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A Stylistic and Geographic Traveler Savors His Homecoming
Source:
Michael Ricci
From one angle, the career of the saxophonist Steve Grossman might seem to have unfolded in reverse. He came onto the radar in 1969, playing state-of-the-art jazz-rock with Miles Davis; he was all of 18. From that sideman perch, among the most visible in jazz, he went on to play rugged, horizon-scanning postbop in the style of John Coltrane, notably with Coltranes former drummer Elvin Jones. Then came a more traditionalist stretch, followed by relative obscurity after he moved to ...
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Interview: Ray Santos (Part 2)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
For years, Latin-jazz has been ignored or unduly dismissed as repetitive novelty music by jazz fans who should know better. While Latin-jazz is certainly foreign to those who have little knowledge of or connection with the Latin experience in America, the music's tempos and syncopation remain exceptional and worthy of scholarship. Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie understood this in their early forays into Afro-Cuban music in the late 1940s. When Latin-jazz moved into the ballrooms in the 1950s, the music ...
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Interview: Ray Santos (Part 1)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
As Latin-jazz legends go, saxophonist Ray Santos ranks high on the list. Few living Latin-jazz artists today can claim to have played in and arranged for the bands of Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez. To give you an idea of what this trifecta means, it would be akin to a saxophonist playing in the Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Woody Herman bands. In addition, Ray is one of only a handful of surviving musicians who recorded on Kenya: Afro-Cuban ...
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The Producer's Corner with Spud Too Tight Discusses Production/Engineering and Guitar Dynamics with Two-Time Grammy Award Winning Producer/Jazz Guitarist Paul Brown
Source:
entertainmentPR
Minneapolis, MN - One of the hottest and most unique celebrity driven radio platforms to hear some of Billboard's chart topping music producers, composers, arrangers and engineers discuss their production techniques and preferences, influences, music instruments, their craft, state of the art recording equipment and upcoming projects is The Producer's Corner with Spud Too Tight Music Producer/Composer Spud Too Tight is also prolific and gifted on keyboards, guitar/bass, drum programming, engineering and is an avid Logic Pro 8 and MacBook ...
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Jazz Saxophonist Myron Walden Returns with New 'Momentum'
Source:
All About Jazz @ Spinner
By Tad Hendrickson
Jazz has had its fair share of players who have put their careers on hold to do some woodshedding. The most well-known example is probably Sonny Rollins' 1959-61 sabbatical where he studied philosophy and yoga, traveled and (most famously) practiced on New York's Williamsburg Bridge at night. Oftentimes, these searching musicians return to their art with new vigor and, hopefully, an artistic breakthrough. Such is the case for saxophonist Myron Walden, who hasn't released an album since ...
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Other Matters: Mercer, Mercer, Mercer
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Today is the 100th anniversary of Johnny Mercer's birth. To celebrate it, Dave Frishberg and Rebecca Kilgore will be the guests on National Public Radio's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. See your local listings for station and time, or check here. If you live somewhere other than the United States or if your town doesn't have an NPR station, the network will archive the program here, usually late the day of the broadcast.
We may presume that, whatever Ms. Gross ...
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Tory Z Starbuck Featured in St. Louis Magazine
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and musical experimenter Tory Z. Starbuck is featured in an entertaining interview done by Jeannette Cooperman for the November issue of St. Louis magazine. As fate would have it, Starbuck also has a performance this Friday, November 20 called “Japanese Koto meets Space Age Electronics" at S. Carmody Photography, 2707 Sutton Blvd. in Maplewood. Described in typically Starbuckian fashion as “a surreal fusion of Insect Ambient Edge" the event is part of the first-ever Maplewood Arts ...
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Philadelphia Guitarist Chuck Anderson Interviewed at AAJ
Source:
All About Jazz
Chicago-born but long associated with the Philadelphia scene, Chuck Anderson is one of the many guitarists working in the trenches but deserving of greater recognition. With ten CDs to his name, Anderson has run the Medley Music School for nearly a decade, has authored over a dozen instructional books, and continues to work as a media composer. The developer of the Neo Classical Style of guitar playing, which approaches performing classical repertoire with a pick rather than fingers.
Ed Benson's ...
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