Jazz Articles

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East West Quintet: Vast

by Lyn Horton
September 1, 2009

Apparent in the Brooklyn-based East West Quintet's Vast is the way the music teeters between colors, tunes, dynamics, rhythms and abstractions. Varying degrees of crescendos and decrescendos transform the mixtures of melodic temperament from peaceful to anthem-like, from quickly paced to mellifluously slow. That the band members play a multiplicity of different instruments is crucial; they take turns weaving solos throughout the pieces to grow textures that have highs, lows and indisputable middle ground. Except for trumpeter Phil Rodriguez, featured ...

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Joe Morris: Wildlife

by Wilbur MacKenzie
September 1, 2009

Joe Morris has made a career of directing creative energy towards new experiences and a fascinating development has been the incorporation of new instruments to his vocabulary. Morris distinguished himself as a guitarist in 1994 with the release of Symbolic Gesture. Many duo, trio and ensemble records followed but Morris was not content simply to refine his musical identity as an electric guitarist. In the last few years, Morris has begun recording solo and ensemble music on acoustic guitar, banjo ...

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Ornette Coleman: Town Hall 1962

by Stuart Broomer
September 1, 2009

When Ornette Coleman promoted this concert in December 1962, he was already in the midst of a long withdrawal from the public stage. Until the Town Hall event, his 1962 performances had consisted of a single concert and a week at the Jazz Gallery six months previously. Further, he hadn't recorded in a studio since March 1961. Following the concert, he wouldn't perform or record commercially until 1965. This concert is one of the essential Coleman documents, ...

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John Abercrombie Quartet: Wait Till You See Her

by John Kelman
September 1, 2009

The beauty of working with the same people long-term is it's possible to evolve a cohesive ensemble sound, while still retaining its singular group voice. Guitarist John Abercrombie has been working with violinist Mark Feldman since Open Land (ECM, 1999), but it was when he recruited bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron for Cat 'n' Mouse (ECM, 2002), that his idea of a string-centric, chamber jazz quartet came into being. On subsequent releases, most recently The Third Quartet (ECM, ...

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John Surman / Howard Moody: Rain On The Window

by John Kelman
August 31, 2009

With John Surman's Brewster's Rooster (ECM, 2009) refocusing attention on the British saxophonist/bass clarinetist's jazzier proclivities, it's a good time to assess Rain On The Window--not yet out in North America, but available in Europe since the spring of 2008. A duet recording that picks up, to some extent, where Proverbs and Songs (ECM, 1997) left off, this time it's Howard Moody on church organ, rather than Surman's longtime British cohort, John Taylor.

But there's more ...

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Lester Leaps In... To His 100th Birthday

by David Amram
August 31, 2009

For Lester Young on his 100th birthdayI just went to a birthday celebration I will never forget. Maybe some in America have forgotten Lester Young, known as Prez (i.e., the president of the tenor saxophone), but people all over the world are still moved every time they hear the classic recordings of this giant. Prez was someone who helped change the face of jazz, and inspire people who listened to cherish the moments in their lives ...

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Seven Days In Norway: The 2009 Oslo Jazz Festival

by Thomas Conrad
August 31, 2009

Oslo Jazz FestivalOslo, NorwayAugust 9-15, 2009 Sunday August 9 was the first day of the Oslo Jazz Festival. It was cloudy and cool and rained off and on all day until, miraculously, the skies cleared just in time for the opening concert. Antony and the Johnsons performed with the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra on the roof of the new Opera House. It was the first-ever outdoor concert held at this glassy cubist structure on the water's edge ...

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Ralph Sutton: In Copenhagen

by Chris Mosey
August 31, 2009

Ralph Sutton, “The Last of the Whorehouse Piano Players," was 54 and in peak form when these tracks were recorded over three days during a visit to the Danish capital in 1977. It is difficult to imagine Sutton, as a boy, playing organ at the Presbyterian church in Howell, Missouri, where he grew up. From the age of nine when he first heard Fats Waller, his great love was stride piano. He modeled his style on Waller, James P. Johnson ...

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Take Five With Adam Meckler

by AAJ Staff
August 31, 2009

Meet Adam Meckler: Trumpeter, composer and educator Adam Meckler graduated from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI in 2007 with a degree in trumpet performance and an emphasis in jazz studies. He was a member of LU's Down Beat award-winning Jazz Ensemble (2007) and studied privately under the direction of critically acclaimed composer and educator Fred Sturm. He was the recipient of LU's prestigious jazz composition award being inducted in to the Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Society, and Phi Mu Alpha ...

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Jon Irabagon and Mike Pride: I Don't Hear Nothin' but the Blues

by Kurt Gottschalk
August 31, 2009

I Don't Hear Nothin' But The Blues is a hilariously apt title for the new CD by saxophonist Jon Irabagon and drummer Mike Pride. The phrase--and the cover art, featuring both as well-dressed train-hoppers--would suggest a certain something to most listeners, maybe a tribute to Louisiana Red or Memphis Slim or Mississippi John Hurt. And while the one long, extended jam that makes up the disc is not quite any such thing, it still stands as an appropriate answer for ...