Jazz Articles

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Freihofer's Jazz Festival: One Great Weekend

by R.J. DeLuke
July 7, 2009

Freihofer's Jazz FestivalSaratoga Springs, New YorkJune 27-28, 2009Freihofer's Jazz Festival, in its 32nd year, provided an outstanding array of music and musicians and added to its legacy--started by George Wein in 1978--in fine fettle on June 27 and 28 in the upstate New York community of Saratoga Springs.

For producer Danny Melnick, who took over for Wein when the latter sold his Festival Productions company a few years ago, it was his best lineup of ...

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Sebastiaan Cornelissen: U-Turn

by Ian Patterson
July 7, 2009

It's a minute and forty seconds before Sebastiaan Cornelissen's drums ease into the frame on U-Turn. Although he has a lot to say he's clearly not in a rush; this second solo effort has been seven years coming and has taken four years to put together. The fourteen pieces, which could almost be seen as a continuous suite given their stylistic uniformity, are less about his playing and more about his writing. With the aid of no fewer that seventeen ...

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Jazz at the SPAC: The Freihofer Jazz Festival June 27-28, 2009

by AAJ Staff
July 7, 2009

Freihofer's Jazz FestivalSaratoga Springs, New YorkJune 27-28, 2009You might be a jazz fan if:

You fly through a lightening storm to get to the show. Your only thought sitting next to a woman who is completely freaked that you're all going down like a rock is that you hope it's a rain or shine show. You're still wearing the clothes on Sunday that you wore to work Friday because the airlines lost your luggage--and ...

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Ellery Eskelin with Andrea Parkins and Jim Black: One Great Night...Live

by Glenn Astarita
July 7, 2009

As of 2009, Ellery Eskelin and his band mates have been playing together for fifteen years with no let up in sight--good news for advocates of cutting-edge, progressive jazz and improvisation. Recorded live at Towson University in saxophonist Eskelin's home town of Baltimore, Maryland, the trio's multitasking ways come to fruition during this near flawlessly recorded live date.

It's a very special band, indeed. Whether executing impressionistic sub-themes, or going for the proverbial jugular, the unit always transmits ...

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2009 Freihofer's Jazz Festival: One of the Great Jazz Lawn Parties

by Ken Franckling
July 7, 2009

Freihofer's Jazz FestivalSaratoga Springs, New YorkJune 27-28, 2009My return visit to to Freihofer's Jazz Festival after an eight-year absence reminded me very quickly that this two-day event remains one of the summer season's great jazz lawn parties. The ampitheater and spacious park-setting of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center provides dual tugs--trips into the shed to hear favorite acts, while thousands sat on their tarps, blankets and/or lawn chairs, enjoying the sounds and the outdoor conviviality, many wandering ...

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Chris Potter Underground: Ultrahang

by Mark F. Turner
July 7, 2009

After simultaneous releases in 2007--The Red Line: Live at the Village Vanguard and Song For Anyone (both on Sunnyside Records)--saxophonist Chris Potter's alter-ego band, Underground, delivers Ultrahang, some of the funkiest, rawest and in- your-face jazz released in 2009. An in-demand session player with artists including Patricia Barber, Dave Douglas, Paul Motian, Potter is also a prolific composer and bandleader. He's maintained the Underground group featuring drummer Nate Smith, Fender Rhodes pianist Craig Taborn and guitarist Adam ...

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Louis Sclavis: Lost on the Way

by Dan McClenaghan
July 7, 2009

French multi-reedist Louis Sclavis has involved himself in many modes of musical expression during a career which has spanned over 30 years, from free to folk to Baroque, and into the contemporary realm. His jazz perspective is European, which perhaps means having something of a chamber approach, and not much rooting in the blues--not unusual for an artist recording on the German-based ECM label.On Lost on the Way, Sclavis and his quintet turn to the Greek writer Homer ...

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Gato Barbieri: In Search of the Mystery

by Jerry D'Souza
July 7, 2009

Leandro “Gato" Barbieri has traversed a wide range of musical styles over his career. His earliest recordings counted Don Cherry, Abdullah Ibrahim and Roswell Rudd as collaborators. He was quick to settle into the avant-garde before exploring South American music. He later went on to play pop fanned tunes and disco music. Fortunately these commercialized transgressions were not long-lived. His strengths as an improviser and musical thinker continue to establish his credentials.

Barbieri's creative instincts come to life ...

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Rebecca Kilgore / Dave Frishberg: Why Fight the Feeling?

by Donald Elfman
July 7, 2009

Pianist Dave Frishberg describes Frank Loesser as his hero, succinctly describing the importance of Loesser to songwriters everywhere. Loesser could have no better champions than vocalist Rebecca Kilgore and Frishberg. They make the art of interpreting song seem natural and easy, despite the fact it's truly a craft to get to the heart of a great song so elegantly and simply. These two are relaxed and deeply in tune with what makes a great song and a great performance. Here ...

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Paul Bley: Barrage

by Stuart Broomer
July 7, 2009

At times circumstance conspires to hide a masterpiece: it may be the artist's lack of reputation; perhaps it doesn't resemble his more typical works or it's just overshadowed by more prominent or better promoted music. Paul Bley's Barrage is such a work. Produced in 1964 when most of the band was unknown, it's a singularly non-lyrical and non-spacious work by a pianist celebrated for those qualities; further, it was issued in the midst of Coltrane and Ayler's greatest statements. Nonetheless, ...