Jazz Articles about Various Artists

Various Artists: Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert

by R. Emmet Sweeney
December 2, 2005

The results of benefit concerts are always superior to the music they produce. Money is raised and collective guilt is soothed, but these events are usually plagued by performances of inflated self-congratulation. Wynton Marsalis, no stranger to patting his own back, puts his ego in his back pocket for the Jazz at Lincoln Center-produced Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert.

Marsalis, a New Orleans native, was the most eloquent spokesperson for his hometown after the disaster, and the ...

I. Christmas 2005: Something Old...

by C. Michael Bailey
December 1, 2005

Something Old | Something New | Something Strange | And Something Smooth

As I write this piece, my home base in Arkansas this holiday season is experiencing record high temperatures. Eighty-degree weather in mid-November does not set one up for anticipating the holidays. Add to this, the deluge of holiday music, all worthy of mention, crossing my desk. This all sets the stage for a more expansive list than in past years, one that I am dividing into ...

II. Christmas 2005: Something New...

by C. Michael Bailey
December 1, 2005

Something Old | Something New | Something Strange | And Something Smooth As I write this, my home base in Arkansas this holiday season is experiencing record high temperatures. Eighty-degree weather in mid-November does not set one up for anticipating the holidays. That sets the stage for a more expansive list than in past years. I am including new releases, some old one I found notable and some that many would not consider holiday fare at all. None ...

Various Artists: Congotronics 2

by Chris May
December 1, 2005

Earlier this year, the Congolese trance band known as Konono No. 1--a Mad Maxian agglomeration featuring ingenious and massive DIY amplification, electronically distorted, outsize likembe thumb pianos, and drum and percussion instruments made from recycled industrial scrap--burst out of Kinshasa to shock and awe the European music scene with Congotronics. It wasn't a jazz album by any means, but it was sufficiently creative, dangerous, and uncompromising to appeal to the experimental margins of the jazz, world, rock, and dance music ...

Various Artists: Piano Works

by Chris May
November 29, 2005

An unlikely quartet of pianists to share the same box set, Joachim Kuhn, George Gruntz, Kevin Hays, and Ramon Valle contribute one solo CD apiece, each of them standing up as an individual work. But as it turns out, each of them also complements and is enhanced by its close proximity to the others. The Piano Works box set may or may not be a device inspired by marketing (all the CDs are available as separate items, including the fifth, ...

Various Artists: Higher Ground: Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert

by Jim Santella
November 23, 2005

The disasters that struck New Orleans this year affected all of us deeply. We've watched and read and listened intently as the news unfolded. Tragic stories and heroic adventures combined with political jibe to take over. This hasn't been about some group of strangers from afar; it's hit us hard, and the hurt is still with us.

The world has come together to rebuild what was, and to try to repair our heartfelt agony. Jazz at Lincoln Center's ...

Various Artists: Impulsive! Revolutionary Jazz Reworked

by John Kelman
November 20, 2005

While traditionalists will probably balk at the idea of applying modern remix techniques to classic 1960s material from the Impulse! catalogue, Impulsive! does a good job of extending musical creativity beyond the traditional purview of the original composer/performers. After all, British saxophonist Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble gives equal billing to conventional instrumentalists and the artists who perform real-time sampling and sound manipulation, redefining improvisation as it expands into new and broader territory.

But while Parker creates new music where open-minded ...