Jazz Articles

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Garage A Trois: Power Patriot

by Mark Corroto
November 10, 2009

The music of Garage A Trois is located somewhere on the map between do-it-yourself punk fusion and hip-hop jamband. The current lineup replaces guitarist Charlie Hunter, heard on Outre Mer (Telarc, 2006) and Emphasizer (Tone Cool, 2003), with keyboardist Marco Benevento. The effect is to push the music more towards saxophonist Skerik's prior efforts in the Seattle band Ponga. The change here is heard in the writing of vibraphonist Mike Dillon and Benevento's keyboard mayhem. A fan of ...

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The State of ECM Records 2009: Steve Kuhn, Jan Garbarek and Thomas Zehetmair

by C. Michael Bailey
November 10, 2009

Its 40th anniversary year, 2009, has been a good one for Manfred Eicher's Edition of Contemporary Music Company. ECM was selected the Best Classical Label by Gramophone magazine. If that wasn't enough, ECM was selected Jazz Label of the Year and Manfred Eicher, Producer of the Year by Downbeat magazine. No record label since the Blue Note label of the 1950s and 1960s has been able to boast its own “sound." But a unique and identifiable sound is exactly what ...

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Brubeck Brothers Quartet at the Douglas Beach House, Half Moon Bay, California

by Bill Leikam
November 10, 2009

Brubeck Brothers QuartetDouglas Beach HouseHalf Moon Bay, CaliforniaOctober 25th, 2009

Sunday, October 25, became a memorable day at the Douglas Beach House (aka Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society) when the Brubeck Brothers Quartet arrived on stage with Chris Brubeck on electric bass and trombone, Dan Brubeck on drums, Mike DeMicco on guitar and Chuck Lamb on piano. As the audience gathered, some wondered whether their father Dave Brubeck might make an appearance. Chris Brubeck humorously ...

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GHS: The Best of GHS

by Woodrow Wilkins
November 10, 2009

GHS is almost like listening to The Police without a human voice. The letters are the initials guitarist Frank Gambale, bassist Stu Hamm, and drummer Steve Smith. GHS is the anti-smooth ensemble from Tone Center Records. Their intent was to represent music fans who wanted more improvisation and more interaction among the players. Gambale spent several years with the Chick Corea Elektric Band as well as Smith's outfit, Vital Information. Hamm and Smith worked together on some of ...

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Take Five With Jair-Rohm Parker Wells

by AAJ Staff
November 10, 2009

Meet Jair-Rohm Parker Wells: Jair-Rohm Parker Wells is an improvising musician based in Stockholm, Sweden. Curator of the MEETING series of festivals and developer of Loopadelica, a method of improvising with looping devices. Bassist with the improvising trio Decision Dream. Current with the releases AMDG (Ad Majoram Dei Gloriam) on Klanggold and Meditations on Albert Ayler on Ayler Records.Bio: American bassist, composer, programmer, conceptualist and record producer Jair-Rohm Parker Wells has been a resident of Stockholm, Sweden since ...

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Paul Motian: On Broadway Vol. 5

by Brandt Reiter
November 10, 2009

The brushes are out as drummer Paul Motian continues his ongoing disc series, On Broadway. This latest installment features Motian's less starry “2000" trio, with bassist Thomas Morgan and saxophonist Loren Stillman, plus a second saxophonist, Michaël Attias and pianist Masabumi Kikuchi (who also participated on Vol. 4). Two decades on, the recipe remains the same--loving, thoughtful explorations of mostly Broadway tunes by one of jazz's great skins-men. This volume is perhaps the most intimate of this ...

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Harry Allen-Joe Cohen Quartet with Rebecca Kilgore and Eddie Erickson: The Harry Allen-Joe Cohn Quartet Plays Music From South Pacific

by Andrew Velez
November 10, 2009

The days when recordings were routinely issued covering a current Broadway hit musical are long past. Fortunately no one told that to Arbors Records. With Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific enjoying a smash revival, here comes the Harry Allen/Joe Cohn Quartet and vocalists Rebecca Kilgore and Eddie Erickson with innovative, knockout performances of one of the greatest of all Broadway scores. With a voice filled with smiles for miles, Kilgore proves to be pinpoint perfect, delightfully inhabiting ...

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Miguel Zenon: Esta Plena

by Mark F. Turner
November 9, 2009

From the fruits of winning both a MacArthur ("genius grant") and Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008, alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, expands his clear vision of modern jazz and Puerto Rican folk music in Esta Plena. With an incisive voice, his involvement with the SFJAZZ Collective, Guillermo Klein's Y Los Gauchos and Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra is well documented, but his own recordings are what truly reflect his unique heritage and identity. Where Zenón's Jibaro (Marsalis Music, 2005) ...

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Min Rager: First Steps

by Raul d'Gama Rose
November 9, 2009

It is not often that a woman is given much elbowroom in contemporary music, no matter how good she may be. However, when she is as good as Min Rager on First Steps, more than elbowroom had better be made for her and her piano. True, Rager has been preceded by a celestial pantheon of female pianists, including towering personalities Mary Lou Williams and Marian McPartland,, the elusive Jane Getz, and Geri Allen. To stake her claim and strut her ...

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Salute to Stan Kenton: Artistry in Contrast

by Jack Bowers
November 9, 2009

Artistry in Rhythm, the Ken Poston / Los Angeles Jazz Institute's 2009 homage to the renowned bandleader Stan Kenton, was held October 8-11 at the Sheraton LAX Four Points Hotel. As always, there was much to see, hear and admire: films, panel discussions, special presentations and, last but not least, no fewer than nineteen concerts by groups large and small including four lunchtime events at the Sheraton's outdoor swimming pool. A number of Kenton alumni were there, almost all of ...