Jazz Articles

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Nancy Harms: In the Indigo

by Bridget A. Arnwine
March 4, 2010

Jazz vocalist Nancy Harms presents In the Indigo, a sultry yet intelligent offering of old standards, original material, and the occasional pop cover. She sings like a woman who's sure of herself. Whether singing John Mayer's “Great Indoors" or Irving Berlin's “Blue Skies" she has a way of making even the simplest lyric sound like a masterpiece of thought. Armed with a talented band and beautiful vocals, In the Indigo is good packaging for even better music.If the ...

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The Trio: Live @ Charlie O's

by Martin Gladu
March 4, 2010

There are a myriad of different opportunities for in-demand drummer Peter Erskine to invest himself in, both as a musician and as an entrepreneur. Why then would he elect to bivouac at a local bar to play standards? Well, it may have something to do with the fact that that's what jazz is; jamming on show tunes in venues where you can just drop in any night of the week and listen to or make music for a motley crew.

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Kurt Rosenwinkel: Reflections

by Stuart Broomer
March 4, 2010

Kurt Rosenwinkel has a well-earned reputation for aggressive guitar playing that's both rhythmically astute and harmonically exploratory, a talent that he's applied with Mark Turner and Brad Mehldau as well as with hiphop producer Q-Tip. With Reflections, he has reined in his sometimes-divergent impulses for an unusual collection of standards and tunes by Thelonious Monk and Wayne Shorter that's almost all at ballad tempo, with the sturdy support and interaction of bassist Eric Revis and drummer Eric Harland.

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Bill Ware: Played Right

by Gordon Marshall
March 4, 2010

Never one to swoop into the limelight or blithely steal the show, vibraphonist Bill Ware has built a model résumé that weaves silently and inscrutably through the best of most modern genres. Ware's Played Right accordingly shows the touch of a resilient, serpentine stylist, a master of quiet spectacle. Titles alone offer a provocative cross-section of popular music's history--the Modern Jazz Quartet's “Django" follows a few cuts after Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit" and closes out in ...

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Modern Jazz Quartet: 1963 Monterey Jazz Festival

by Graham L. Flanagan
March 4, 2010

For nearly half a century, the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) endured as one of the most well-renowned ensembles in jazz. The original MJQ came together in 1946 as the rhythm section in Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra: Milt Jackson on vibes and John Lewis on piano, as well as bassist Ray Brown and drummer Kenny Clarke. Brown and Clarke were replaced early on by Percy Heath and Connie Kay, respectively, but Lewis and Jackson would remain mainstays of the MJQ all the ...

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David S. Ware: Saturnian (Solo Saxophones Volume One)

by Nic Jones
March 3, 2010

This entirely solo music was captured for posterity at an AUM Fidelity label showcase in October, 2009; Ware's first live performance after a kidney transplant. Marking a dynamic return, it maps out yet another strand of Ware's artistry just as Threads (Thirsty Ear, 2003) did. Ware may be best known for his quartet work, it's clear that this is but one facet of his overarching vision.

He expands his instrumental arsenal here to take in the saxello and the stritch, ...

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Dan Berglund: Back from the Dark

by AAJ Staff
March 3, 2010

Bassist Dan Berglund became known as one-third of Swedish jazz superstar group e.s.t. (Esbjörn Svensson Trio), with CDs including From Gagarin's Point of View (ACT, 1999), Good Morning Susie Soho (ACT, 2000), Strange Place for Snow (ACT, 2002) and e.s.t.. Live in Hamburg (ACT, 2007)--one of The Times UK's top albums of the last decade--culminating in Leucocyte (ACT, 2008). The trio's steady rise in the jazz sphere was abruptly truncated by pianist Svensson's tragic death in a scuba diving accident, ...

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Galactic/Karl Denson's Tiny Universe at Fillmore in Denver

by Geoff Anderson
March 3, 2010

Galactic/Karl Denson's Tiny Universe Fillmore Denver February 20, 2010

The grooves were deep, the rhythms infectious, the funk ubiquitous. Saturday night the Fillmore in Denver served up a double helping of syncopation with Galactic and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe. The Tiny Universe opened with an hour and twenty minute set of sometimes carefully arranged grooves. Galactic followed with two hours of a more primal and gritty version of the funk.

Galactic has ...

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Dan Berglund's Tonbruket: Dan Berglund's Tonbruket

by John Kelman
March 3, 2010

After 15 years as the bassist for Swedish supergroup e.s.t.--and, at least to the public eye, to the exclusion of all else--the big question about Dan Berglund was, after the group tragically dissolved following the untimely death of pianist Esbjörn Svensson, what next? Well, considering Berglund's roots were always more in rock than jazz--his signature delayed and overdriven arco the closest a double-bass has ever come to heavy metal--it's no surprise that Dan Berglund's Tonbruket leans more towards the rock ...

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Marc Copland Trio: Cafe Paradiso, Ottawa, Canada

by John Kelman
March 3, 2010

Marc Copland Trio Café Paradiso Ottawa, Canada February 27, 2010

Running a jazz club in a town where the scene is, in relative terms, marginal at best is a constantly risky proposition, but over the past several years Alex Demianenko's Café Paradiso has become an institution in Ottawa, where fine dining meets jazz on a local, national and international level. On Saturday, February 27, Demianbenko hosted a trio that was supposed to be ...