Jazz Articles

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Fred Hersch: Plays Jobim

by Raul d'Gama Rose
August 5, 2009

Since his passing in 1994, there have been countless tributes to Antonio Carlos Jobim. Many of these have been come from musicians who played with Tom, as he was called by those who knew him, including Mario and Maucha Adnet, Jacques Morelenbaum, Oscar Castro Neves, Ana Caram and Eliane Elias. Interestingly, these productions have almost all featured small and large ensembles and a multiplicity of instruments--strings (bowed and plucked), voices, pianos and an array of percussion, or at least a ...

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Bobby Sanabria / Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra: Kenya Revisited Live!!!

by Alain Londes
August 5, 2009

2009 is a key year in Latin music education and rediscovery. Kenya Revisited Live!!! is the culmination of Bobby Sanabria's effort to recreate Machito & The Afro-Cubans' defining 1957 masterpiece, Kenya: Afro-Cuban Jazz (Roulette), under the direction of Mario Bauzá. It's a real bridge between Afro-Cuban music and jazz, featuring the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra with special guest/NEA jazz master Cándido Camero on congas for three tunes. The show starts off with “Frenzy," a ...

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Chicago Jazz Philharmonic: Collective Creativity

by Bridget A. Arnwine
August 5, 2009

"Is it classical or is it jazz?" That is the question found on the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic's (CJP) website; a question that is asked and followed with the statement “you decide," as if the answer were something that only a listener should determine. Listening to the CJP's debut, Collective Creativity, the decision is not an easy one to come by. Though the album begins with trumpeter/composer/conductor Orbert Davis's own “Fanfare for Cloud Gate," a piece commissioned by ...

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Eastern Rebellion: Mosaic

by Terrell Kent Holmes
August 5, 2009

Eastern Rebellion is a jazz super group that has toured and recorded, with various personnel changes, since the mid-1970s. The reissued treasure, Mosaic, features the 1992 version of the band, with charter members Cedar Walton and Billy Higgins on piano and drums respectively, David Williams on bass and Ralph Moore on tenor. These stellar players combine to produce an album that is almost effortless in its excellence. The interplay throughout Mosaic is a pleasure to hear, whether ...

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Guy Klucevsek: Dancing on the Volcano

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
August 5, 2009

With good reason, Guy Klucevsek is considered one of the preeminent accordionists in new music. Firmly grounded in tradition, he can play all the styles associated with the instrument with a dizzying facility: fleet melodic runs, droning harmonic accompaniment and solid rhythmic support. No mere technician, Klucevsek's also a dynamic improviser--a quick-witted, deep listener, able to find and express a tune's essence. Dancing on the Volcano collects music commissioned for dance and silent film, in addition to other originals, and ...

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White Rocket: White Rocket

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
August 5, 2009

Formal constructs melt into freer passages, sometimes to return, sometimes not. The collective White Rocket traverses the notated and improvised on its ambitious eponymous debut. Trumpeter Jacob Wick met pianist Greg Felton and drummer Sean Carpio at the Banff Centre for Jazz and Creative Music; their easy affinity permeates the performances. With atypical instrumentation, the musicians create a unique sound of imaginative breadth and, as a true cooperative; each comfortably alternates between lead and support. On the ...

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Corpo: Swing

by Bruce Lindsay
August 4, 2009

Corpo, led by Mikael Godée, has been a working band since 1992: Swing is their fifth CD and showcases a strongly rhythmical and accessible set of the soprano saxophonist/flutist's compositions. There are six tunes on the album and, as a whole, they display the influence of 1970s jazz and, at times, progressive rock. The band itself claims that African percussion is a strong influence, but on this album the Gothenburg-based quintet's sound seems driven more by South ...

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Scott Tinkler: Trumpet Down Under

by Ludwig vanTrikt
August 4, 2009

Bassist/composer Lindsey Horner recently said, “I think one thing that has really changed in the past quarter century is that the music has become so broad, so truly international and genre-encompassing that the days when jazz was one very definable, finite thing are well and truly gone." These remarks also serve to introduce this interview with the Australian trumpeter Scott Tinkler. The recent emergence of a small cadre of Australian jazz artists has yet to gather the notice of, say, ...

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Sunny Voices (Various Artists): Sunnyside Cafe Series

by Raul d'Gama Rose
August 4, 2009

The production of a music compilation or sampler may, despite its producers' best intentions, go either way. A fair representation of artists may result in excellent tracks, together with perhaps some indifferent ones, and there is simply no pleasing everybody. However, it is possible to get closer to the mark of overall excellence if the compilation is a thematic production, or has a very good idea behind it in the first place. There are not too many ...

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Toronto Jazz '09 Festival Journal: 'Round About Midday to 'Round About Midnight

by Raul d'Gama Rose
August 4, 2009

T.D. Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival Toronto, Ontario, Canada June 26-July 5, 2009

To begin at the beginning: close encounters in a war against the abolition of free will by methodical conditioning and the servitude made acceptable by regular doses of chemically-induced progress and happiness from: canned food, vitamins, and the business side of music and writing (including appropriate shelving and categorization such as: “File under ...