Jazz Articles

like 435

Charito: Watch What Happens

by Edward Blanco
November 23, 2009

Recognized as a prominent jazz singer in Japan, Philippine-born songbird Charito has been a vocal force in Asia and Europe since the early 1990s, and now presents perhaps her most ambitious project to date on Watch What Happens, a delightful collaboration with Grammy Award-winning French composer Michel Legrand. Stating that “This album has become one of my biggest accomplishments ever," Charito does, indeed, deliver a classy performance with her distinctive interpretation of love songs from Legrand's songbook. The singer embarks ...

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Ike Sturm: JazzMass

by Martin Gladu
November 23, 2009

Ike SturmJazzMassSelf Produced2009

Ask any jazz fans if he or she knows “When The Saints Go Marching In" or John Coltrane's anthem “A Love Supreme" and you will most probably get an affirmative nod. Those versed in the music's history might even know Duke Ellington's “Come Sunday" or his Grammy Award-winning piece “In The Beginning, God." Yet the idea of jazz as a sacred art form has not found a place in ...

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Take Five With Glenn Nolle

by AAJ Staff
November 23, 2009

Meet Glenn Nolle: Born in Pittsburgh area and began playing guitar at age eight. Embraced the discipline of playing music earnestly after exposure to the music of Jimi Hendrix around 11 years of age. Became immersed in playing the guitar and practiced so much that finger-style playing was achieved in one day of 13 hour non-stop practicing. Studied under jazz guitarist Bill Clydesdale, Joe Negri and classical/flamenco guitarist Jerry Conderato. A teacher who had a tremendous impact on rock playing ...

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Joe Morris: Colorfield

by Raul d'Gama Rose
November 23, 2009

Much dirt has been spread about concrete art because it lacks heart and is almost always cold by its very nature. In music as in painting, the anomaly of art without a living soul can echo with emptiness. However there is Confucius, who praised the exactitude of concrete nomenclature, eschewing the figurative. In the case of music that may be overtones or moods, even guitarist Joe Morris' Colorfield does not stray from the path of concrete music diktats, where there's ...

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Amalgamation: Therefore

by Woodrow Wilkins
November 23, 2009

Amalgamation is the bringing together of different elements. It is also the name of group that wants, on its debut Therefore, to present a unique sound. Based in Cleveland, Mississippi, this saxophone/guitar/bass/drums quartet is heavily influenced by the blues, but with a sound that's more a mix of rock, pop, jazz and fusion, its members count Chris Potter and Joshua Redman as some of its reference points. Some rapid stick work from drummer Coday Anthony opens ...

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Myron Walden: Momentum

by John Kelman
November 23, 2009

Sometimes a break can be the best thing a musician can take. Not getting tired by any means, if a four-year sabbatical from recording as a leader results in as strong a comeback as reedman Myron Walden's, perhaps artists should take breaks more often. A charter member of drummer Brian Blade's Fellowship Band, Walden is back with not one, but three CDs over the next couple months. The first, Momentum, is a potent modern mainstream set that takes trumpet icon ...

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Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz: Two Not One

by Chris Mosey
November 22, 2009

In 1975, the members of a musical appreciation society called The Danish Jazz Exchange clubbed together to bring their two favorite American improvisers, Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz, to their homeland. They then listened in rapt attention as the saxophonists played a series of concerts at Montmartre, then Copenhagen's premier jazz venue. The shadow of blind pianist/teacher Lennie Tristano, with whom Marsh and Konitz studied in the 1950s, and who was to die three years after these tracks were cut, ...

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Daniel Bennett Group: The Legend Of Bear Thompson

by AAJ Staff
November 22, 2009

Daniel Bennett GroupThe Legend Of Bear ThompsonBennett Alliance2008Acoustic guitar and alto saxophone form a key part of Boston saxophonist Daniel Bennett's musical recipe, and the combination informs the pleasingly melodic The Legend Of Bear Thompson. The lineup is Bennett on alto saxophone and flute, Brant Grieshaber on acoustic guitar and Sean Jefferson drums. The sound is light on percussion, and indeed Bennett did not have a drummer between 2004 ...

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Henry Darragh: Tell Her For Me

by Bruce Lindsay
November 22, 2009

On Tell Her For Me, his first album, Texan Henry Darragh sets out of his stall as a fresh and original performer and writer. This is one of the most interesting and refreshing releases of 2009--a collection of standards and self-penned songs which is by turns funny, affecting and even educational. Darragh's fellow musicians provide sterling support and Darragh clearly has talent as a pianist and trombonist--he contributes a rough-edged and driving trombone solo to “Early," for ...

like 682

Frank Sinatra: New York

by Mark Corroto
November 22, 2009

Frank Sinatra Sinatra: New York Reprise 2009

The true icons of American music, and there are only a few, include Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan and Frank Sinatra. Their art changed the way we listen to music, and probably more important, their personal style made a deep impression on American culture. Of Armstrong, Dylan and Sinatra, it is without a doubt Sinatra, “Ol' Blue Eyes," who continues to be the epitome of style. ...