Jazz Articles

like 453

Let Yourself Go: The Lives of Jazz Pianist Fred Hersch

by Chris Kompanek
January 17, 2010

Fred Hersch Let Yourself Go: The Lives of Fred Hersch AHA! DVD 2008Katja Duregger's intimate documentary about virtuoso pianist Fred Hersch has the personal touch of a home movie. Broken down into four sections that are viewed individually on the DVD, the film covers all aspects of his life from his work as a musician and composer to his teaching and his longtime struggle with AIDS. There are essentially ...

like 193

Donald Vega: Tomorrows

by Elliott Simon
January 17, 2010

Combined with a forward-looking mindset and an emotional depth not often found on initial offerings, Tomorrows has all the things that a debut should: breadth of style, fresh approach and intimacy that lets one get to know the artist. Pianist Donald Vega, who fled from Nicaragua, has faced much adversity in his young life and impresses with a positive lyrical style. He has wisely chosen to round out his trio with drummer Lewis Nash and bassist David J. Grossman. The ...

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Ella Fitzgerald: Twelve Nights in Hollywood

by Ken Dryden
January 17, 2010

Ella Fitzgerald Twelve Nights in Hollywood Verve Music Group 2009

Ella Fitzgerald needs no introduction to most jazz fans because the “First Lady of Swing" had a remarkably productive recording and performing career that spanned from the mid '30s until around 1990, when multiple health problems forced her into retirement. Ella was 44 in 1961, recording several albums a year for Verve and managed by impresario Norman Granz, who was very interested ...

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Bill Henderson: Beautiful Memory: Bill Henderson Live at the Vic

by Ken Dryden
January 17, 2010

Bill Henderson debuted during the 1950s, one of many ways in which he can be compared to the late Johnny Hartman. Both jazz vocalists showed plenty of promise early on, appearing with various bands during the decade and recording for prominent labels with major musicians. While each of them had their respective heydays during the 1960s, they had only sporadic opportunities to record as leaders afterwards. But though Hartman succumbed to cancer in 1983, Henderson continued to perform.

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Sonny Rollins: Vol. 1

by Matt Marshall
January 16, 2010

Sonny Rollins Vol. 1 Blue Note / Music Matters 2009 (1956)

Often lost and forgotten in the mix of spectacular albums saxophonist Sonny Rollins made for the Prestige label in 1956 (including “all-time" sets Saxophone Colossus and Tenor Madness) and his second Blue Note effort, Sonny Rollins Vol. 2 (1957), considered by some to be Rollins' greatest album of all, Sonny Rollins Vol. 1 is nevertheless an indelible piece of work. It would stand ...

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Worst Pop Band Ever: Dost Thou Believeth in Science?

by Mark F. Turner
January 16, 2010

The Worst Pop Band Ever's title displays a sense of humor and frivolity, but in name only. The Toronto based group consists of a talent pool whose members have performed on the fringes (groups like The Shuffle Demons) or with traditionalists (Wynton Marsalis). And since WPBE's formation in 2005 they've taken it to the streets with music that “amicably reconciles a love of both 'Indie Pop' and improvised music." Though their mantra humorously states to “Imagine the ugly love child ...

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Knut Reiersrud: Gitar

by John Kelman
January 16, 2010

So much has been written about the Nordic sound that it's easy to forget, for most Norwegians--like anyone else--that their roots don't lay entirely within the tradition of their own country. In the case of the normally far-from-reticent Knut Reiersrud and the aptly titled Gitar, there are trace elements of traditional British folk music, the blues, Ry Cooder, acoustic tap-masters like Michael Hedges and more, but the result is a masterful album of gentle beauty, with Reiersrud's inestimable talents subsumed ...

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Alex Chilowicz at William Paterson University

by David A. Orthmann
January 16, 2010

Alex Chilowicz William Paterson University Wayne, NJ December 9, 2009

Saxophonist Alex Chilowicz is a 22-year-old senior in the Jazz Studies program at William Paterson University. To fulfill an honors thesis requirement, Chilowicz embarked on an unusually ambitious project--the performance of Eddie Sauter's Focus. A seven-part composition for string orchestra and improvised tenor saxophone, Focus was one of the first and most successful attempts at fusing jazz and classical music. Sauter wrote it ...

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Marco Benevento & Friends: Live in NYC: The Sullivan Hall Residency

by Doug Collette
January 16, 2010

Marco Benevento & Friends Live In NYC: The Sullivan Hall Residency The Royal Potato Family 2009

Live In NYC: The Sullivan Hall Residency makes an ideal companion piece to the other high point of Marco Benevento's solo career so far, Live At Tonic (Ropeadope, 2007) and it features a similar cast of characters, all of whom contribute to bringing out the best in the keyboardist.

It isn't to slight Marco Benevento ...

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Ergo: Multitude, Solitude

by Nic Jones
January 16, 2010

This is a trio working the electro-acoustic margins, as the instrumental line-up might suggest; and whilst Ergo's music often flirts with ambient notions, there is equally a predominant air of unease about their work, as if by mutual consent they can only reach a kind of uneasy rapprochement with both silence and the moment.

The air of the unresolved--which is also sometimes symptomatic of their work--could similarly be the outcome of shared resolve. Indeed without that air the lengthy “Vessel" ...