Interview News

Interview: Frank D'Rone (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 1, 2010

Back in the late 1970s, I was hunting for a Stan Kenton LP and wound up at Dayton's, a rare jazz LP store on Broadway in New York's Greenwich Village. As I made my way over to the Kenton bin, a record by a male singer was playing over the store's speakers. The song was Why Can't This Night Go On Forever, featuring a rip-roaring big band arrangement. Nearby, a guy in a newsboy cap and dark glasses was leaning ...

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Jazz Singer and Guitarist John Pizzarelli is Reminiscing in Time

Source: All About Jazz @ Spinner
March 31, 2010

By Tad Hendrickson

Dealing with the songbook of Duke Ellington would seem to be the most daunting of tasks. Ellington was a tireless composer who wrote thousands of songs in his 50-year career, and his songbook is one of the thickest around, filled with dozens of jazz classics. It's an accomplishment that guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli was able to pick just 12 songs on 'Rockin' in Rhythm: A Tribute to Duke Ellington.' Nonetheless, Pizzarelli seems fairly unimpressed. ...

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Act Label Founder/Producer Siggi Loch Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
March 31, 2010

With a half-century in the music recording business, Siegfried Loch, known to friends and associates as Siggi, has had a huge impact on the jazz music scene in Europe. Jazz isn't the only thing he's been involved in as a producer over all those years, but having his own jazz label--ACT Music, based in Munich, Germany--was always his dream. It's a vision he brought to fruition in 1992, resulting in more than 250 recordings that have received accolades in Europe ...

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Clarinetist Ben Goldberg Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
March 30, 2010

The diversity of clarinetist Ben Goldberg's musical interests may only be matched by the intensity of his study. He grew up on The Beatles and classic jazz, started playing Klezmer music at the University of California, Berkeley in the early '80s, and studied with renowned classical clarinet teacher Rossario Mazzeo. In 1984, he became the clarinetist for The Klezmorim, touring throughout the U.S. and Europe, where he also met and learned from the legendary soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy. In 1987, ...

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Norwegian Guitarist Eivind Aarset Interviewed at AAJ...And More!

Source: All About Jazz
March 29, 2010

In a time when the interactive video game Guitar Hero is selling in the millions, Eivind Aarset is, in many ways, the Guitar Anti-Hero. Despite making music that could easily lend itself to the kind of guitar pyrotechnics that are so often the litmus test of a good player, Aarset's emphasis is on texture, on melody, on groove, and on a kind of collective improvisation that's been reshaping and redefining what jazz can be since he released his first album ...

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Unsung but First Call: James Weidman

Source: The Independent Ear by Willard Jenkins
March 29, 2010

Pianist James Weidman is a thoughtful, exceedingly pleasant man who is an understated personality but as versatile a pianist as you will find.

Weidman's discography as a leader is relatively short but potent. His current release is Three Worlds, on the Inner Circle Music label. On the heels of that release it was about time for some questions for Mr. Weidman.

According to some folks, public perception has put you in a kind of box. I suppose some of that ...

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Still Thinkin' About Jackie

Source: The Independent Ear by Willard Jenkins
March 28, 2010

The inimitable Jackie McLean

Shortly after posting the original Thinkin' About Jackie (McLean) (please scroll down) remembrance from drummer Carl Allen, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem presented another of its ongoing Jazz for Curious Listeners programs at its Harlem Visitor's Center, with a remembrance of the rich legacy of the great NEA Jazz Master Art Blakey. The conversation was moderated by bassist, and museum co-director Christian McBride and featured two late-period Jazz Messengers, saxophonist Javon Jackson and trumpeter Brian ...

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Dr. John Ciambotti

Source: Goings on @ Urban Nerds
March 28, 2010

I just learned today that Dr. John Ciambotti has passed on. He was my chiropractor for years, but so much more. He was the bassist in the underground, influential band Clover, who became Elvis Costello's back-up band on My Aim Is True, Huey Lewis' band (Had songwriting credit on a song or two on Huey Lewis album “Sports“), he played and managed Lucinda Williams, played with John Prine, turned down the Rolling Stones when Bill Wyman left the ...

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