Interview News

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 ...

Continue Reading

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 ...

Continue Reading

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 ...

Continue Reading

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 ...

Continue Reading

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 ...

Continue Reading

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 ...

Continue Reading

Art Van Damme, Pete Barbutti and the Cordeen

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
February 23, 2010

In the right hands, the accordion can be a wonderfully evocative instrument. To name a few jazz masters of the accordion: George Shearing, Joe Mooney, Eddie Monteiro, Pete Jolly, Ernie Felice, Angelo DiPippo, Tommy Gumina, and Sivuca, whose harmonic and rhythmic use of the accordion enhanced so much fine Brazilian music. Gus DeWert was a splendid accordionist from Kansas City. In his time, Art Van Damme may not have reached the general fame of Dick Contino ("Lady of Spain"), but ...

Continue Reading

T.S. Monk: Drummer and Son of Late Jazz Great Carves His Own Musical Path

Source: Michael Ricci
February 22, 2010

Theres a simple but often forgotten message that drummer T.S. Monk, son of legendary jazz artist Thelonious Monk, will be spreading to students when he comes to Northeast Ohio to participate in the Lakeland Jazz Festival, which takes place Thursday through Saturday at the Lakeland Performing Arts Center at the college in Kirtland. “Play your own stuff," said Monk, calling from Orange, N.J. “You are not supposed to have the sound of the same person next to you. This is ...

Continue Reading