Interview News

Bobby Shew on Buddy Rich (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 26, 2010

As big bands go, the orchestra Buddy Rich founded in 1966 holds a special place in the hearts of many jazz fans. The band had a quirky hipness and energy, mostly because Rich was early to dig the youth scene, Nehru jacket and all. The band was made up mostly of young musicians, and the book included arrangements of rock, pop and soul hits like Norwegian Wood, Hello I Love You, Up Tight and The Beat Goes On. During this ...

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Dark Star Orchestra: Life After Dead

Source: JamBase
February 26, 2010

By: Jarrod Dicker

Dark Star Orchestra by Peter Wochniak “We are NOT the Grateful Dead," professes Dark Star Orchestra's rhythm guitarist and vocalist Rob Eaton. “I think the main misconception is that we strictly copy the Grateful Dead's music or somehow mimic their persona and none of that is true. We love this music, we live and breathe this music and when we step onstage there is no thought process of us trying to be or do anything except serve ...

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Bobby Shew on Buddy Rich (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 25, 2010

In the spring of 1966, Timothy Leary praised the virtues of LSD, an H-bomb was lost at sea in Europe and Gemini 9's two-man crew began the first of its 47 orbits of Earth. And if these events weren't spacey enough, Buddy Rich, at age 48, decided to start a big band. Not a trendy rock or folk band but a hard-driving jazz orchestra with a swing beat and overheated soloists. One musician who was with the band from the ...

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Latin Jazz Mainstay Portrays Cuba Orchestrally

Source: Michael Ricci
February 25, 2010

Rebeca Maulen loves to mix it up musically. A sterling San Francisco pianist and composer who's been a central figure on the Latin jazz scene since the 1980s, Maulen writes music that merges sacred and secular Afro-Cuban sounds with flamenco, jazz harmony and French Impressionism. All those elements come together in “Suite Afro-Cubano," a four-movement work Maulen composed for the Oakland East Bay Symphony, which commissioned the piece as part of its New Vistas/New Visions program. Premiering Friday night at ...

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Robin D.G. Kelley, Author of New Thelonious Monk Bio, Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
February 25, 2010

Robin D.G. Kelley is the author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (Free Press, 2009), the already definitive biography that has received rave reviews in the press and is the topic of conversation of Monk fans and musicians everywhere.

Kelley offers the rich perspective of an African-American historian who knows a great deal about the music, and has researched his subject in depth and detail. Kelley explodes some of the myths about Monk and portrays ...

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He Opened Door to Jazz in Cuba

Source: Michael Ricci
February 24, 2010

With his dark blue velvet suit and carefully groomed white hair, Bobby Carcasses does not look like a rebel, but like a man who is happiest at the center of an old-fashioned cultural salon. On a sunny afternoon last week, he seemed right at home in CubaOcho, the plush Little Havana gallery and lounge, talking softly about the infinite dimensions of art. But to generations of Cuban jazz musicians, Bobby Carcasses, 71, is a hero, the man who made their ...

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Hawkwind's Nik Turner Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
February 24, 2010

Nik Turner is perhaps best known as the founding saxophonist and flautist for pioneering “space rock" band Hawkwind. As well as contributing to the profound influence that this band has had on rock and punk with its focus on community and grassroots movements--including its many benefit shows and long-standing support of England's free festivals, Turner may also be the first saxophonist to effectively bring free jazz to rock music.

Independent of his work with Hawkwind, Turner has an extensive performance ...

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Komeda Project Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
February 23, 2010

Komeda Project is dedicated to the music of the great Polish composer Krzysztof Komeda. Komeda died young--days before his 38th birthday. During his relatively short life, he composed numerous film scores and jazz tunes and was responsible for the seminal album Astigmatic (Muza Records, 1965)--one of Jazzwise Magazine's “100 Jazz Albums that Shook the World." It is unsurprising, then, that a band would wish to pay tribute to such a musician, and tribute bands and tribute recordings are common enough ...

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