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Jazz Articles about Neil Nail Alexander
Enrico Granafei: It's Hard to Say Goodbye
by Nicholas F. Mondello
With It's Hard to Say Goodbye, multi-talented Italian guitarist and harmonica player, Enrico Granafei and a group of standouts offer eleven Latin-flavored jazz selections. The effort, recorded over an extended period, also features two artists who have unfortunately passed--trumpeter Claudio Roditi and pianist, Mike Longo. Granafei has dedicated the album to them and to the memory of Granafei's mentor, Toots Thielemans. “Claudinho," a Granafei original samba, opens the session. Upbeat in tempo, Granafei and Roditi make the ...
Continue ReadingRez Abbasi: Django-shift
by Friedrich Kunzmann
Talking about shifting. American guitarist Rez Abbasi seems capable of shifting shape and changing form from one project to the next like a creature from a J.R.R. Tolkien adventure—almost beyond recognition. If it weren't for the guitarist's inspired fret fingerings and rushed scale runs giving him his utterly unique spark. Between much praised quintet recording Unfiltered Universe (Whirlwind Recordings, 2017) and the Indian-infused collaboration Indo-Pak Coalition comprised of himself, Dan Weiss and Rudresh Mahanthappa releasing Agrima (Self Produced, ...
Continue ReadingRez Abbasi: Django-shift
by Karl Ackermann
Django Reinhardt's music is so ubiquitous that it's easy to forget his career was relatively brief. The gypsy guitarist/composer had recorded hundreds of 78s and acetates before he died of a stroke in 1953 at age forty-three. On many early sides, he played a six-string banjo-guitar hybrid tuned in the standard tuning of a guitar. Norman Granz produced the only full LP Reinhardt session two months before the artist passed. Along with over twenty posthumous compilation releases, Nuages (Verve, 1953) ...
Continue ReadingTake Five With Neil Alexander
by AAJ Staff
Meet Neil Alexander: Jazz musician Neil Alexander was performing, composing and arranging by age 14. In 2007 he released Tugging At The Infinite, his fourth CD with his contemporary electric/acoustic jazz ensemble NAIL. As well as managing his own electric and acoustic ensembles, he does sessions as both player and programmer, and works with a variety of Modern Dance and Experimental Theater companies. He has received grants from Meet The Composer & the NYSCA; performed works by ...
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