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T.K. Blue: Latin Bird
by Dan Bilawsky
It would seem that the music of Bird has been born anew in 2011. Joe Lovano took to the skies with his expansive take on the music of Charlie Parker with Bird Songs (Blue Note, 2011), and now alto saxophonist T.K. Blue spreads his wings with Latin Bird. Both men take Parker's music in different directions, yet they seem to share a guiding philosophy that reverence for a subject matter needn't result in stale retreads of their work. Artists who ...
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by Greg Simmons
For a fellow who's been dead since 1955, alto saxophonist Charlie Parker is having a really good year. Several high-profile projects have been released featuring his music, with various adjustments, tints, and abstractions, and some of these have been quite good. Now comes multi-woodwind player T.K. Blue, with Latin Bird, which adds some Latin flavor to a group of well known Parker classics. The challenge to covering an icon like Parker--particularly if the musician in question is playing ...
read moreT.K. Blue: Eyes of the Elders
by James Nichols
Saxophonist and flutist T.K. Blue, the artist formerly known as Talib Kibwe, continues to evolve his own brand of post-bop on Eyes of the Elders, his second release as a leader for Arkadia Jazz. Despite the pretentious title, this album contains some worthy performances by a cadre of jazz veterans and young lions. Though T.K. Blue fits the ubiquitous description of the contemporary jazzer infatuated with jazz tradition, he actually spent years paying his dues with jazz veterans including Abdullah ...
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by AAJ Staff
When he was the artist known as Talib Qadir Kibwe, T.K. Blue spent a good many years as Randy Weston's musical director, and he performed on some of Weston's now-classic recordings with Melba Liston like The Spirits Of Our Ancestors and Volcano Blues. Previously, Kibwe lived in Paris for eight years after a three-year association with Abdullah Ibrahim in the late 1970's. Journeying to Africa from his Paris base throughout the 1980's, Kibwe delved deeper and deeper into the spiritual ...
read moreT.K. Blue: Another Blue
by Jack Bowers
Here’s a generous helping of flavorsome post–bop Jazz deliciously home–cooked by T. K. Blue (also known as Talib Kibwe, and as a conspicuously talented woodwind player, often with Randy Weston’s Spirit of Life Orchestra) and his enterprising companions. Group sizes range from duo to sextet with Blue (alto) and Weston duetting wonderfully on Dizzy’s “Night in Tunisia” and trumpet master Eddie Henderson augmenting Blue’s quartet on the impulsive finale, Miles Davis’ “Solar.” Blue plays alto on seven tracks, soprano on ...
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by Mark Corroto
For the past ten years T. K. Blue, also known as Talib Kibwe, has been sideman extrodinaire for Randy Weston’s Spirit of Life Orchestra. Like Billy Pierce to Tony Williams, or Paul Desmond to Dave Brubeck, Blue added depth and soul to the group without stepping out into the limelight. Born in New York to a Trinidadian mother and a Jamaican father, the saxophonist who doubles on flute graduated from NYU and New York’s Jazzmobile to play with Abdullah Ibrahim ...
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by Glenn Astarita
Multi-reedman, Talib Kibwe a.k.a. T.K. Blue has been lurking in the shadows albeit in workmanlike fashion while serving as musical director for Randy Weston or supporting the legendary Abdullah Ibrahim. On Another Blue T.K. Blue gets his day in the Sun (and deservedly so...) under the auspices of Arkadia Records’ producer Bob Karcy.Here, Blue puts all of his savvy and years of shedding to fruition with this release on Bob Karcy’s burgeoning Arkadia record label. Blue displays extraordinary ...
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