreaking keyboardist's work with Canterbury faves Hatfield and the North and National Health, archival live and radio recordings from Hatfield and the earlier, no less seminal Egg, not to mention a new CD and EP from Stewart & Gaskin--Green and Blue and Hour Moon, both released in 2009 on ...

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Bill Mays: Solo and Trio

by Ken Dryden
March 6, 2010

Bill MaysSolo!s/r2009 Bill MaysAt the MoviesSteeplechase2009

Bill Mays is a veteran artist with an extensive musical resumé, having taken part in all kinds of session work, ranging from movie soundtracks to jazz, backing vocalists and even working with Frank Zappa! Mays paid his dues as a sideman with Sarah Vaughan, Bud Shank and ...

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Eric Alexander: Mode for Mabes & Revival of the Fittest

by Marcia Hillman
March 6, 2010

Eric AlexanderMode for MabesDelmark2009 Eric AlexanderRevival of the FittestHighNote2009 Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander and pianist Harold Mabern first shared a bandstand in public during Alexander's senior year at William Paterson College when Mabern (one of his teachers) invited him to sit in at a local New Jersey club. It was not to be the ...

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John Ellis & Double-Wide: Puppet Mischief

by Russ Musto
March 6, 2010

This second outing by John Ellis & Double Wide, the versatile saxophonist/bass clarinetist's extraordinary New Orleans-based band, one ups the “serious fun" mentality by inviting a pair of guests--harmonica master Gregoire Maret and multifaceted trombonist Alan Ferber--to augment the unusual quartet of sousaphonist Matt Perrine, drummer Jason Marsalis and newcomer Brian Coogan (replacing Gary Versace) on organ. The result is an even more flavorful gumbo that spices up the homegrown roots of the Crescent City with the savory sounds of ...

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William Parker: Temporary & In the Shade of the Sun

by Kurt Gottschalk
March 6, 2010

William Parker / Giorgio Dini Temporary Silta 2009 John Blum with Sunny Murray and William Parker In the Shade of Sun Ecstatic Peace 2009 Bassist William Parker is deeply familiar with the lower register. He's played in duo and quartet groupings of string basses. He gravitates towards the tuba, the Malian donso ngoni and ...

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Peter Zak: Blues on the Corner: The Music of McCoy Tyner

by Joel Roberts
March 6, 2010

McCoy Tyner has justifiably been heralded as one of the most important jazz pianists of the past 50 years, both for his seminal work with the classic John Coltrane Quartet in the 1960s and for the four decades of consistently exhilarating work as a leader that followed. But while his heavily percussive style, unique chord voicings and the sheer emotional force of his playing have influenced countless followers, he has seldom been appreciated for his contributions as a composer. That's ...

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Moppa Elliott & Jon Irabagon: Accomplish Jazz and Forty Fort

by Ivana Ng
March 6, 2010

Mostly Other People Do The Killing Forty Fort Hot Cup Records 2010 Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord Accomplish Jazz Hot Cup Records 2009 Mostly Other People Do the Killing (MOPDtK) revels in allusion and anarchy. In their fourth album Forty Fort (this time recreating the classic ...