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Jazz Articles about Hubert Laws
Tierney Sutton: Paris Sessions 2
by Dan Bilawsky
Back at the tail end of 2012, Tierney Sutton found herself in a studio in Epinay Sur Orge, France, working comfortably alongside guitarist Serge Merlaud and bassist Kevin Axt (on acoustic bass guitar). The music they captured, released two years later as the Paris Sessions (BFM, 2014), instantly stood out as the most intimate jewel in the celebrated vocalist's sparkling discography. So it's with joy and a touch of surprise that now, almost a decade after that studio stay defined ...
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by Jim Worsley
Time just scats on by when one is caught up in the wave of creativity that defines Tierney Sutton. How could it be that this enchanted vocalist is now presenting her fifteenth album? She left indelible footprints on her debut record, Introducing Tierney Sutton (A Records, 1997), breezing through as the leader of her caravan of wonder and possibilities. Sutton certainly has grown, as any artist would over time, but it was clear from the beginning that she knew who ...
read moreMONK'estra: MONK'estra Plays John Beasley
by Jack Bowers
The MONK'estra is actually a number of groups of various shapes and sizes, from duo to big band, assembled under the guiding hand of composer, arranger & pianist John Beasley towait for it!"play John Beasley," an artist whose admiration for Thelonious Sphere Monk is clear throughout this buoyant and resourceful album, as it was on Volumes 1 and 2 of the series, in which the MONK'estra played Monk." Beasley wrote eight of the album's fourteen genial numbers ...
read moreJohn Beasley: MONK'estra Plays John Beasley
by Jim Worsley
In 2016 John Beasley gifted us with John Beasley Presents Monk'estra Volume 1 (Mack Avenue). The buzz of that superb record led to John Beasley Presents Monk'estra Volume 2 (Mack Avenue, 2017). Both records were Grammy nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. They were both more than Grammy worthy, but alas the competition is fierce. Beasley has been more than a Thelonious Monk fan throughout his life, including his now over forty years in the music industry. ...
read moreRodrigo Lima: Saga
by Chris M. Slawecki
I fell in love with the jazz guitar--all kinds of jazz guitarists, from Jim Hall to Pat Metheny to Luis Bonfá, by listening to their records," explains Brazilian composer, arranger, bandleader and guitarist Rodrigo Lima. Saga luxuriously extends this jazz guitar love affair across the American and Brazilian continents--it was recorded in New York, Los Angeles, Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba--and across the two CDs of Lima's utterly magnificent recorded debut. Producer Arnaldo DeSouteiro elegantly ...
read moreHubert Laws: In The Beginning
by Dan Bilawsky
Hubert LawsIn The BeginningCTI Masterworks2011 (1974) The release of a double album during the LP-era could be a double-edged sword. This format provided a platform for artists to elaborate on their ideas and serve a hefty portion of music to their fans and potential followers, but a single record forced musicians to self-edit a bit more, making them more likely to come out at the other end with a concise artistic ...
read moreHubert Laws: Flute Virtuoso and NEA Jazz Master
by Greg Thomas
After James Moody and Frank Wess established the flute as a solo jazz instrument in the 1950s, and Herbie Mann popularized it in the 1960s, the musician that has become most identified with virtuosic flute performance in jazz is Hubert Laws, who became a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters Fellowship in the class of 2011, the penultimate group of honorees before the program closes after the 2012 ceremony. I've been enamored ...
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