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Jazz Articles about T.K. Blue
T. K. Blue: Planet Bluu
by Dan McClenaghan
Is T.K. Blue the coolest name for a jazz artist? Only “Thelonious Monk" competes in the category. Blue (aka Talib Kibue) a New Yorker of Trinidad and Jamaican descent who boasts a wide-ranging career--involvements with saxophonist Sam Rivers and pianist Randy Weston (he plays on Weston's 1991, Verve Records masterpiece, The Spirits Of Our Ancestors)--showcases a bubbling with life African vibe on his 2024 release, Planet Bluu,. In his liner notes, Blue says: “Planet Bluu lies just beyond ...
Continue ReadingT.K. Blue: The Tide of Love
by Pierre Giroux
T.K. Blue is an artist who is proficient on both the alto saxophone and flute; he has released a striking album entitled The Tide of Love that offers a diverse and engaging musical journey through various genres of the jazz spectrum. In this session, he is accompanied by several superb musicians, including Grammy-nominated Stefon Harris on vibes, along with pianist James Weidman, bassist Gavin Fallow, drummer Lenny Robinson and guitarist Ron Jackson. The group recorded an album of creativity, originality, ...
Continue ReadingCelebrating Randy Weston: An Evening with T.K. Blue and the African Rhythms Alumni Quartet at Dizzy's
by Dave Kaufman
Randy Weston passed away at the age of 92 in September 2018, leaving an indelible mark on the jazz community. Just weeks prior to his transition, he had given a performance at the Nice Jazz Festival and was in fine form. Weston enjoyed many accolades in the last chapter of his life including being recognized as an NEA Jazz Master and receiving a prestigious Doris Duke award. He was a noted composer, contributing many jazz classics to the jazz pantheon, ...
Continue ReadingSanti Debriano & Arkestra Bembe: Ashanti
by Jack Bowers
Panama-born bassist Santi Debriano's Arkestra Bembe is a nonet whose centerpiece is the bembe music of west Africa. During the Coronavirus pandemic, Debriano began hosting weekly bembes (musical celebrations) in the basement of his Staten Island, New York home, gradually assembling a group of musicians who would comprise the Arkestra and perform Debriano's compositions and arrangements. The result is Ashanti, an impressive studio recording whose framework is jazz but whose heart and soul are clearly in bembe. ...
Continue ReadingT.K. Blue: A Warm Embrace
by Hrayr Attarian
Saxophonist and flutist T.K Blue's tenth album A Warm Embrace is an enchanting and elegant work with richly textured harmonies and captivating melodies. Even though not all of the tracks are strictly speaking ballads there is a sublime sense of poetry that runs throughout the record and is its prevailing and cohesive motif.The solemn “Requiem for a Loved I" dedicated to several deceased musicians is intensely, yet quietly, lyrical and somber. It opens with a pensive and melancholic ...
Continue ReadingT.K. Blue: A Warm Embrace
by Dan Bilawsky
What do you do after you've already toured the world with jazz legends, helmed a successful college jazz program and recorded everything from bluesy fare to world-meets-jazz music to Latin-ized takes on Charlie Parker? If you're saxophonist T.K. Blue, you turn to the soft(er) and the subtle, delivering an album that's texturally rich yet wholly transparent. Blue, best known as a longtime sideman and musical director for pianist Randy Weston, has done all of the above and ...
Continue ReadingT.K. Blue: Latin Bird
by Chris M. Slawecki
Saxophonist Charlie “Bird" Parker is primarily remembered as an incendiary, revolutionary, improvisatory soloist, but he often expressed his style through composition, and many of Parker's original tunes became part of the modern jazz canon. Latin Bird, saxophonist T.K. Blue's label debut for Motema, his ninth release as a leader, reworks eight of Parker's tunes in Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, Caribbean and related rhythmic styles.Blue serves as musical director for pianist Randy Weston, with whom he's played for more than three ...
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