Jazz Articles

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Fred Anderson: Staying in the Game

by Henry Smith
June 24, 2009

Tenor saxophone veteran Fred Anderson has remained a fixture on the free jazz scene since his co-founding of the AACM. Seemingly never inactive, Anderson follows up the critically acclaimed quintet album From the River to the Ocean (Thrill Jockey, 2007) with a more intimate trio outing. Featuring the previous album's bassist, Harrison Bankhead, alongside drummer Tim Daisy, the album is a true showcase for Anderson and the supple rhythm section backing him.

Opening with the lengthy ...

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Ayman Fanous and Tomas Ulrich in Concert: Improvisational Excitement in Classical Music

by Erik R. Quick
June 24, 2009

Ayman Fanous and Tomas UlrichSt. Mary's Episcopal ChurchWashington D.C.May 9, 2009

Jazz performance and concert production is hardly thriving in Washington, D.C. Clubs have either closely entirely or altered programming significantly so as to focus on music deemed to have wider commercial appeal. As a result, creative improvisation is increasingly hard to find. But local guitarist Ayman Fanous has, in the last several years, assiduously produced a number of concerts featuring the solo efforts of ...

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Carsten Dahl / Mads Vinding / Alex Riel: In Our Own Sweet Way

by Chris Mosey
June 24, 2009

After Paris, Copenhagen was the European refuge for American jazz musicians fleeing racial and sometimes political oppression in their homeland in the postwar years. Ben Webster is buried there (in the same cemetery as Søren Kierkegaard), Dexter Gordon and Johnny Griffin locked horns there. Such greats created a solid local scene, which continues to produce some exceedingly fine musicians. Carsten Dahl, a truly great pianist, started out modeling his playing on that of Bud Powell, active in ...

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Larry Gray: 1, 2, 3...

by Matthew Warnock
June 24, 2009

1, 2, 3... is a masterful contemporary jazz release by Chicago jazz stalwart and bass virtuoso Larry Gray. The album is Gray's first trio record that has released under his own name, though he has performed on many as a sideman with such players as Larry Coryell and up and coming Chicago artist Zvonimir Tot. Handling the guitar duties on this album is John Moulder, who's playing pays tribute to the jazz tradition while at the same time striking new ...

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J.D. Allen Trio: Shine

by Raul d'Gama Rose
June 24, 2009

The unfettered joy of listening to J.D. Allen's Shine comes from being reunited with the blues and spiritualism of modern Afro-American saxophone music. This kind of feeling and emotion all but died with John Coltrane. Arguably only a handful of players such as Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and, perhaps, Dewey Redman kept those flames alive. And then there is that thing that tenor saxophonists do with their horns, namely to create an imaginary being--the saxophonist's alter ego, his personality--literally from ...

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The Jazz Conceptions Orchestra: The Best is Yet to Come

by Barbara Salter Nelson
June 24, 2009

For many people, the bonds forged at college serve as the foundation for lifelong friendships; bonds that often keep like- minded friends committing to get together once in awhile to share passions. The Jazz Conceptions Orchestra (JCO) was created along these lines, but instead of getting together for the occasional game of golf or fishing, whenever these guys get together they put down some great music. And now, the JCO is beginning to make an important mark on ...

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Brooklyn Jazz Underground

by Matthew Miller
June 23, 2009

With a name that conjures smoky clubs in cab- forsaken neighborhoods, the approachably progressive ethnic and global appeal of Brooklyn Jazz Underground (BJU) might surprise the uninitiated. The association, which has thrived on the practical notion of collective strength and shared PR, has also served as another example of the musical microcosm its namesake borough has become. Its members share ZIP codes, but hailing from Spain, France, Denmark and Southeast Asia, the group rarely treads on common musical territory. “We're ...

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Chad McCullough: Playing to the Gig

by John Barron
June 23, 2009

Seattle trumpeter Chad McCullough has been working hard to garner a reputation in his hometown and beyond as a versatile, creative musician. McCullough has performed with a wide range of artists, including Jay Thomas, Claudio Roditi, Marc Seales, Thomas Marriott, Ingrid Jensen and Bob Florence. He's toured extensively with the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the jazz trumpet chair, and also as the band's pianist.

Since earning a master's degree in music from the University of Washington in 2005, ...

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Jon Balke: Siwan

by C. Michael Bailey
June 23, 2009

The competent and successful musico-cultural eutection promoted by ECM founder Manfred Eicher since the release of Jan Garbarek/Hilliard Ensemble's Officium (ECM, 1993) takes another quantum step with keyboardist Jon Balke's imaginative and far reaching Siwan. Balke enters a realm of cross-cultural pollination evolving from Officium, through that same collaboration's expanded vision on Mnemosyne (ECM, 1999) to John Potter's excellent Dowland Project outings: Care-Charming Sleep (ECM, 2001) and Romaria (ECM, 2006).

The focus of Siwan is not one of strict musical ...

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Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin: Green and Blue / Hour Moon

by John Kelman
June 23, 2009

When keyboardist Dave Stewart decided to hang up his progressive hat following a creatively but less than commercially successful run with seminal Canterbury bands Egg, Hatfield and the North and National Health—not to mention a terrific stint with drummer Bill Bruford— he reemerged a few years later with singer/partner Barbara Gaskin on a series of albums labeled as “pop music for adults." Existing fans were more than a little baffled. On albums including Up From the Dark (1985), ...