Interview News

Jazz Don't Hurt: Dr. Flugel, or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Chuck Mangione

Source: Pop Dose
November 24, 2009

The first album I ever bought with my own money (earned, I think, by babysitting for one of the neighborhood kids) was a two-cassette version of Chuck Mangione's 1978 concert recording An Evening Of Magic: Live At The Hollywood Bowl. This album, if you'll forgive my salty language, kicks ass. An Evening of Magic was made on the tour for the album that preceded it--Mangione's chart-topping record Feels So Good and it features the same band. Chuck's band on this ...

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Reedman Myron Walden Interviewed at AAJ...And More!

Source: All About Jazz
November 23, 2009

In words often used to describe the music of Duke Ellington, Myron Walden is a saxophonist beyond category. More so than many other musicians, Walden himself eschews reliance on any one instrument, not tenor or alto nor soprano nor bass nor ... well, you get the idea. The voice that he is striving to use in any particular setting can vary widely from time to time; there is no favorite child in this man's family of instruments.

The same can ...

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A Stylistic and Geographic Traveler Savors His Homecoming

Source: Michael Ricci
November 23, 2009

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
November 22, 2009

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
November 20, 2009

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
November 20, 2009

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
November 20, 2009

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
November 19, 2009

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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