Jazz Articles

like 735

Radio Deluxe Live: The Pizzarellis Go to Tanglewood

by R.J. DeLuke
September 20, 2009

Radio Deluxe with John Pizzarelli and Jessica MolaskeyTanglewood Jazz FestivalLenox, MassachusettsSeptember 5, 2009

Jazz programming on national radio stations--the stuff you still get in your car or in your home for free, not satellite radio--is a rarity. That's an unfortunate thing, because lack of exposure to the music is one of the main obstacles to growing the audience.

But there are some gems out there, where people can tune in on radio and hear good ...

like 148

The Oscillators: Beat Tectonics

by Ian Patterson
September 20, 2009

The Oscillators is a four-piece instrumental band from Washington, DC. As quartets go it' slightly unusual as the front line is led by saxophone and electric guitar, something in the vein of Scandinavian group Jazz Kamikaze, though it's difficult to think of many other groups who employ such a tandem. Beat Tectonics, the band's debut, was recorded in a mere two days and, as is often the case with such a speedy approach, the energy level in the playing is ...

like 576

Sunjump: Archaeology of the Present

by Jakob Baekgaard
September 20, 2009

In a time when the music business, as many other other branches of commerce, is in crisis, it has become increasingly relevant to ask what needs to be done in order to save record labels. While the major companies retreat to protective copyright thinking and unimaginative repacking of archive material, a new host of independent labels is embracing the possibilities of the new digital area, seeing it as blessing rather than a curse. What drives these independent labels is the ...

like 303

Chicago Jazz Philharmonic: Collective Creativity

by Lyn Horton
September 20, 2009

Defining the fine line that often borders jazz and classical music has elicited much debate. One musician has even registered the word “jazzical" as a term that insures the framework in which the music he writes will be perceived.

But trumpeter, studio musician and composer, Orbert Davis does not need to think this way. He simply designed Collective Creativity, the fifty-five piece Chicago Jazz Philharmonic's debut album, wrote most of the music, and put it out there. Only in the ...

like 251

Luis Bonilla: I Talking Now!

by J Hunter
September 20, 2009

The cover art for I Talking Now gives a visual demonstration of how trombonist Luis Bonilla's father took control of conversations at the family dinner table. When things got a little too animated for him, Bonilla's dad would bark out his signature admonishment, “You Chuttup! I talking now!" Both Doctors Phil and Spock would probably take issue with that approach. However, it is, in essence, the same approach Bonilla has taken with his PlanetArts debut.

Along with being part of ...

like 403

I Remember Len Dobbin

by Steve Holt
September 20, 2009

Len Dobbin was a cool jazz voice on the radio when I was a teenager just getting into playing jazz. In fact, my love affair with jazz began in the 1970s when I discovered the album Headhunters by Herbie Hancock in 1973. Up to that point I had been playing pop and folk music, like most teenagers coming out of the sixties. But Headhunters started me on a new journey. For the next few years a learned more about crossover ...

like 346

Adam Rapa: Life on the Road

by Nicholas F. Mondello
September 19, 2009

In Italian, rapa translates, ever so blandly, as turnip. In the dialect of music and trumpeting, Rapa probably translates as supernova. Reminiscent of the Hubble Telescope's display of spectacular images of galaxies far away, their beauty exploding in viewer's eyes and hearts, Adam Rapa's Life on the Road is a prismatic and almost spectacular CD.

On this, his first solo CD, Rapa, a Jack Sparrow-like swashbuckler of sounds, screams with virtuosity, displaying a wide range of technical yet beautiful playing. ...

like 385

The Allman Brothers Band at The Meadowbrook U.S. Cellular Pavilion, Gilford, NH

by Doug Collette
September 19, 2009

The Allman Brothers Band US Cellular Pavilion at Meadowbrook Gilford, NH Aug. 24, 2009

In celebrating their 40th anniversary this year, The Allman Brothers Band would seem to be playing it safe, at least judging from setlists relying almost solely on staples of their repertoire. But if their New Hampshire appearance proved anything, it was that mere titles don't convey what actually happens on stage.

The back drop behind the stage ...

like 518

Han Bennink Trio: Parken

by David McLean
September 19, 2009

Han Bennink Trio Parken Ilk Music 2009

One of the most iconic players from the European free-music scene, Han Bennink's 50 plus year career has seen the Dutch master drummer traverse through a multitude of musical settings. Bennink's journey has embraced revolutionary, avant-jazz recordings such as saxophonist Peter Brotzmann's ferocious Machine Gun (FMP, 1968) and accompanying reed player Eric Dolphy on his final recording, Last Date (Verve, 1964), to providing the backbone ...

like 391

Peter White: Good Day

by Jeff Winbush
September 19, 2009

Peter White is a proficient guitarist whose albums are clean in sound and pristine in the production. It's probably not possible to even smudge the CD with a greasy fingerprint. There's so much order and control in this effort that it begs the question: does White occasionally hire out someone to sneak into his house to hide his car keys and mess up the sock drawer just to inject a little chaos in his life?This is one confounding ...