Jazz Articles

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Jon Gordon: Evolution

by Raul d'Gama Rose
October 31, 2009

Evolution, from saxophonist and composer, Jon Gordon, is a fine record. It sparkles with mature ideas, unbridled creativity, and soul-searching profundity. There is also polished musicianship throughout. This is where the special quality of the music of this record lies--that it is not just built on an ediface of ideas suggested by its title, but on the superb development and delivery of these through an extravagantly aural suite. To that extent this work is not unlike some others including the ...

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Omar Puente: From There To Here

by Chris May
October 31, 2009

Originally a classical violinist--before settling in England in 1997 he was first violin with the Nacional Symphony Orquestra in his native Cuba--Omar Puente has since focused on modern Cuban music and jazz, exploring the mutalities of the two traditions, and increasingly favoring an electric instrument. From There To Here is, remarkably given Puente's distinguished guest artist scorecard, his first album as leader. It's a fiery and exuberant set, touching on Africa, Cuba and England as it progresses.

In England, Puente ...

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The State of Woodstock 40 Years Later: Janis Joplin and Johnny Winter

by C. Michael Bailey
October 31, 2009

Rock music ascended into heaven the minute guitarist Jimi Hendrix left the stage on Max Yasgur's farm, Monday morning, August 18, 1969. The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was a cultural hinge between the soulful, struggling 1960s and the sinful, superfluous 1970s. The release of The Woodstock Experience commercially mirrors this hinge. The box contains two-CD sets by Santana, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Johnny Winter and Sly & the Family Stone, who at the time of Woodstock recorded for different ...

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Justin Walter: A Call To Arms

by Bruce Lindsay
October 31, 2009

Justin Walter is the trumpeter in Ann Arbor-based band Nomo and a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Manhattan School of Music. A Call To Arms is his first album as leader and a marked contrast to his recordings with Nomo, a band with a distinctive take on Afrobeat rhythms, welding them to electronics and techno. A Call To Arms demonstrates another side to Walter's talents--it's a predominantly straight-ahead, post-bop album of Walter originals and two covers played ...

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Stanley Clarke Trio at The Blue Note

by Ernest Barteldes
October 31, 2009

Stanley Clarke Trio Blue Note Jazz Club New York Oct. 13, 2009

Playing before a sold-out crowd on the first of their two-night engagement at New York's Blue Note Jazz Club, the Stanley Clarke Trio got things going with “Three Wrong Notes," a straight-ahead ragtime-inspired tune. The tune at first featured Hiromi Uehara, who attacked the keys of her piano with gusto, often leaping from her bench while smiling with her eyes ...

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Take Five With Dan Barnett

by AAJ Staff
October 31, 2009

Meet Dan Barnett:Dan has worked and recorded with some of the greats in Australian and world music such as James Morrison, Will Calhoun, Tom Burlinson, Barbara Morrison, Mark Murphy, Bob Barnard, Dan Barrett, Tom Baker, Bob Montgomery, George Washingmachine, Emma Pask, Judy Carmichael, Janet Seidel, Don Burrows, George Golla, Evan Christopher, David Paquette, Judy Bailey, Rhonda Birchmore, Kevin Hunt and “The Australian Art Orchestra" production “Testimony," the Legend of Charlie Parker and is a permanent member of The ...

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Vandermark 5: Annular Gift

by Troy Collins
October 31, 2009

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader Ken Vandermark has led his flagship ensemble, the Vandermark 5, through a decade's worth of personnel changes. Despite the band's rotating roster, the ensemble's sound has remained remarkably consistent. A powerhouse unit capable of serene delicacy as well as unfettered intensity, the quintet has won a legion of fans the world over for its uncompromising vision of contemporary creative improvised music. The current line-up has been active for three years now, documented on two ...

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Melody Gardot at the Kimmel Center

by Victor L. Schermer
October 30, 2009

Melody GardotThe Kimmel Center for the Performing ArtsPhiladelphia, PAOctober 17, 2009“A Star is Born" is the only adequate way to characterize singer-composer Melody Gardot's appearance on the stage of the Perelman Theater of the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia on October 17. While the recent buzz surrounding her debut recordings are all about her fine jazz and blues vocalizing with a sensual flair, neither the media spin nor her first two albums prepare one for the ...

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Dave Douglas: A Single Sky

by Troy Collins
October 30, 2009

On his first big band recording, award winning trumpeter, composer, bandleader, and Greenleaf Music label founder Dave Douglas is joined by the Frankfurt Radio Bigband, conducted by composer/arranger Jim McNeely, with whom Douglas studied in the mid-1980s. Presenting a previously unheard facet of Douglas' artistry, A Single Sky features new compositions written expressly for big band, as well as McNeely's nuanced arrangements of a few of Douglas' older tunes, which sheds new light on his earlier work without obscuring the ...

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Evan Parker At The Stone

by Martin Longley
October 30, 2009

Evan Parker/Wu Fei/Joe McPheeThe StoneOctober 7, 2009 John Zorn's intimate venue, The Stone, bases its calendar around selections made by invited curators, but few of them elect to actually perform on all dates of their given stint. The English saxophonist Evan Parker chose to appear at every gig of his two week residency, mostly in a duo setting, but occasionally expanding into a trio format. Audiences were at full capacity for the duration, ...