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Jerry Vivino, Ken Burns Jazz, Quincy Jones and More
by Joe Dimino
The long-time member of Conan O'Brien's Basic Cable Band Mr. Jerry Vivino kicks off this week's episode with music from his latest album Coast to Coast recorded with his good friend and legendary jazz cat Bucky Pizzarelli. From there, we move into another great album by the Organ Jazz Trio, a Kansas City institution led by the hearty leader Ken Lovern. From there, the hour goes on with the dynamic and legendary duo of Thad Jones and Mel Lewis off ...
Continue ReadingChucho Valdes: Jazz Bata 2
by Chris Mosey
With Jazz Bata 2, composer pianist and bandleader Chucho Valdés finally follows up on an experimental album he cut in Cuba in 1972. The subject matter of both records is the folklore and religious beliefs of the Yoruba slaves shipped to the Caribbean between 1770 and 1840. On Jazz Bata 2 Valdés' piano is backed by Dreiser Darruthy Bombale, playing various batá, double-headed drums shaped like hourglasses with one end larger than the other, used in Yoruba ...
Continue ReadingAlfa Jazz Fest 2017
by Thomas Conrad
Alfa Jazz Fest 2017 Lviv, Ukraine June 23-27, 2017 Jazz festivals are different in Europe. There are more of them, and they are crucial to the economic viability, social solidarity and creative evolution of the jazz art form. Many European towns that host their own annual jazz events seem like unlikely sites for festivals. They are small, and/or industrial, and/or off the beaten path. In the case of Alfa Jazz Fest, in Lviv, Ukraine, ...
Continue ReadingIrakere 40 at SFJAZZ
by Harry S. Pariser
Irakere 40 SFJAZZ San Francisco, California October 30, 2015 “They were smoking." That was KPFA's Art Sato, host of “In Your Ear"--a weekly Saturday afternoon Latin Jazz, jazz and flamenco music program on KPFA in Berkeley, California--evaluating legendary Cuban band Irakere's then-ongoing performance at SFJAZZ in San Francisco. Indeed they were! Presenting sizzling, searing music, leaping from a polyrhythmic frying pan, the band has melded a variety of musical forms ...
Continue ReadingOmara Portuondo & Chucho Valdes: Omara & Chucho
by Chris May
Omara Portuondo and Chucho ValdésOmara & ChuchoWorld Village2011 After 50 years of carrying a torch for Bueno Vista Social Club singer Omara Portuondo, pianist Chucho Valdés has finally succeeded in getting her into bed. The rear sleeve photo on Omara & Chucho shows the pair side by side between the sheets and smiling broadly, although, admittedly, both appear to be clothed, and are mugging it up for the camera. ...
Continue ReadingChucho Valdes & the Afro-Cuban Messengers: Chucho's Steps
by Jerry D'Souza
The odyssey of pianist Chucho Valdés has been well documented from his early days in Cuba playing in his father Bebo's Sabor de Cuba Orchestra to the founding of Irakere and on to new pastures as he infused fresh blood into Latin music and jazz. Valdez has never been fettered; his ideas are constantly evolving, finding avenues that give his music broad scope. He filters the narrowest of nooks and fills them with his majestic vision. He is truly a ...
Continue ReadingChucho Valdes: The Music Never Ends
by Joan A. Cararach
Chucho Valdés arrived at his All About Jazz interview confident: of his music and of Spain's victory in the South African FIFA World Cup. It was July 11th 2010, and for the first time in its history, Spain's national team had reached a World Cup final, in South Africa. A Cuban interested in football? “A lot of people watch football in Cuba now, especially the Spanish league. I began to get excited about football in the last three years, in ...
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