Jazz Articles

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Barranquijazz Festival

by Fred Bouchard
November 13, 2009

Barranquijazz FestivalBarranquilla, ColumbiaSeptember 9-13, 2009Who knows touristic Colombia? Precious few Americans and what a pity! Cartagena's Spanish fortress and charming old town make it a cruise circuit favorite and Bogota is its large, chilly Andean capital, but coastal metropolis Barranquilla falls below tour radar, except as an artsy launch-pad for world-class novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Barranquijazz, its torrid, savvy 13-year Latin Jazz Festival. Each September producers Antonio Caballero and Samuel Minski roll out an ...

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Jon Irabagon: The Observer

by John Sharpe
November 13, 2009

Back in the day this might have been seen as an “In the tradition" statement for someone like saxophonist Jon Irabagon--last heard in freely improvised settings on I Don't Hear Nothin' But The Blues {Loyal, 2009), with drummer Mike Pride, and the RIDD Quartet's Fiction Avalanche (Clean Feed, 2008), or artful deconstructions of the Blue Note oeuvre with Mostly Other People Do The Killing. But such terms seem outmoded for young genre-busting musicians like Irabagon. With the 2008 Thelonious Monk ...

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Vijay Iyer: Historicity

by Chris Kompanek
November 13, 2009

Pianist Vijay Iyer's compositions are ferociously paced and fractured with a sense of urgency that informs each note he plays. Historicity's title track opens the record, grabbing the listener immediately with the pianist's unique touch, carrying through on other original compositions such as “Helix"--a ballad on the surface that explodes midway through with frenetic energy. This energy is also felt on his interpretations of other composers. Standouts include his 'versioning' of M.I.A.'s “Galang," which utilizes rhythmic phrases to retain the ...

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Frank Gratkowski: Accept Everything

by Martin Longley
November 12, 2009

Virtuoso German reed specialist Frank Gratkowski enjoys a particularly fertile range of collaborations, settings and directional thrusts. He was back in New York in October, 2009 with a trio that has released three albums during the last six years: Kwast (Konnex, 2004), Unearth (Nuscope, 2005) and Palaë (Leo, 2006). Appearing at Roulette, Gratkowski was joined by pianist Achim Kaufmann and bassist Wilbert De Joode, both of whom hail from the Netherlands. The gig is billed as a session of “improvised ...

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Mayra Andrade: Storia Storia

by Chris May
November 12, 2009

Seemingly coming out of nowhere in 2007, singer Mayra Andrade single handedly rebooted the prevailing stereotype of Cape Verdean music with her debut album, Navega (Sterns). Sunny and gorgeously melodic, the disc provided a counterweight to the anguished oeuvre of Cesaria Evora, the “Barefoot Diva" who had been the international voice of Cape Verdean popular music since the late 1980s. To date, Navega has sold 70,000 copies and rising, quite an achievement for an unknown artist on a roots-based specialist ...

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Meredith Monk, Richard Thompson, Wu Man and Bonerama

by Martin Longley
November 12, 2009

Meredith Monk's Songs Of AscensionBrooklyn Academy Of MusicOctober 22, 2009 Meredith Monk's Songs Of Ascension has been a public work in progress, continuously shaped by its environment. When the multi-dimensional composer had an afternoon devoted to her work at the Whitney Museum Of American Art (February 2009), the piece took on the shape of a formative musical performance, but a month later, at the Guggenheim, further Ascension Variations were made, in a full locational ...

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Helge Sunde Ensemble Denada: Finding Nymo

by John Kelman
November 12, 2009

Its official CD release may have been on October 23, but trombonist/composer Helge Sunde's 2009 Enjoy Jazz performance on October 21 was an equally rare opportunity to hear his Ensemble Denada, a Norwegian big band that, not surprisingly, blends a healthy respect for the jazz tradition with more contemporary concerns. Performing the entire Finding Nymo CD, Sunde proved that the big band tradition is alive, well, and growing in the 21st Century. The CD, which features the same ensemble but ...

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The Jazz Composer: Moving Music Off The Paper

by Nic Jones
November 12, 2009

The Jazz Composer: Moving Music Off The Paper Graham Collier Hardcover; 314 pages ISBN: 978 09557888 0 2 Northway Books 2009

Bassist, composer and bandleader Graham Collier's preoccupation with form is itself, in a very literal sense, a central concern of this book: with the passage of time, Collier's music has grown ever more structurally sophisticated. Such is its depth in 2009 that it is hardly surprising that The Jazz Composer: Moving Music ...

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Bob Greene: St. Peter Street Strutters

by Jerry D'Souza
November 12, 2009

Back in December 1964, pianist Bob Greene, cornetist Ernie Carson, tubaist Shorty Johnson and banjoist Steve Larner went into the studio to record this set of New Orleans tunes. The music was played by groups larger than a quartet, but size did not matter; the four filled the music with a sense of tradition that has stood the test of time.

The band members have an interesting history. Greene recorded for Blue Note in 1951 and later went ...

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James Weidman: Three Worlds

by Donald Elfman
November 12, 2009

Three Worlds is the product of a thoughtful musical soul. Pianist James Weidman is well-versed in the traditional and modern jazz vocabulary and has found ways of deftly incorporating what's he's heard into his playing and composing. And here he adds color to his pianistics with melodica and the exotic xaphoon, a single-reed keyless bamboo wind instrument.

He's found a great assemblage of modern players to realize his various musical visions. Particularly and delightfully surprising are reedman Marty Ehrlich and ...