Interview News

Royce Campbell: Playing Pretty

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
September 15, 2010

As a jazz guitarist, it's not easy to play pretty. You have to worship harmony, you have to love the sound of the instrument, and you have to want to seduce audiences. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, guitarists like Barry Galbraith, Jimmy Raney, Chuck Wayne, Mundell Lowe, Wes Montgomery and others understood the conversational quality and beckoning nature of the instrument. One guitarist around today who is carrying that torch is Royce Campbell. Royce's name might not ring a ...

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Mercury Prize-Nominated Pianist Kit Downes Interviewed at All About Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
September 15, 2010

Kit Downes' career as a jazz musician has, indeed, taken off in a very short time. He's still in his mid-20s, but such is his talent and appetite for music that Downes has become one of the most sought-after keyboardist in Britain, and he's a key presence in a series of cutting-edge bands, with The Golden Age Of Steam, Troyka, Big Cat and his own Kit Downes Trio all springing readily to mind. While the intelligent but unassuming musician has ...

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Happy 10-Year Anniversary to the Wayne Shorter Quartet

Source: AAJ Staff
September 14, 2010

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Branford Marsalis in Conversation with Sam Stephenson

Source: Jazz Loft Project by Sam Stephenson
September 13, 2010

public conversation between saxophonist Branford Marsalis and JLP director Sam Stephenson has been confirmed for the evening of February 10, 2011 at Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, N.C. in association with the Center for Documentary Studies and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University (the JLP show opens at Nasher on February 3). As a starting point Marsalis and Stephenson will discuss “Jazz Then and Now," the music and culture of jazz in the era of JLP circa 1960 ...

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Happy Birthday, Cat Anderson!

Source: Riffs on Jazz by John Anderson
September 13, 2010

Jazz trumpeter William “Cat" Anderson (1916-1981) was born in Greenville, South Carolina. His parents died when he was only four years old, so Cat grew up in an orphanage in Charleston. It was here that he learned how to play the trumpet. Fellow orphans gave him the nickname “Cat," not for his trumpet playing but for the way he fought on the playground. He played with various big bands in the late 1930s and early 1940s, including Claude Hopkins' and ...

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An Interview with Dr. John

Source: Groove Notes
September 12, 2010

On Tuesday, September 7th, I had the opportunity to interview the American music icon Dr. John from our Seattle Performance Studio, as well as hear him play a couple of songs. Below is a summary of my interview and the performance, written by KPLU's Nick Morrison. You will also see photos, and at the end you will find a link to the audio of the performance and interview in its entirely.

Mac 'Dr. John' Rebennack has been at the heart ...

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The Bad Plus Take a Break From Jazzed-Out Indie Covers With 'Never Stop'

Source: All About Jazz @ Spinner
September 11, 2010

Things are a bit calmer for the Bad Plus these days. The band returns with its eighth album, called 'Never Stop,' which, if nothing else, emphatically states the band's mission statement. It's also the first album of all original songs for the trio. It follows up 2009's 'For All I Care,' which featured rock covers performed with indie rock singer Wendy Lewis and a few classical tunes. By the time this came out, fans and critics alike had long become ...

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A Conversation About P2P Marketing with Frostclick

Source: We All Make Music
September 11, 2010

File-sharing is the antithesis of big business. In everything from form (decentralized structure, minimal operation and upkeep costs) to function (duh), P2P networks and torrent hubs are diametrically opposed to the large corporate structures that define the entertainment and broadcast industries, and its proponents are proud of that. But recently, the file-sharers have begun to act more and more business-like. A couple weeks ago, we ran a piece about Paz, a rapper/singer from Los Angeles who used P2P networks to ...

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