Jazz Articles

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Jerome Sabbagh: One Two Three

by Elliott Simon
July 7, 2009

The opening cut on One Two Three is pianist George Shearing's bop classic “Conception". Do not, however, let this fool you. Although tenorist Jerome Sabbagh burns, this is not simply a blowing session nor is it really, as Sabbagh suggests, his take on the standards. While there are tunes such as a somewhat campy (how could it not be?) version of “Tea for Two," a fresh reprise of Coleman Hawkins' classic interpretation of “Body and Soul" and a bopped-up “Just ...

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Steve Kuhn: Shimmering Beauty

by Maxwell Chandler
July 7, 2009

This interview was originally published on All About Jazz on March 2, 2009. Whether it is in his trio, collaborating with vocalists or accompanying an orchestra, pianist Steve Kuhn has always managed to effortlessly defy and combine genres. Whether it is an older recording or one of his newer albums, an inherent ability to create melodic-based beauty makes his playing and compositions instantly identifiable. Studies All About Jazz: In your early years you studied under Madame ...

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Colin Steele: Stramash

by Chris May
July 6, 2009

According to Scottish trumpeter Colin Steele's sleeve notes, a life-threatening quantity of whisky was consumed during the composing process for Stramash, an exuberant bacchanal of jazz and Scottish folk music. Steele took himself away to the island of Islay, off the west coast of Scotland, to focus on the writing and to embrace, frequently and enthusiastically, that special mixture of “magic, madness and witchcraft...that only whisky can bring." In a health warning, Steele observes that he would certainly be dead ...

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Lee Morgan: Tom Cat

by Matt Marshall
July 6, 2009

Lee Morgan Tom Cat Blue Note / Music Matters 2008 (1980)

Tom Cat continues Music Matter's program of re-releasing generally unavailable Blue Note sessions from the 1950s and 1960s on 45-rpm vinyl double albums. As Michael Cuscuna explains in the liner notes from the original 1980 release, Tom Cat was the victim of trumpeter Lee Morgan's unexpected crossover hit with The Sidewinder (Blue Note, 1964), which made the pop 100 charts. In the wake ...

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Enzo Favata Tentetto: The New Village

by Mark Corroto
July 6, 2009

The ancient and the modern is the theme of composer/saxophonist Enzo Favata's The New Village. Together with his Tentetto, he fuses traditional vocals from Sardinia, his home, with the American jazz lexicon. Unlike the cultural larceny of Paul Simon's Graceland (Warner, 1986), Favata's music coalesces into an ingenuous expression of music.

The saxophonist has immersed himself in Sardinia's culture, releasing traditional music of the past. Here, he invites a quartet of traditional singers, the Tenores di Bitti, a ...

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Gato Barbieri: In Search of the Mystery

by Raul d'Gama Rose
July 6, 2009

Gato Barbieri winds up and uncorks a meandering apocalyptic shout that begins with a growling, sinewy tenor and often returns there via a continuous spiral of bell-like primal screeches. He is probing, poking the tones of the tenor and searching madly for a timbral key to unlock a hidden route to harmonic peace. On this seminal recording--In Search of the Mystery--from Stollman's ESP Disk, not even a year after Barbieri's monumental Cafè© Montmartre sessions with Don Cherry, Karl Berger, Aldo ...

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The Aurora Project: Shadow Border

by Glenn Astarita
July 6, 2009

The band members of The Aurora Project started playing as a jamband during the '90s in their native Holland. Shadow Border is the group's second album, following several years of performing at European progressive rock festivals. This studio outing provides a bit of credence to the musicians' extensive affiliations as an entity. With memorable hooks embedded in strong compositions, this unit conveys noticeable synergy. And it's not all about technical calisthenics, although the soloists let it rip, largely during the ...

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Chris Potter: Ultrahang

by David Miller
July 6, 2009

Now unquestionably one of the better long-running groups on the jazz scene, Chris Potter's Underground puts forth its most consistent effort yet with its sophomore studio album, Ultrahang. Judging by how often the group tours, it's strange that this is only the Underground's third release. But taking into account the quality of Underground (Sunnyside, 2006), Follow the Red Line: Live at the Village Vanguard (Sunnyside, 2007), and now Ultrahang , the group can take all the time it needs between ...

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Toshiko Akiyoshi - Lew Tabackin Big Band: Mosaic Select

by Samuel Chell
July 6, 2009

Jazz was never more schizophrenic than in the 1970s. On the one hand, musicians equally savvy about mixing genres and running mixing boards were selling out arenas and producing lucrative, widely played albums, with bass-heavy danceable beats or soothing instrumental sounds tailor-made for air play on FM radio. At the other extreme, many of the jazz masters who came up with, or slightly before and after, saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and pianist Thelonious Monk could be heard in ...

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Dave Holland: Consistently Exceptional

by R.J. DeLuke
July 6, 2009

This interview, originally published on September 29, 2008, is being reprinted to coincide with the summer 2009 tour of The Monterey Quartet featuring bassist Dave Holland, saxophonist Chris Potter, pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and drummer Eric Harland. The group's live album, Live at the 2007 Jazz Festival (Concord, 2009), will be released on August 25. It's been a long time since Dave Holland's small hands strummed a ukulele at about the age of five, an endeavor that eventually led ...