Jazz Articles

like 349

Beep: You Are Special, You are a Special Friend

by Raul d'Gama Rose
September 17, 2009

Beep is a relatively recent recording band featuring pianist Michael Coleman, bassist Nate Brenner and new drummer Sam Ospovat. The music Beep plays might trot and skip, slide, gambol and rush breathlessly; sometimes streaking across a musical canvas that occasionally intersects with familiar sound. Was that a Thelonious Monk figure or did a Cecil Taylor-like run just flash by? Was that a Sonny Sharrock power chord transcribed for keyboard? Did John Lennon just lay down a vocal? Wasn't that sudden ...

like 550

Tanglewood Jazz Festival 2009, Lenox, MA

by R.J. DeLuke
September 17, 2009

Tanglewood Jazz FestivalLenox, MassachusettsSeptember 4-6, 2009

The annual Tanglewood Jazz Festival in western Massachusetts has become an intriguing mix of music over the years, its programming taking into account jazz masters, as well as young talent, and projects that are as new or at least a bit different; something that isn't experienced everywhere else.

For example, in 2008, Terence Blanchard performed his wonderful music from A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina) (Blue ...

like 242

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

by Mark Corroto
September 17, 2009

Ignore the fact that pianist Ted Kooshian regularly covers cartoon and TV music in his quartet and what's left is an appreciation for music that swings exceptionally hard, and a passion for each tune that is anything but “animated."

Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet has produced its second volume of music, Underdog And Other Stories..., following a self-titled release from 2008 that contained covers of The Simpsons' theme, Batman, Top Cat, and the music of Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, and Sting. ...

like 200

Papo Vazquez and Cedar Walton at The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, NYC

by Ernest Barteldes
September 17, 2009

Papo Vazquez and Cedar Walton Charlie Parker Jazz Festival Tompkins Square Park, New York City August 30, 2009

The weather did not threaten the second day of music at the annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in Manhattan's Tompkins Square Park. The sun shone through all day, treating fans and musicians alike to an afternoon of resplendent music.

Trombonist Papo Vazquez kicked off his set with his 8-piece Pirates Troubadours ensemble with ...

like 173

Joe Gilman: View So Tender: Wonder Revisited - Volume Two

by Hrayr Attarian
September 17, 2009

A master improviser interpreting the works of one of the greatest popular composers should make for a stimulating listen. Sadly, pianist Joe Gilman's View So Tender: Wonder Revisited Volume 2 does not quite hit the mark. Despite being labeled Volume 2, this is not an afterthought or a follow-up building on the success of a previously issued Volume 1. Both discs were recorded the same time but, because of the amount of material, have been issued on ...

like 187

z_Bug at the Flux 53 Theater in Oakland

by Bill Leikam
September 17, 2009

z_BugFlux 53 TheaterOakland, Calif.Aug. 25, 2009

“An Intimate Evening with z_Bug" filled Oakland's Flux 53 Theater with eloquent textures of sound, sometimes hypnotic, sometimes sonorous as though rising from the depths of a volcano and sometimes teetering just on the edge of silent space.

z_Bug, creator of this edgy group, took up his analog Moog synthesizer and electric bass along with Zachary Morris on drums and percussion, Sean Price on modular synthesizer and ...

like 968

Wycliffe Gordon: Keeping the Spirit and the Letter Alive

by Marcia Hillman
September 16, 2009

Wycliffe Gordon is one of the busiest jazz trombone players in the business today. He has traveled the world performing with the Wynton Marsalis Septet and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, under his own name and as a duo with Jay Leonhart. As an educator he has performed and taught master classes at various schools.

All About Jazz: You started trombone at age 12. Did you study music formally? Wycliffe Gordon: I started trombone ...

like 430

Max Roach / Archie Shepp: The Long March

by Troy Collins
September 16, 2009

Recorded live in concert at the Willisau Jazz Festival on August 30, 1979, The Long March documents another of drummer Max Roach's historic duo collaborations with the leaders of the jazz avant-garde. This stellar date with tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp follows Streams of Consciousness (Piadrum, 1977), with pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, and Birth and Rebirth (Black Saint, 1978), with multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton, predating Historic Concerts (Soul Note, 1979), his meeting with pianist Cecil Taylor, by only a few months. ...

like 288

Joel Frahm & Bruce Katz at The Jazz Standard, NYC

by Ernest Barteldes
September 16, 2009

Joel Frahm and Bruce KatzJazz Standard New York, New York September 1, 2009

In celebration of the release of Project A (Anzic Records), co-bandleaders Joel Frahm (tenor saxophone) and Bruce Katz (piano, B3 and Wurlitzer) took the stage at the famed Manhattan jazz club to showcase what they described as “a jazz re-reading" of the music of Aretha Franklin.

The band started as a quintet with the two leaders backed by Chris Vitarello (electric ...

like 196

Edmar Casteneda: Entre Cuerdas

by Woodrow Wilkins
September 16, 2009

The harp is a jazz instrument? Though not as widely appreciated as, say, the saxophone, a few daring souls have taken this classical instrument into the world of improvisation--among them, Dorothy Ashby, Deborah Henson-Conant and Lori Andrews. Colombian-born Edmar Casteneda is another in their ranks. Casteneda began playing harp at age 13. His career has brought him into association with Paquito D'Rivera, Wynton Marsalis, John Patitucci, Dave Samuels, Janis Siegel and many others. For much of Entre Cuerdas, ...