Jazz Articles about Don Alias

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Brecker Brothers: Return of the Brecker Brothers

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 22, 2009

Hanno sdoganto il jazz rock per portarlo verso la fusion. In poco tempo si sono imposti come i pilastri di una premiata ditta di session man di assoluto valore. Hanno girato in lungo e in largo tutti i migliori studi di registrazione per dare il loro contributo ai più blasonati artisti. Negli anni '70 hanno arruolato gente del calibro di David Sanborn, Don Grolnick, Will Lee, George Duke e si sono imposti come un duo delle meraviglie che attraverso una ...

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Don Alias: Heart, Soul and Lungs

by Mike Brannon
May 22, 2006

We have lost one of the greats.

The proverbial six-degrees-of-separation aside, Don Alias, has played with everyone. Active since the late '50s, he stands as easily the most influential percussionist in jazz and one of the few who ever transcended jazz and flamenco successfully and could by all accounts truly swing hard on congas. Alias has created or added an almost spiritual dimension to the pivotal work of Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell (touring with the dream band of Mike Becker, ...

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Don Alias: A Tribute

by Mike Brannon
May 22, 2006

World-class conguero, salsero, drummer and percussionist extraordinaire, Charles Donald Alias was born on Christmas Day, 1939--though obviously the music world had yet to know the gift it had received.

With a half century and most of his life spent in music, Alias not only performed across a profound cross-section of modern music but was a catalyst in its forging. It's a deep honor that's tempered with great sadness to share this loss and to be responsible for Alias' last interview. ...

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Bill Frisell: Unspeakable

by John Kelman
August 22, 2004

Some artists spend an entire lifetime within a narrow genre, honing their skill and working at stretching the boundaries of that style, while others transcend all definitions and labels, creating a music that defies categorization. Such is the case with guitarist Bill Frisell, who over a twenty-five year career has contributed to everything from the Nordic cool of Jan Garbarek's quartet to the downtown edge of John Zorn's Naked City. On his own records he has explored diverse landscapes including ...

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Weather Report: Black Market

by Todd S. Jenkins
April 24, 2002

Another key turning point in the colorful evolution of Weather Report. Around the same time that Alphonso Johnson replaced founding bassist Miroslav Vitous in 1974, the band moved towards a new sound centered around electronic instruments and studio experimentation. The vital funk and soul grooves that Johnson brought into the band helped them pull off that extreme paradigm shift. Black Market is part of a reissue trilogy (along with Tale Spinnin' and Mysterious Traveller ) with which Columbia/Legacy honors the ...

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David Sanborn: Inside

by Ian Nicolson
May 1, 1999

Since the days when he left his hometown St Louis to play for the Butterfield Blues Band during the sixties Blues boom in California, Sanborn has worked hard at staying top dog among the LA studio sessioneers - and succeeded.He has also commuted effortlessly between sophisticated Jazzpop solo albums stressing his distinctive alto tone and R'n'B roots, and the occasional full-ahead Jazz outing - like 1990's Another Hand, or Upfront a year or two later. This time he's ...

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Endless Miles: A Tribute to Miles Davis

by Jack Bowers
October 1, 1998

A well--formed program of contemporary Jazz (for the most part anyway), presented for a good cause as well. A part of the net proceeds from Endlessmiles, recorded by a number of all--star groups at New York City's Birdland on May 26, 1998--the 72nd anniversary of the late trumpeter's birth--will be used to help establish an endowment for young musicians, the MilesDavis.com scholarship, to be administered by the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE). Two of the eight songs ...