Jazz Articles

like 195

Thelonious Monk Tributes: Bobby Broom & Dominic Duval/Jimmy Halperin

by Stuart Broomer
August 2, 2009

Bobby Broom Plays for Monk Origin Records 2009 Jimmy Halperin/Dominic Duval Monk Dreams No Business 2009

There's something almost contradictory about Monk compositions: they're insistently individualistic, built on odd chord changes with often minimalist melodies. But as idiosyncratic as they are, they often succeed in bringing out what's best in the musicians playing ...

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Give The Drummer Some: On the record with Zappa's Drum Alumni

by Mitch Myers
August 2, 2009

This excerpt appears in The Boy Who Cried Freebird: Rock & Roll Fables and Sonic Storytelling (Harper Paperbacks, 2008). Composer/bandleader/guitarist Frank Zappa needs no introduction. He was an incredibly prolific musician who died in December 1993, and his estate, the Zappa Trust, is still releasing new editions of never-before-heard recordings organized under the late maestro's supervision. While Zappa's legacy has been much discussed over the years, a brief overview of his relationship with drums and drummers is ...

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TD Canada Trust 2009 Vancouver International Jazz Festival

by A. Henkin
August 1, 2009

TD Canada Trust Vancouver International Jazz FestivalVancouver, CAJune 26th-July 5th Probably one of the few places on the planet not deep in mourning for recently deceased pop star Michael Jackson was Vancouver, on the western coast of Canada, or at least the parts of the city given over to the 24th annual TD Canada Trust Vancouver International Jazz Festival (VIJF), held from June 26th-July 5th. The Great White North (Canada for non-hosers) is home to ...

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John Esposito: The Blue People

by Jakob Baekgaard
August 1, 2009

Blue is the color of the blues. It's the mood of sadness and tranquility. It's the freedom and infinity of the ocean and the open sky. It's the rhythm and roots of jazz. The future and the past coalesced into a moment of improvisation.

Pianist John Esposito's The Blue People seems to unite all the aspects of the color blue. The music on the album has the sweep of history while still being able to sound totally fresh. It's pure, ...

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Patricia Scot: Once Around the Clock

by Samuel Chell
August 1, 2009

This reissue has at least two pleasant surprises: first, the revelation that, before discovering and promoting the gold mine that came to be known as smooth jazz, Creed Taylor was a musician of impeccable taste and discrimination; second, the rediscovery of an original vocalist/pianist who once toiled in piano bars in the Chicago-Milwaukee corridor as well as New York City but who, though still active, has fallen from sight-- unfortunate for discerning listeners.

It was Taylor who decided ...

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Austin McMahon: Many Muses

by Glenn Astarita
August 1, 2009

New England area drummer/composer Austin McMahon's musicality breathes life and radiates a fresh approach to modern jazz, partly based on neo- classicism and multi-genre derivations here, on his debut as a leader. The artist communicates an abundance of interesting propositions and aims to entertain.

McMahon is a melody-maker and provides a buoyant pulse along with bassist Kendall Eddy. Clarinetist Alec Spiegelman is the primary soloist and works effectively with pianist Carmen Staaf, who combines lush romanticism with some ...

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Take Five With Quintin Gerard W.

by AAJ Staff
August 1, 2009

Instrument(s):Saxophones, flute, keyboards.

Teachers and/or influences? Earl Turbinton (teacher), Rick Margitza (teacher), Kenny Garrett (teacher), Dexter Gordon (influence), Miles Davis (influence).I knew I wanted to be a musician when... I first heard my older brother perform in the local high school marching band. He played clarinet and my mother used to take me to the parades. The sound of the drum line and the live horns had such an enormous impact on ...

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Ron Thomas / John Swana / Joe Mullen: Elysium

by Dan McClenaghan
August 1, 2009

The sound of Elysium is, in a word, otherworldly. Then throw in the electro-industrial tinge and cold liquid submersion resonance--like the noise of a high tech blacksmith shop on a distant planet with a dense atmosphere and heavier than Earth gravity like Neptune--music of an alien culture, or songs played for cryogenically suspended astronauts slumbering their way across vast expanses of space.Such are the sounds created by keyboardist Ron Thomas, trumpeter John Swana and drummer Joe Mullen.

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The Philly Pops with Peter Nero: A Concert of Bernstein, Rodgers, and Webber

by Victor L. Schermer
August 1, 2009

The Philadelphia Pops with Peter NeroThe Best of Bernstein and the Riches of Rodgers--plus Andrew Lloyd WebberThe Mann CenterPhiladelphia, PA July 22, 2009 Should newer readers question why a concert of this kind is being reviewed on a “hard-core" jazz website, the simplest answer is because of the inseparable historical relationship between two indigenous art forms--American popular song and jazz. Nowhere is that connection more inescapable than in the influence of Broadway musicals on ...

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Shelly Berg: The Nearness Of You

by Bruce Lindsay
July 31, 2009

Pianist Shelly Berg's career as a professional musician stretches back for 40 years. He began playing professionally in his early teens and has since been a solo performer, a bandleader, arranger and accompanist. In 2007 he became Dean of the Phillip and Patricia Frost School of Music, University of Miami. Despite this long and varied career, The Nearness Of You is his first solo CD. Berg takes on production duties in addition to performing and arranging, to create a fine ...