Interview News

Somethingelsetribute: Pianist Hank Jones

Source: Something Else!
May 18, 2010

By Nick Deriso

One of three jazz-legend siblings, Hank Jones was perhaps as unassuming as his brother Elvin (nine years younger, famously of the John Coltrane group) was the outsized extrovert. Feathery light, then concisely powerful at the piano, Hank concluded an intellectual, often overlooked eight-decade career on Sunday when he died at age 91. It wasn't just because he didn't demand attention. Too often, I think, Jones remained undervalued simply because he didn't write that signature standard. ...

Continue Reading

Trumpeter Michael Leonhart Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 18, 2010

For most musicians, writers and actors, making the final decision to go against the grain and pursue a paycheck-to-paycheck, month-to-month career as a performing artist is one of the harder choices in life. Yet for trumpeter Michael Leonhart, a life in jazz and art is “all in the family": his father is the noted jazz bassist, studio musician and humorist Jay Leonhart; and his sister is the sprightly, sassy, and torchy alt-rock and jazz singer Carolyn Leonhart. And after a ...

Continue Reading

Remembering Zoot

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
May 17, 2010

A year-and-a-half ago, I wrote a piece about Al Cohn for The Note, the newsletter of The Al Cohn Memorial Jazz Collection at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania. The school is a part of the state system of higher education and of a jazz community that thrives in the Delaware Water Gap area of the Poconos Mountains 70 miles from New York City. The region's premier jazz club, The Deer Head Inn, has become known around the world because of ...

Continue Reading

Drummer Allison Miller Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 17, 2010

It takes a rare individual to excel in multiple artistic genres, particularly when success unfolds in the public spotlight and presents very different contexts. Certainly technical ability is important, but it also takes a peculiar blend of flexibility, curiosity, and determination. Perhaps that is what makes drummer, composer, bandleader, and outspoken feminist Allison Miller such a charismatic musician and personality.

Miller released her second disc as a leader earlier this year, and Boom Tic Boom (Foxhaven, 2010) is an unmistakable ...

Continue Reading

Interview with Composer/Multi-Woodwind Player Vinny Golia

Source: SoCal Creative Music
May 15, 2010

So here is the first installment of my interview series of Southern California musicians who focus on 'Creative Music', or music that utilizes compositional elements and improvisational elements. I plan to interview as many musicians as I can, from longtime Angelenos, to up and coming players, as well as some recent transplants to Los Angeles, so I may get their perspective on LA compared to some of the other 'Creative Music' hotbeds. (Look for upcoming interviews with: Susie Allen, William ...

Continue Reading

Tony Malaby and His Horn Bring the Clean Feed Festival's New York Shows to a Close

Source: All About Jazz @ Spinner
May 14, 2010

It was late night on Sunday, May 9, when Tony Malaby and his Apparitions Quartet were cooking through a set of songs filled with high-energy improvisation, complex polyrhythms and beautiful melodies. Backed by drummers Tom Rainey and Satoshi Takeishi as well as bassist Sean Conly, Malaby played saxophone with a bristling intensity that matched the two-drummer backline, rocking back and forth with his eyes closed as he did. The sound filled the cozy basement of Cornelia Street Cafe as fans ...

Continue Reading

Bassist Ryan McGuire Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 13, 2010

Bassist Ryan McGuire, a master of classical composition, uses this skill as a strategist in the metal underground. His band Ehnahre is quite unlike any other in that field, baffling committed rock fans with its advanced theory and unstructured time signatures.

Aggressive and intellectual, McGuire hits hard. But emotion and the most serious intent are at the heart of what he does, which can be scary at first, but soon opens up doors to the imagination, where all theory falls ...

Continue Reading

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith Profiled at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 12, 2010

Continue Reading