Jazz Articles about SFJAZZ Collective

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SFJAZZ Collective: Live at Jazz a Vienne

by Russ Musto
March 15, 2008

SFJazz CollectiveLive at Jazz à VienneSFJazz2008 The SFJazz Collective is arguably the most perfectly conceived formation ever to deal with the seemingly contradictory forces in jazz of tradition versus innovation and composition versus improvisation. The DVD Live At Jazz à Vienne, recorded in France during the band's 2007 international tour, is a fine example of just how well it lives up to the imperatives of creative jazz.The genius of the ...

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SFJAZZ Collective: Live at Jazz a Vienne

by J Hunter
February 6, 2008

SFJAZZ CollectiveLive at Jazz à VienneSFJAZZ2008While the repertory on Live at Jazz à Vienne comes from SFJazz Collective's then-unreleased CD Live 2007: 4th Annual Concert Tour (SFJAZZ), the unit that ambles onstage here and launches into the chaotic opening of Thelonious Monk's “Brilliant Corners is very different from the lineup featured on the double-live disc. Gone are Joshua Redman and Bobby Hutcherson; they had been with the Collective from the beginning, with ...

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SFJazz Collective: Live 2007: 4th Annual Concert Tour

by J Hunter
October 1, 2007

After releasing the outstanding double-disc Live 2006: 3rd Annual Concert Tour (SFJazz Records, 2006), the SFJazz Collective could have pulled up their laurels and rested for a spell. Instead, the eight-piece super-band has punched out Live 2007: 4th Annual Concert Tour, another two-disc set that is a fine portrait of a group ably navigating transition.

Thelonious Monk gets the star treatment that Herbie Hancock received on 2006, with three significant differences.

First, while Hancock shared Miles Davis' exploratory ...

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SF Jazz Collective: Live 2006: 3rd Annual Concert Tour

by J Hunter
February 25, 2007

You heard it in science class... for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That maxim works in many spheres outside the scientific, no more so than in jazz. So it was only a matter of time before there was an answer to Jazz at Lincoln Center's “strict-constructionist view of what jazz “is. Where better to shout that answer than San Francisco, where another musical revolution took hold forty years ago.

SFJazz--the Left Coast's leading nonprofit ...

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SF Jazz Collective: SF Jazz Collective 2

by Paul Ryan
May 24, 2006

The SF Jazz Collective's second Nonesuch release focuses on the compositions of John Coltrane, with a few originals thrown into the mix. Despite the fact that this ensemble has so many “stars, its cohesiveness as a unit is palpable. No one seems to steal the spotlight, although certain musicians are featured on specific tunes.

Bobby Hutcherson's vibes take center stage on Coltrane's classic “Naima, after a beautifully voiced ensemble introduction. Hutcherson's intonation is impeccable and his technical prowess ...

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SFJAZZ Collective: SFJAZZ Collective 2

by John Kelman
May 10, 2006

The SF Jazz Collective's 2004 inaugural season resulted in an eponymous live recording of reworked Ornette Coleman tunes and originals, SF Jazz Collective (Nonesuch, 2005). The second disc in the series, also part of an independently released multidisc set, offers further evidence of the new mainstream's potential for modernity and innovation through a special focus on the music of John Coltrane. It also demonstrates the continued growth of saxophonist/artistic director Joshua Redman, who has only recently begun to deliver on ...

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SF Jazz Collective: SF Jazz Collective 2

by R. Emmet Sweeney
April 2, 2006

The SF Jazz Collective is a younger, more stylistically adventurous version of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, a repertory-minded super-group with a defined home base that tours at upscale theaters instead of clubs, aiming at middle-class pocketbooks. Both intend to educate as much as entertain, but SF Jazz, with Joshua Redman at the helm, manages to sound contemporary by emphasizing individual composition as much as repertory, while the LCJO routinely gets bogged down getting misty eyed about the past.

Each ...