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Tilles Jazz Festival 2025
by Dan Bilawsky
Almost a year to the day after the inaugural Tilles Jazz Festival took flight, the second edition was in full swing. This large-scale event--a collaboration between Tilles Center for the Performing Arts and Jazz at Lincoln Center, held on July 19, 2025 on the Brookville campus of Long Island University--boasted four well-set stages and nine artful acts. Running from midday through evening, there was no shortage of fine music for attendees to hear. The daytime offered a fair ...
Continue ReadingDeborah Silver: Deborah Silver with the Count Basie Orchestra: Basie Rocks!
by Jack Bowers
Basie Rocks! A great idea? One best left on the cutting-room floor? Or perhaps a little of both? There are reasonable arguments to be made on all sides of the equation. On the one hand, this is the one and only Count Basie Orchestra, swinging in its own exceptional way. On the other, the orchestra has joined forces on every number with Mississippi-bred pop-rock singer Deborah Silver, the latest in a series of acclaimed guest vocalists that includes Ella Fitzgerald, ...
Continue ReadingDeborah Silver: Deborah Silver with the Count Basie Orchestra: Basie Rocks!
by Kyle Simpler
Jazz musicians frequently cover popular songs, but few do it quite like vocalist Deborah Silver. With Basie Rocks!, Silver teams up with the iconic Count Basie Orchestra for a genre-crossing collection that you truly have to hear to believe. This is a groove-charged big band album that reimagines classic rock and pop classics through the swinging lens of traditional jazz. While that premise might sound gimmicky on paper, the result is total sonic satisfaction. Produced by ...
Continue ReadingSteve Turre: Generations
by Dave Linn
Generations is a wonderful exploration of the bop and post-bop era. Steve Turre both looks back to his roots while encouraging the next generation of musicians to find their voice. It's a position he's eminently qualified for, considering the artists he has played with and his tenure as a long-time jazz educator. Trombone players have a unique place in the sound created in a small jazz band. Their parts helped blend and define any given melody. On this ...
Continue ReadingJohn Beasley, Magnus Lindgren, SWR Big Band: Bird Lives
by Jim Worsley
Round about 2017 there was a meeting of the minds. Composers and musicians John Beasley and Magnus Lindgren evolved as kindred spirits, and chose to work together on a project engulfing their shared appreciation of Charlie Parker. This tribute to the man who came to be known simply as Bird, had trouble taking flight. Obstacles, none bigger than Covid, came along and stood in the way. Dedicated to its completion, the pair, along with the SWR Big Band, has now ...
Continue ReadingBill O'Connell: A Change Is Gonna Come
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Bill O'Connell, who has been at the top of his game for more than four decades with no signs of slowing down, says each of his albums is a snapshot of how he is feeling at a particular time in his life. A Change Is Gonna Come expresses O'Connell's frame of mind after enduring more than two years of the Coronavirus pandemic. By and large, the mood is optimistic, underscoring his belief that the worst of the pandemic could ...
Continue ReadingPedrito Martinez Group: Habana Dreams
by James Nadal
The African drums and rhythms that originated in Yorubaland, have been an integral part of the Santeria religion in Cuba, and a profound influence on the rumbero percussionists on the island. Pedrito Martinez is a premier conga master who hails from the Cayo Hueso barrio in La Habana, and is also an akpwon (lead singer) and santero priest, guiding the ceremonious drumming and invocations of the spirits. Habana Dreams was recorded in the historic Areíto/EGREM studios in the city, and ...
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