Jazz Articles

like 1,219

Gerald Wilson Orchestra / Dallas Original Jazz Orchestra / University of North Texas Two O'Clock Lab Band

by Jack Bowers
November 9, 2009

Gerald Wilson Orchestra Detroit Mack Avenue Records 2009

Composer / arranger / ageless wonder Gerald Wilson, most of whose recent albums (Monterey Moods; New York, New Sound; Theme for Monterey; State Street Sweet) have been built around sectional themes, returns “home" on Detroit to paint an earnest musical portrait of his adopted city, one that not only spawned the nation's auto industry but has produced a wealth of renowned jazz musicians from ...

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Charles Tyler Ensemble: Charles Tyler Ensemble

by Jerry D'Souza
November 9, 2009

Charles Tyler was an innovative musician who could unfurl a maelstrom of ideas from just a spark. He played with fire and spirit, finding his muse in free jazz and filling his music with bold inventions.

Tyler met Albert Ayler when he was 14. He later went on to play with Ayler, whose influence can be heard in his approach. Tyler, however, held his own shining in the company of other free jazz votaries like Cecil Taylor, Dewey Redman, David ...

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Sex Mob: Sexmob Meets Medeski live in Willisau 2006

by Brandt Reiter
November 9, 2009

How best to describe slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein's singular quartet Sex Mob? Maybe we should start with mercurial musical magician Bernstein himself, whose exotic career as sideman, musical director, arranger and composer has included ten years with John Lurie's Lounge Lizards and stints alongside everyone from Bill Frisell to Sam Rivers, the Flying Karamazov Brothers and, oh yes, Bootsy Collins. Or maybe we should look at his career as bandleader, which includes the trumpet-slide guitar-tuba trio Spanish Fly and the ...

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Daryl Sherman: Johnny Mercer A Centennial Tribute

by Andrew Velez
November 9, 2009

Choosing “I'm Shadowing You" as the opener on Daryl Sherman's fine Centennial Tribute to composer and lyricist Johnny Mercer inevitably recalls Blossom Dearie. Heretofore that tune has pretty much been the exclusive property of the late vocalist. There are also other, more than passing, resemblances between the two singers, both first-class self-accompanists on piano possessing underage sounding voices used effectively to slyly charming ends. With a legacy of 1,500 heartfelt and humorous songs, Mercer's is a rich ...

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Charlie Hunter: Seven-String Samurai

by Douglas Wright
November 9, 2009

Jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter is not a musician who's comfortable resting on his laurels. With nearly twenty albums under his belt and no sign of stopping in sight, Hunter continues to wow audiences with the wizardry of his seven-string guitar technique, by which he lays down bass grooves and simultaneously wings guitar solos along the frets with flawless finesse. This has earned him a reputation as an intrepid musician and an incredible showman who draws packed crowds into jazz clubs ...

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The Nice Guy Trio: Here Comes The Nice Guy Trio

by Mark Corroto
November 8, 2009

Give three imaginative artists a yearlong residency in a performance space, located in a breeding ground for creative music and the results hopefully will turn out to be something like Here Comes The Nice Guy Trio.

Canadian trumpeter Darren Johnston, now living in the Bay area of San Francisco, spent a year making music at the Red Poppy Art House in the Mission District with the aptly named Nice Guy Trio with accordionist Rob Reich and bassist Daniel ...

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Live Big Bands From New York: Charles Tolliver, Darcy James Argue & Charli Persip

by Martin Longley
November 8, 2009

The Charles Tolliver Big BandIridiumOctober 18, 2009 Trumpeter Charles Tolliver likes to keep his big band well-drilled. His arrangements are concerned with a cutting, eagle-swoop precision, built up from portable clusters that can be detonated at any time. He enjoys settling into a sleek groove, but will suddenly find the urge for a punctuating jab, unexpectedly engaging his ranks with a blurring swipe of the hand.

This final set of the ensemble's Iridium ...

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Louis Armstrong: The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935-1946)

by AAJ Staff
November 8, 2009

Louis Armstrong The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935-1946) Mosaic Records 2009

Presumably everyone knows that Louis Armstrong's greatest and most important work was done in the '20s with and around the time of the incredible Hot Five and Hot Seven sessions. During the Swing Era he led a big band and after the war returned to the small group format for the most of the rest of his career with his ...

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Jon Hassell: Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street

by Nenad Georgievski
November 8, 2009

One of the most significant American composer/musicians of the late twentieth century, Jon Hassell, has served as a synthesist, catalyst, and eventually a sound painter and innovator. He has, over the course of his career, unleashed a stunning new vocabulary that still resounds today in the playing of artists including Nils Petter Molvaer, Arve Henriksen, Paolo Fresu and Erik Truffaz and a plethora of electronic music adventurers such as Orb, Howie B, and Tricky. By drawing on ...

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Max Roach & Archie Shepp: The Long March

by Glenn Astarita
November 8, 2009

Bebop was considered a radical departure for jazz music during its formation in the 1940s and 1950s, pioneered by drummer Max Roach, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie among others. Coupled with tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp's 1960s avant-garde jazz proclivities, the artists respectively helped procure a prismatic and non-traditional perspective on the jazz idiom. However, their discographies indicate sojourns into more mainstream ventures as well. This duo outing was captured live at a 1979 performance at Jazzfestival Willisau in Switzerland and ...