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Various Artists: Earth Music - Ten Years of Meridian Music: Composers in Performance
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Earth Music commemorates a decade of musical art presentations by the forward-thinking Bay Area Gallery founded on and operating under the firm conviction that significant art increases social, philosophical and spiritual change. It seems popular now to support the new music, which by those two words seems to imply--and this is becoming odious too--the entire artistic impulse to create experimental music. There should really be no such thing because all music is ultimately experimental, including those familiar standards that are ...
Continue ReadingPianos in the Foreground: Six Modern Masters
by Eugene Holley, Jr.
Because of its huge range, the piano might be the most expressive and adaptable instrument in western music. And since jazz is a product of western culture, it's no surprise that jazz pianists have been the genre's foremost creators, interpreters and stylists. This has been true since the days of ragtime, New Orleans, stride and swing, and on to bebop, hard-bop, modal, avant-garde, Latin, world and beyond. The six pianists featured in this review have since the 1980s investigated, adapted ...
Continue ReadingA Peep Into The World of Putumayo
by Raul d'Gama Rose
The Putumayo label has been doing a remarkable job of bringing music from different corners of the world to hungry new ears, always including an element of surprise in the repertoire. Almost every album is brimful with tracks that delight and are a reminder that there are many more musicians out there than the industry is willing to accommodate. Putumayo packaging is spectacular too--brilliantly illustrated by the British artist Nicola Heindl and often including fabulously exotic food recipes from far ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Django’s Spirit. A Tribute To Django Reinhardt
by Nic Jones
Any tribute to a musician as phenomenal as Django Reinhardt leaves itself open to criticism, so all embracing was the guitar icon's ability to push at the boundaries, still felt to this day. Django's Spirit. A Tribute To Django Reinhardt isn't so much in Reinhardt's spirit as it is an attempt at bringing his work up to date, an exercise which might be considered pointless, given the timeless nature of his music.
While the spirit does, indeed, move through G. ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Murder. Songs From The Dark Side Of The Soul
by Nic Jones
Themed compilations such as Murder. Songs From The Dark Side Of The Soul afford opportunity to hear just how diverse a range of interpretations a theme can provoke. Here the title is self-explanatory and that element of diversity exists in abundance.
Sonny Boy Williamson's “Your Funeral My Trial" is still as irresistible as ever; the intro, in particular, is the kind of thing from which The Rolling Stones took countless cues when its time was high. Williamson's delivery ...
Continue ReadingFire In My Bones: Raw, Rare & Otherworldly African-American Gospel 1944-2007
by C. Michael Bailey
Various Artists Fire In My Bones: Raw, Rare & Otherworldly African-American Gospel 1944-2007 Tompkins Square Records 2009 “Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." Jeremiah 20:9 (KJV) Mention gospel ...
Continue ReadingAAJ's Top 15 Interviews of 2009
by AAJ Staff
With nearly 150 interviews published in 2009, AAJ continues to provide the most extensive jazz coverage on the web. We also expanded our interview coverage to include, for those surrounding new CD releases: associated Daily Download tracks; accompanying CD reviews; contest giveaways; and more.
As always, AAJ provided coverage of well-known artists like Sonny Rollins, Steve Kuhn, Marian McPartland and Jim Hall, as well as artists deserving of broader recognition like Britain's Portico Quartet and Tim ...
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