Interview News

Interview: George Avakian (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 16, 2010

Today is George Avakian's birthday. For more than 70 years, George has shaped how jazz was recorded and regarded. As a pop and jazz LP producer starting in the mid-1940s, George was a visionary at a time when several recording technologies and formats were emerging and competing. In the first decade of the LP era, his innovative album concepts for Columbia transformed jazz from a fringe genre to nationally acclaimed performance art. In this regard, George served as both an ...

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Seamlessly Wedding Cuban Rhythm to American Jazz

Source: Michael Ricci
March 16, 2010

Bobby Carcasses is a singer, trumpeter, pianist, conguero and connector in Cuban jazz. As a bandleader, big-band sideman and a founder of the first jazz festival in Cuba, in 1980, he's spent his career attending to the equal relationship between the guaguanco-rumba-guaracha spectrum and the swing-jazz-blues spectrum. That relationship might sound natural, but it's also a cause he's fighting for. As might be expected in a Communist country where musicians have been government employees, Cuba for a long time had ...

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Thelonious Monk Repertory Group Monkadelphia Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
March 16, 2010

Over the past several years, there has been a revival and reconsideration of the music of Thelonious Monk. No one embodies this trend better than Monkadelphia, a group of Philadelphia-based jazz musicians who play his music exclusively--a difficult challenge which they embrace with vitality, panache, and sophistication. With Chris Farr on saxophone, Tony Miceli on vibes, Tom Lawton on piano, Micah Jones on bass, and Jim Miller on drums, this group makes the Monk legacy come alive, sustaining rapt attention ...

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Ted Nash Helps Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Expand Repertoire

Source: Michael Ricci
March 15, 2010

Saxophonist Ted Nash might play with one of the best-known classic jazz ensembles of today, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, but it doesn't mean his composer side is stuck in the traditional jazz genre. “We tend to limit ourselves based on what people have done before us and what we have done before," he says. “It's an easy trap to fall into, when you're writing for a big band, writing in a format that's comfortable for everyone." Nash's latest ...

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Guitarist/Vocalist John Pizzarelli Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
March 15, 2010

John Pizzarelli is a man of many talents. Singer, guitarist, bandleader and arranger, depending on the circumstances Pizzarelli can step into any or all of these roles and perform at the highest level. Coming from one of the most successful families in jazz, his brother [Martin Pizzarelli] being an accomplished bassist and father the legendary seven-string guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, the New York-based guitarist has built a devoted fan base, inside and outside of the jazz world, that has made him ...

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Thinkin' About Jackie

Source: The Independent Ear by Willard Jenkins
March 13, 2010

At the recent and successful launch of the Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival (check Facebook for the Jazz Video Guy Bret Primack's clips from the festival), successor to the mid-winter DC classic East Coast Jazz Festival, the event was capped off by a joyous Saturday night tribute to Charlie Parker.  “Word on Bird" (title liberally lifted from friend and WPFW colleague Rusty Hassan's weekly Parker segment) brought together altoists Bobby Watson, Bruce Williams, and Fred Foss for some friendly jousting and ...

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Jazz Bassist Dave Holland Continues to Find New "Pathways"

Source: All About Jazz @ Spinner
March 12, 2010

By Tad Hendrickson

If you look around the scene, you'll find that Dave Holland has few peers. He came into the jazz public's consciousness as a bassist for Miles Davis from the late '60s to the early '70s, making his debut as a leader in 1972. He's currently at the very top of the game, leading a variety of bands and participating in non-leader groups like the Overtone Quartet. He can also be found playing as a sideman from time ...

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Fats Waller in a Nutshell

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 11, 2010

Here's a beautifully written passage on pianist Fats Waller from Jazz (Norton), a deftly written book by Gary Giddins and Scott DeVeaux. Jazz provides you with a robust, friendly overview of the music and artists as well as an in-depth analysis of select recordings:

“Adapting the guise of a Harlem dandy--in a derby, vest, and tailored pinstripes--Fat Waller burlesqued the worst of Tin Pan Alley, creating satirical gems with painfully sentimental material like The Curse of an Aching Heart. ...

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