Interview News

Russian Pianist Ivan Farmakovsky Interviewed at AAJ

Source: Michael Ricci
October 7, 2009

Crisis or no crisis, the 2008-2009 jazz concert season in Russia was far from being eventless. New fruitful collaborations were unveiled, new record labels were launched, old festivals have convincingly confirmed that they were well alive and kicking, and many good Russian jazz albums have hit the stores. Those albums revealed a new trend, that of many exciting Russian-American joint ventures in jazz this year. Of those intercontinental collaborations, pianist Ivan Farmakovsky's debut as a leader, Next To The Shadow ...

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Mindblowers (Vol. 7)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 6, 2009

At the end of each quarter, I reach back into the interviews I've conducted over the past three months and re-post my favorite quotes. I do this so that those of you who are new to this blog and those who weren't able to read the interviews in full have a chance to sample them. Many long-time readers also dig them for a re-cap. Of course, the full interviews are listed by artists' first names in the right-hand column under ...

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Keyboardist Matthias Bublath Interviewed at AAJ

Source: Michael Ricci
October 6, 2009

At the turn of the decade, German-born pianist Matthias Bublath got organized at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA. After a free-wheeling stint in Linz, Austria, his musical education began in earnest, but it was also at Berklee that he took up the Hammond B3 organ. Since then the young pianist has become an enthusiastic organ specialist, using both instruments to develop his musical ideas.

Although he's a thoroughly proficient player, the range and richness of his compositional ...

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Interview: Al Stewart (Part 5)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 5, 2009

By the late 1950s, trumpeter Al Stewart was performing relentlessly with top bands, recording on a range of notable big band albums and playing in orchestras supporting televised events such as The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. By 1958, television had created enormous opportunity for many big band musicians, especially as jazz's popularity began to wane and big band tours became less economical. After the 1950s, Al continued to play on television shows and recorded in studios, recording two albums under ...

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Shutter Master Roberto Polillo

Source: Michael Ricci
October 4, 2009

In a field where names such as Herman Leonard, Lee Tanner, Francis Wolff, William Gottlieb, William Claxton reign supreme; anyone who dabbles into jazz photography is destined to play camera aide. Their works adorned countless jazz publications and albums throughout the years. Each with famous shots marked indelibly into our minds. It is only a matter of time that lens work of a prodigious youngster be rediscovered forty years after they have been taken. With great pride and pleasure, Cultchas ...

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Drummer/Composer Harris Eisenstadt Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
October 5, 2009

Over the past decade, drummer, bandleader and composer Harris Eisenstadt has been a force in improvised music, active in both Los Angeles and New York (where he now resides). It's a testament to his creativity and energy that his ensembles have run the gamut from free-bop in the vein of post-Blue Note small groups, to orchestral works and the recasting of traditional Senegalese popular song into improvisational vehicles. Canada Day is the name of his latest ensemble and disc (Clean ...

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Interview: Al Stewart (Part 4)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 5, 2009

By the mid-1950s, trumpeter Al Stewart was appearing as a sideman on a growing number of top big band dates and recordings. With the rise of the 12-inch jazz LP in 1956, album production ramped up as the larger format required more music per disc than had appeared on the smaller 10-inch LP releases. The change in disc size also meant longer, more complex arrangements, which in turn boosted demand for musicians who could read and play parts perfectly the ...

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Drummer Matt Wilson Put the 'Play' in Playing Jazz with His Quartet

Source: All About Jazz @ Spinner
October 3, 2009

Drummers have a reputation of being a little “different" than the rest of the players on the bandstand. There are jokes about drummers not being real musicians and how machines do their job better, often told by drummers themselves. No matter the genre, these musicians inarguably tend to march to the beat of their own making. So with this in mind it shouldn't be all that surprising that by the end of drummer Matt Wilson's set ...

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