Home » Jazz News
Interview News
Timely announcements covering new album releases, tours, concert series, special events, job postings, crowdfunding campaigns and more. You can find more news by searching our website, viewing our news stream, seeing what's trending or reading our blog posts. Subscribe to our news RSS feed and/or embed AAJ news content on your website or blog. Learn about our news service here. Submit news here.
Johnny Winter: The Blues' Last Outlaw
Source:
JamBase
By: Jarrod Dicker
When Old Man Winter comes to town He's got a special way of dropping in And spreading cheer around You know [the blues] is around the bend And he won't let you down When Old Man Winter comes to town
-Old Man Winter (Revisited) by The Moffatts
Johnny Winter It's been a cold 40 years of ...
Continue Reading
Listen to the Bass Player: Part 6, Scott Lafaro
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
The Rifftides series of posts on improving hearing by listening to bass lines leads inevitably to Scott LaFaro. It was less LaFaro's virtuosity that made a difference in the role of the bass than the uncanny group thinking and interaction he made possible in the Bill Evans Trio. LaFaro was what Evans had been looking for, dreaming of, a bassist who thought about music, and specifically about time, as the pianist did. There is an invaluable pre-LaFaro Evans album with ...
Continue Reading
Interview: Marian McPartland (Part 2)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Pianist Marian McPartland never assumed a hipster or cool mystique like many of her male jazz peers. Throughout her 70-year career, there was no brooding, no puzzling behavior, and no legendary binges or tantrums. Just a good-girl smile as wide as Piccadilly Circus and knowing eyes that bore a steely determination to stand out with graceful technique and an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz. Like Billy Taylor, Marian is both a brilliantly talented pianist and an open, friendly person, something of ...
Continue Reading
Composer and Arranger Gerald Wilson: The Big-Band Sage
Source:
All About Jazz @ Spinner
By Tad Hendrickson
It's not often that you get to talk to someone 91 years old, not to mention one who has played, written or arranged for Duke Ellington and hundreds of other jazz luminaries. So when Gerald Wilson is on the telephone from his home in Los Angeles, you generally let the man talk without interruption. Not that it was necessary to interrupt Gerald Wilson: For a guy his age, his ability to recall names and dates was pretty ...
Continue Reading
Johnny Winter: The Blues' Last Bona Fide Outlaw
Source:
JamBase
By: Jarrod Dicker
When Old Man Winter comes to town He's got a special way of dropping in And spreading cheer around You know [the blues] is around the bend And he won't let you down When Old Man Winter comes to town
-Old Man Winter (Revisited) by The Moffatts
Johnny Winter It's been a cold 40 years of ...
Continue Reading
Interview: Marian McPartland (Part 1)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Marian McPartland is probably best known today as a pioneering jazz radio host (NPR's Piano Jazz) and the grande dame of the jazz piano. But starting back in the 1950s, Marian was one of bebop's most graceful and nimble messengers. Equally well versed in Dixieland, stride and other forms of early jazz that she grew up with in pre-war England, McPartland had one of the tenderest touches of the period and the deepest knowledge of songs. In fact, today her ...
Continue Reading
Listen to the Bass Player: Part 5, Red Mitchell
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
In the first paragraph of Part 3 of this series, it was not by random choice that I included Red Mitchell's name in the short list of important bassists who emerged in the 1940s. He discovered ways of playing the instrument that made a difference in the bass's role in jazz. Bill Crow, the hero of part 3, has kindly agreed to expand on some of the reasons for Mitchell's importance.
In between the Blanton (and Pettiford) soloing styles that ...Continue Reading
