Jazz Articles

like 265

Actis Dato Quartet: World Tour

by Jerry D'Souza
December 22, 2009

Carlo Actis Dato has had a long and colorful career, both with his own groups and as part of notable Italian bands, most importantly the Italian Instabile Orchestra and Pino Minafra Sud Ensemble. As a composer he imbibes the music and sounds he hears on his world travels, adding flavor to his compositions. Playing tenor and baritone saxophones and bass clarinet, Actis Dato's art is manifested in the many recordings he has made, from solo outings to leading the nonet ...

like 993

Pete McCann: Looking Forward

by Matthew Warnock
December 22, 2009

Jazz guitarist and educator Pete McCann has been a first-call sideman and bandleader on the New York scene for almost twenty years. Possessing a musical style that draws from the blues, jazz and rock genres, McCann's playing and writing styles are as diverse as his influences. Having worked with such world-class performers as Lee Konitz, Chris Tarry, Dave Liebman, Kenny Garrett, Greg Osby, Brian Blade and the Maria Schneider Orchestra, McCann has appeared on over fifty recordings as a sideman. ...

like 170

Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord: Accomplish Jazz

by Jakob Baekgaard
December 21, 2009

The lineage of guitarists with a lyrical bent is staggering. From Charlie Christian to Kurt Rosenwinkel, guitarists have often been praised not only for their technical skills, but also for their ability to sculpt finely woven lines of melody. Beauty, however, is a strange thing and there is also another school of guitarists to which belongs the likes of Frank Zappa, Derek Bailey and Nels Cline, to whom beauty isn't necessarily connected to harmony and melody, but rather to the ...

like 275

Jazz

by Eugene Holley, Jr.
December 21, 2009

Jazz Gary Giddins, Scott DeVeaux Hardcover; 704 pages ISBN: 978-0-393-06861-0 W.W.Norton 2009

The only thing harder than playing jazz is writing about it. It is a music that is specific, yet hard to define. It is easy to understand, yet at times hard to comprehend, sometimes in the same song. And it is continuously old and new. In its roughly 100 year history, few books have attempted to capture the ...

like 182

(Another) Nuttree Quartet (Abercrombie / Anderson / Liebman / Nussbaum): Something Sentimental

by John Kelman
December 21, 2009

It's always a pleasure to hear a group of musicians who, over the years, have developed not just a strong musical bond, but a personal one as well. If it's a truth that most musicians' style is a direct extension of their personality--of who they are--then it's equally logical to extrapolate that the musical interaction between them somehow mirrors the way their friendships have evolved.

First coming together for a party to honor the recently departed ...

like 201

Marc Copland: Alone

by Dan McClenaghan
December 21, 2009

With solo piano, the pure essence of the musician's artistry is revealed. In the case of Marc Copland's Alone, that revelation is enthralling.Copland has risen to the lightly populated top tier of jazz pianists on the strength of his three profile-boosting New York Trio albums, with shifting line-ups including bassists Gary Peacock and Drew Gress, and drummers Paul Motian and Bill Stewart. Copland's style is characterized by an inward feel, an obliqueness--especially on his original tunes--and a complexity ...

like 711

A Cool World Christmas: Carla Bley, Trio West and Wynton Marsalis

by C. Michael Bailey
December 21, 2009

It is easy to be cynical about holiday music. On the mainstream popular music front, these releases are often nakedly commercial, marketed with a fixed (and very large) target population in mind. And a good many of such recordings are truly bad. In the run up to Christmas 2009, the marketplace is clotted with a legion of the musical equivalent of cholesteric plaque, restricting the ability of the best recordings to reveal themselves.

While jazz and classical musics are not ...

like 429

Various Artists: The Very Best of Christmas

by Jeff Winbush
December 21, 2009

Christmas albums are the Valentine's Day and Halloween cards of the recording industry: a simple and short-term product that is featured for public consumption for a limited time and then put away until next year. There's no rule that says you can't listen to and enjoy an album of holiday-themed music whenever the urge strikes. It just tends to provoke a double take from passersby and motorists when you pull up to the red light blasting “Santa Claus Is Coming ...

like 368

December 2009

by Michael Ricci
December 21, 2009

Dear fellow AAJ contributor, 2009 was by far our most significant year in terms of accomplishments. We've had some great years (2006 and the MY AAJ system comes to mind) but it's clear that this year was a turning point for AAJ. It's been a real convergence of people, technology and the beginning of broader industry acceptance that has helped further shape our site and allow us to build on our foundation. For a recap and some recent ...

like 1,897

Vijay Iyer: Into The Mainstream

by AAJ Staff
December 21, 2009

New York-based pianist and composer Vijay Iyer is a rhythmic explorer whose piano trio album Historicity (ACT, 2009) is a cohesive and vibrant record that carries its creator and his colleagues firmly into the mainstream of modern music. The album stems from, among other sources, a succession of striking piano trio influences such as Duke Ellington's trio recording with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, Money Jungle (Blue Note, 1962), the small group Blue Note recordings by Andrew Hill, and the ...