Jazz Articles

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Huw Warren: Hermeto +

by Bruce Lindsay
October 26, 2009

Pianist Huw Warren has been inspired by the music of Hermeto Pascoal for over 25 years, and Hermeto + is a fitting tribute to the idiosyncratic Brazilian composer. The tunes--half of them written by Pascoal, half written by Warren--move from lyrical ballads to up-tempo dance tunes via occasional experimental pieces, demonstrating the range of both composers' styles as well as the technical ability of Warren's trio. The album is bookended by two Warren tunes: “The End Is ...

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Claudio Roditi: A Brazilian in Iowa

by Victor Verney
October 26, 2009

Watching trumpeter Claudio Roditi lead some unfamiliar sidemen through an afternoon rehearsal prior to an evening performance provided a good look at something not readily apparent at concerts. While the audience at that night's show in Ottumwa, Iowa saw Roditi's talents as a player and improviser (and even singer) displayed, most concertgoers could only have a vague idea of Roditi's abilities as a bandleader. As one observer witnessed, participants in a Roditi-led rehearsal are likely to learn a thing or ...

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Charlie Kohlhase's Explorer's Club: Adventures

by Virginia A. Schaefer
October 26, 2009

Adventures is the high-energy first release of Explorer's Club, led by accomplished saxophonist and composer Charlie Kohlhase. The septet includes a guitarist, bassist, two drummers, two saxophonists, and trombonist. Kohlhase puts together their expertise to produce an impressive range of instrumental combinations, timbres, and textures in the outside-but-accessible style for which he's known.

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Rory Gallagher: Crest of A Wave: The Best of Rory Gallagher

by Doug Collette
October 26, 2009

Even a died-in-the-wool Rory Gallagher aficionado may wonder if there is really a need for another anthology of the man's work. But the late Irish blues-rocker never did get the attention he deserved and remains an unsung hero of the blues-rock genre even to this day.

Certain previous anthologies, even the sumptuously-packaged, 5.1 SuperAudio formatted Big Guns (Sony/BMG, 2005) found some disfavor with consumers due to sound quality concerns and this one suffers somewhat in that respect too. Granted, the ...

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Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet: Underdog, and Other Stories ...

by Woodrow Wilkins
October 26, 2009

Sometimes, a name is all it takes to get attention. Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet has such a name. But the name alone doesn't necessarily mean good quality. The band still has to play, and play they do on Underdog, and Other Stories .... The ensemble is comprised of Kooshian on piano, Jeff Lederer on saxophones, Tom Hubbard on bass, and Scott Neumann and Warren Odze on drums. Kooshian, a native of San Jose, California, migrated to ...

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Take Five With Enoch Smith, Jr.

by AAJ Staff
October 26, 2009

Meet Enoch Smith Jr.: “I'm a music lover first. My musical ability is just an extension of my love. Jazz, gospel, music for film/television, you name it and I can tell you a story about how I fell in love with it." At the late age of 14 he began playing piano by ear at his church. This blossomed into a love affair that would prove lasting. By the age of 16, Enoch was determined to be ...

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The "Hang" That George Built: The Pioneer of New Orleans' Frenchman Street Music Scene

by Craig M. Cortello
October 26, 2009

Jazz guitarist and New Orleans native Davy Mooney relocated to New York in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. After one of his periodic return visits over a year later, I asked him to assess the state of the recovery of the music community. “When I go down to Frenchman Street, it's still a great 'hang.' I know everybody on a first name basis," he said. “It's always like a homecoming. It's like Cheers. Everybody knows your name. It's a small ...

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Ahleuchatistas: Of The Body Prone

by Mark Corroto
October 25, 2009

Tzadik label chief John Zorn has never lost his passion for hard-core music. Although his band Naked City is no more, he continues to promote artists who, to quote Allen Ginsberg, are “destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix." The band Ahleuchatistas certainly does know how to Howl.

Of The Body Prone is the fifth CD release by the band and follows Same And The Other a reissue by ...

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Part 4 - Fela: Kalakuta Notes

by Chris May
October 25, 2009

Fela: Kalakuta NotesJohn CollinsSoftcover; large format; 160 pagesISBN: 978 90 6832 748 9KIT Publishers2009 At the center of Fela: Kalakuta Notes is a diary its Ghanaian-based author, John Collins, kept during his stay at Fela Kuti's compound, Kalakuta Republic, in Nigeria over 18 days in January 1977. Fortunately for Collins, though unfortunately for eyewitness journalism, he wasn't there a month later, when around 1,000 soldiers broke into ...

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Terry Vosbein and the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra: Progressive Jazz 2009

by Robert J. Robbins
October 25, 2009

Over the last few years, Terry Vosbein, a Professor of Music at Washington and Lee University and a classically-trained composer of symphonies, operas, and chamber music (not to mention a former bassist with the Glenn Miller Orchestra), has been exhaustively researching the unrecorded scores from the Stan Kenton Collection at the University of North Texas. Now, thanks to his meticulous research, Vosbein leads the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra in the debut recordings of four originals and two arrangements by Kenton's eminence ...