Jazz Articles

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Warren Smith: Old News Borrowed Blues

by Raul d'Gama Rose
July 8, 2009

A record by Warren Smith--any record really--is cause for great celebration and Old News Borrowed Blues is no exception. Smith is not only one of the most stylish master percussionists and a truly accomplished musician. Why a musician of his caliber and standing, with over 300 compositions to his name, should have--after four decades in music--only five records (prior to this one) as leader will remain one of those mysteries of modern music. The title of this record--like his previous ...

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Vision Festival 2009: Day 1

by John Sharpe
July 8, 2009

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7

Brass 'n' Bang / Douglas R. Ewart and Inventions / Lawrence “Butch" Morris14th Annual Vision Festival Abrons Arts Center New York, New York June 9-15, 2009

New York City's annual Vision Festival is a unique showcase for avant jazz in such profusion and diversity that it attracts a returning audience from ...

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Marie-Fatima Rudolf Trio: Transparence

by Matthew Warnock
July 8, 2009

Transparence is an emotionally invigorating and musically captivating release by Montreal-based pianist and composer Marie-Fatima Rudolf. Montreal has long been known for its strong jazz scene and world class summer jazz festival, and it is performers such as Rudolf that have helped the city become a beacon for jazz in Canada and beyond. The songs on Transparence are thoughtfully composed and arranged, the trio grooves hard, and the improvised solos are both melodically creative and rhythmically diverse; producing an album ...

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Fernando Huergo: Living These Times

by John Barron
July 8, 2009

Bassist Fernando Huergo mixes Afro-Cuban, Brazilian and mainstream jazz grooves on Living These Times, an energetic collection of original music for the East Coast-based Blue Music Group label. The Argentinean-native is aided by an outstanding cast of musical companions, including vocalist Luciana Souza, flutist Anders Bostrom and pianist Alan Mallet. With the amount of bass solos heard throughout the recording, there's no mistaking this is a bassist's project. As a soloist, Huergo is exceptional, demonstrating horn-like flourishes on ...

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Bob Baldwin: NewUrbanJazz.com

by Jeff Winbush
July 8, 2009

NewUrbanJazz.com isn't just a clever album title, it's a web address and marketing tool where keyboardist Bob Baldwin streams jazz online for listeners looking for their contemporary jazz fix. Baldwin's site joins other Internet sites and satellite radio as replacements for terrestrial radio stations in San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia and other cities that have abandoned the smooth jazz format.As the smooth jazz format seems to be reliant on 20-year-old Sade songs and waiting for the next Kenny ...

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Lina Nyberg: The Show

by Eyal Hareuveni
July 8, 2009

The thirteenth release of Swedish jazz singer and composer Lina Nyberg marks her twentieth anniversary as an artist. This live recording from the small Theater Studio Lederman in Stockholm highlights Nyberg's theatrical flair as a vocalist, a kind of a highly creative staged concert. Nyberg writes in her liner notes that she always envied dancers and actors who can enhance their expressions through lighting and set design, and for this show she managed to enlist a light designer an animation ...

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Joel Harrison: Urban Myths

by Donald Elfman
July 8, 2009

A key element in Joel Harrison's history is what he calls the “electric jazz" of the '70s. So this smart and inventive guitarist offers his own reconsideration of the music championed nearly 40 years ago. This is powerfully intense music but also has a sense of play that keeps its ingredients engaging. The set opens with a groove that seems to emerge out of a mist--the curious air of the beginning suddenly develops into what Harrison calls ...

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Steve Kuhn: Mostly Coltrane

by Stuart Broomer
July 8, 2009

When John Coltrane left Miles Davis' band at the end of 1959, the first working quartet he formed had Steve Kuhn on piano for gigs at the Jazz Gallery over the first three months of 1960. Here Kuhn pays deeply affecting tribute to Coltrane and his music with Joe Lovano on tenor and tarogato and Kuhn's regular trio members, bassist David Finck and drummer Joey Baron. Kuhn and Lovano have both been shaped in part by Coltrane's ...

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Adam Caine Trio: Thousandfold

by Lyn Horton
July 8, 2009

Guitarist Adam Caine displays his endlessly innovative creative instinct on Thousandfold. Bassist Tom Blancarte and drummer John Wagner supply a steadfastly well-defined surface onto which Caine thoroughly infuses multidirectional vibrations as varied in color and texture as possible. The guitarist splurges on extraordinarily unique patterns of fingering and plunges into chasms of reverberation. As sparks fly off his strings, Caine demonstrates expressive control of his instrument, the bass and the drums responsible for maintaining the hidden tempo ...

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Peter Nero: Fabled Pianist and Philly POPS Maestro

by Victor L. Schermer
July 8, 2009

Living legend Peter Nero is that rare musician equally at home with classical music, jazz, the American Songbook, the Broadway musical, movie themes and popular songs. Moreover, he is a masterful pianist, seasoned conductor, composer and arranger in all these genres. Just as exceptionally, he has become a cultural emblem, known to statesmen, entertainers, students, housewives and, it seems, all who listen to American music. He achieved his fame on the piano, with his unique capacity to meld concert style ...