Jazz Articles about Various Artists

Various Artists: Bird Up!

by C. Michael Bailey
November 12, 2003

Yes, Kate, you are a very good woman... then again, you may be the Antichrist.

—Doc Holliday to One-Eyed Kate in Tombstone (1993)

Depending on one’s perspective, Bird Up! Is the greatest thing since sliced bread or the worst thing since Heaven’s Gate. The premise is provocative. The urban music called jazz has been updated with the urban music of hip-hop and techno/sampling. Sampling of jazz tunes is nothing new; jazz, particularly soul jazz, has been broadly sampled ...

Various Artists: Latin Jazz Christmas

by Jim Santella
November 12, 2003

“From the bottom of my heart,” sings Pete Escovedo in a lovely arrangement of “Feliz Navidad” as he and his family wish us a Merry Christmas. Other tracks send similar wishes our way from Poncho Sanchez and his hardy crew, Caribbean Jazz Project, Sheila E., and several ensembles led by Ed Calle. There are surprises on every level. Traditional holiday favorites are interpreted with wrappings quite apart from what we’ve received in years past.

Calle and Arturo ...

Various Artists: Blues From Up The Country

by C. Michael Bailey
November 9, 2003

Delmark’s 50th Anniversary Collection, Part 4

Blues From up the Country showcases the transitional music between the true Country Blues of Robert Johnson and Son House and the Urban Blues of middle-period Muddy Waters and Walter Jacobs. This mostly acoustic or crudely electrified music, raw and undone, comes from Delmark’s archives, recorded between the 1949 and 1996, with the bulk derived from the 1960s. These blues have a stranger, grittier, more authentic bouquet than the more refined blues of Willie ...

Various Artists: Jazz After Dark

by C. Michael Bailey
November 9, 2003

The popularity of compilation CDs such as Now That is What I Call Music and WOW might be owed to the duplex cultural effects of an aging population longing for Top 40 radio and the declining attention span of the youth. This confluence of influence has prompted record labels of all stripes to mine their respective archives, assembling any order of collections for release. One of the better efforts in this respect is the two-disc set from Playboy Jazz, Jazz ...

Various Artists: Masters of the Boogie Piano

by Norman Weinstein
November 3, 2003

CD compilations of boogie woogie piano abound, particularly on cheap import CD labels, but this domestic bargain is a strikingly attractive sampler. Drawing from Delmark's half-century old blues catalog, it nicely showcases the big names like Roosevelt Sykes and Albert Ammons and resurrects obscurities like the salty Curtis Jones and Speckled Red. Best of all, Sir Charles Thompson and Ken Saydak offer rousing performances from this new century, thus destroying the myth that boogie woogie piano is a played-out style ...

Various Artists: Jazz Memories

by Charlie B. Dahan
October 25, 2003

Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver once said the most valuable weapon in baseball is the three-run home run; a more perfect analogy couldn’t exist between Weavers' baseball intellect and Universal Music’s recent boxset offering Jazz Memories. The three runs figuratively crossing the plate are the packages’ astute track choices, the groundbreaking photography of the legendary Herman Leonard, and the short but poignant and insightful notes about the artist and each particular recording. Add to this the beautiful and attractive ...

Various Artists: Klezmer Concertos and Encores

by C. Michael Bailey
October 23, 2003

Klezmer Concertos and Encores makes the perfect companion piece to Naxos World’s recent release Klezmer—Café Jew Zoo . Two visions of Jewish music are presented on these divergent recordings. The former is part of a larger project undertaken by Naxos to release American Jewish Classical Music from the Milken Archive .

These pieces are not the kind of klezmer you're most likely familiar with. Composed by the top drawer of American Jewish or expatriate composers, all are ...