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Interview

Pipi Piazzolla: How the Crisis Changed Argentine Jazz

Source: Inverted Garden by Eric Benson
August 18, 2010

A lot of Argentine jazz musicians have told me about the profound effect the economic crisis of 2001-2002 had on their lives. Pipi Piazzolla, however, was the man who seemed to most fully grasp the crisis's economic and cultural impact. After hearing Piazzolla allude to the legacy of the crisis during one of Escalandrúm's shows, I asked him to more fully unpack the history for me. EB: How did the economic crisis change the Buenos Aires jazz scene? PP: Before ...

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Interview

Guillermo Klein and the New Argentine Jazz: Radio Documentary and Interviews

Source: Inverted Garden by Eric Benson
August 18, 2010

My radio documentary, “Sounds of Upheaval: Guillermo Klein and the new Argentine jazz" debuts tonight on The Checkout. Listeners in the New York area can catch it on WBGO 88.3 FM. (Or streaming live everywhere!) The Checkout airs at 6:30 p.m. My segment will likely start around 6:39. (I'll post a link as soon as it's online.) I didn't move to Buenos Aires expecting to find jazz. I'd grown up in New York, the jazz capital of the world, and ...

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Interview

I Like Ike

Source: Riffs on Jazz by John Anderson
August 18, 2010

Saxophonist Ike Quebec, born August 17, 1918, was one of my favorite soul-jazz artists on Blue Note Records in the early 1960s. He had a full-throated sound (in the Coleman Hawkins vein), a sensuous and firm tone, rhythmically dynamic, and swinging. Quebec can be heard on breathy ballads, quiet bossa nova tunes, and more aggressive blues. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, and trained as a pianist and dancer, not switching to the tenor sax until his twenties. Early ...

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Interview

Denny Melle on Husband Gil

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 18, 2010

Back in January, I posted about baritone saxophonist Gil Melle and his Blue Note and Prestige sessions. For the post, I spoke with Hal McKusick, who played with him, and Raymond De Felitta, who grew up down the block from the Melle house in Hollywood. Both Hal and Raymond shed light on the visionary saxophonist, composer, artist, designer and inventor. In fact, all of the Blue Note album covers in this post were designed by Melle. Last week, I received ...

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Interview

Angelique Kidjo: Daughter of Independence

Source: AAJ Staff
August 17, 2010

By Angelique Kidjo Like a true revolutionary, I was born on Bastille Day (July 14), 1960, in Dahomey, which was then a part of the French Empire in West Africa. A few days later, on August 1st, 50 years ago this month, my country was declared independent: I was French for just 18 days! It is not easy for me to judge the 50 years of independence of my small country, now called Benin. I feel that my life has ...

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Interview

Pianist John Tilbury Interviewed at All About Jazz

Source: John Kelman
August 17, 2010

Pianist John Tilbury is renowned not only for his work in AMM and his other improvising, but also as a peerless interpreter of such contemporary composers as Morton Feldman, John Cage, Christian Wolff and Howard Skempton. He is uniquely well positioned to reflect on the similarities and contrasts between improvising and playing repertoire. Tilbury's biography of his friend, associate and erstwhile member of AMM, Cornelius Cardew, which took him over two decades to write, has been recognized as the definitive ...

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Interview

Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon Interviewed at All About Jazz

Source: John Kelman
September 1, 2010

Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon knows what versatility is all about, although his humbleness won't allow for cocky behavior. One of the best trombonist of his generation, and one of the finest in jazz history, this composer/musician/-teacher carries a heavy torch with the steadiness of an old soul and the conviction of a man who knows what matters most: the music and all that jazz. Former member of the Julliard faculty, the Wynton Marsalis Septet and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and a ...

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Interview

Pianist Nobu Stowe Interviewed at All About Jazz...And More!

Source: John Kelman
August 25, 2010

The music of NS (Nobu) Stowe is synonymous with the musical storytelling characterized with spontaneity and melodic romanticism—a true rarity in the field of fully improvised music. Stowe has not only mastered the art of total improvisation—a method of fully improvised music that embraces song-like melody, tonal harmony and rhythmic propulsion as well as more commonly improvised free elements—but also unique sets of fully improvised music, incorporating his own vast musical influences, from Baroque and progressive rock to soundtracks, ethnic ...

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