Jazz Articles about Ben Kono

About Ben Kono

Catching Up With

Ben Kono Turned Family History into Chamber Jazz

by Lawrence Peryer
November 18, 2024

Ben Kono discovered his family's American origin story in the pages of his grandfather's memoirs. Thirteen-year-old Juhei Caleb Kono sailed alone from Japan in 1911, worked Pacific Northwest farms, and attended fourth grade as a young adult to build a new life. These translated accounts sparked Kono's new album Voyages (Self Produced), an ambitious blend of jazz quintet and string quartet that tells his family's story across four generations. “Reading his memoirs opened up this whole world," says ...

Radio & Podcasts

Quincy Jones, David Bixler, Branford Marsalis & Ben Kono

by Joe Dimino
November 17, 2024

Welcome to the 880th episode of Neon Jazz, where we dive into a fresh journey of sound and talent. We kick things off with the gifted woodwinds player Ben Kono and his group, featuring music from his highly anticipated 2024 album Voyages. From there, we venture into the works of the late, great Bob Berg, who shared a musical journey with Ben. Then, it's a feast of jazz veterans as we celebrate the year's end--artists like David Friesen and The ...

Album Review

Mike Holober & the Gotham City Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

Read "This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
November 11, 2024

Dopo gli ultimi superlativi album orchestrali (Balancing Act, Palmetto 2015 e Hiding Out, Zoho 2019) la nuova incisione di Mike Holober con la Gotham Jazz Orchestra non dovrebbe stupirci, eppure questo doppio album ci ha nuovamente colpito. L'aggiunta di Chris Potter, John Patitucci, Nir Felder e della cantante brasiliana Jamile Staevie Ayres all'orchestra rende infatti il progetto quanto mai esaltante. Questi nomi completano un organico già nutrito di solisti ragguardevoli come Marvin Stamm e Scott Wendholt alle trombe, ...

Album Review

Hyeseon Hong Jazz Orchestra: Things Will Pass

Read "Things Will Pass" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 29, 2024

There are a handful of things you should know about Hyeseon Hong (pronounced hay-sun hong), as each of them impacts the scope and purpose of the music on Things Will Pass. First, she is well-versed in the shaping and subtleties of contemporary big-band jazz; second, she was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea; third, she formed her own big band after relocating from Korea to New York City more than a decade ago; fourth, and perhaps most important, she ...

Album Review

Jihye Lee Orchestra: Infinite Connections

Read "Infinite Connections" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 3, 2024

Some eighty-odd years ago a handful of trailblazers led by saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie changed the vocabulary of jazz, introducing bebop as a successor to trad jazz and swing and radically transforming the music's landscape and perspective. Their terminology remained pretty much intact for a number of years, with partisans choosing a path between the diverse genres, until at last the very definition of jazz began to move in new directions with newcomers such as cool jazz, ...

Album Review

Mike Holober: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

Read "This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 1, 2024

We live on a rock. A few billion years of the workings of the complexities of carbon chemistry put us here. The systems and intricacies of every element that has unfolded to maintain us should be respected and preserved. Mike Holober's This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters, featuring Holober and his Gotham Jazz Orchestra, digs into this theme in a sprawling, two-disc big band jazz outing. Like life itself, and the resulting ecosystems, this multi-movement suite--an effort that is the ...

Album Review

Tracy Yang: OR

by Jack Kenny
September 30, 2024

Darcy James Argue and Maria Schneider have produced music in recent years that is setting new parameters. They have broadened the scope of jazz by mining inspiration from unlikely sources: Argue finds inspiration in politics and conspiracy theories; Schneider looked at the data world, both artists revivifying the large jazz orchestra. A new name can be added: Tracy Yang. Yang has her own preoccupations: music, photography and ecology. Yang's story has many intriguing aspects. To abandon a career ...