Interview News

Interview: Laurie Verchomin (PT. 5)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 23, 2009

Today Laurie Verchomin resides in a small coastal village in British Columbia with her daughter Tara (12) and partner Brad. She also has two sons, Evan (22) and Niko (25). But back in 1979 and 1980, Laurie was pianist Bill Evans' lover. During their short 18 months together, Laurie learned about herself and the gritty underside of the jazz world--artists' obsession with music, the stress of marathon road trips, the nagging fatigue, the daily wait for nighttime, the self-absorption, multiple ...

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Steve Earle: Just Like Townes

Source: JamBase
August 22, 2009

By: Kayceman

Steve Earle Maybe you know Townes Van Zandt as the drunken cult hero. Or maybe you know him as the broken folk singer that sealed his mouth shut huffing airplane glue, the country outlaw, the reckless junky, the manic-depressive or the guy who lived in a trailer on the outskirts of town. Or maybe you don't know him at all. If you fall into any of these ...

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Interview: Laurie Verchomin (PT. 4)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 21, 2009

Fans of Bill Evans tend to idolize the pianist, creating in their minds a larger-than-life figure who simmered with quiet sensitivity and restless energy. Others who knew him see Evans as a cloistered prisoner of his own making, a powerful artist with an irreversible weakness for self-destructive behavior. In this regard, Evans is viewed as a tragic figure--a meek poet-introvert held hostage by suicidal traits that surely must have been undiagnosed depression. In truth, Evans remains both portraits at once. ...

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Interview: Laurie Verchomin (PT. 3)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 20, 2009

Last Sunday Laurie Verchomin spent what would have been Bill Evans' 80th birthday at a local golf driving range. It was her daughter's first golf experience. Said Laurie: “Bill spent a lot of time on his father's driving range in New Jersey picking up golf balls with his brother Harry in the quiet of the evening." Between May 1979 and September 1980, Laurie was Bill Evans' lover. More than 25 years younger than the pianist at the time, Laurie realized ...

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The United States Army Field Band Assists Young Jazz Composer

Source: Michael Ricci
August 20, 2009

By Heather Santos Fort George G. Meade, Md.-- When the Jazz Ambassadors--America's Big Band, a component of The United States Army Field Band (TUSAFB), were approached by Atholton High School Senior Jonathan Engelberg to assist him in submitting his original jazz composition for a National competition, the band jumped at the chance. The student of former Jazz Ambassador, Gary Dailey, Engelberg came to the Field Band rehearsal hall armed with his score, “Low Tide." Providing the venue, as well as ...

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Bops, Hums and Pings, Turned into Jazz

Source: Michael Ricci
August 20, 2009

The jazz drummer Ali Jackson generates a subtle but irresistible force when he plays, making even the smallest gestures advance his agenda of locomotion. Countless times during a crowded late set on Tuesday, in his first of two nights at Jazz Standard, he caught the ear with seemingly errant details — the ping of a stick against the bell of his ride cymbal, or the tight, airless hum of a press roll on his snare — that slyly pulled a ...

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Interview: Laurie Verchomin (PT. 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 19, 2009

Laurie Verchomin was Bill Evans' lover during the final 18 months of his life. Through this critical period, Laurie struggled with Bill's chronic cocaine habit and deteriorating health. But she also respected Evans' creative space at home in New Jersey and while accompanying him on grueling performing tours in the U.S. and abroad. For Laurie, these trips weren't always romantic, musical adventures. They were typically burdened by stress, stretches without rest, and enormous worry and fear. As creative as Evans ...

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Jazz History Scrambled, with Love and Respect

Source: Michael Ricci
August 19, 2009

There’s a bustling, ostentatious impiety in the music of Mostly Other People Do the Killing. Led by the bassist Moppa Elliott, it’s a jazz quartet with a diligent grasp of history but an anarchic take on convention. At Zebulon in Brooklyn late on Thursday night, the group riffled through jazz idioms with hammy geniality, like an impressionist flaunting celebrity voices. The unruliness didn’t remotely make it a mess. Mr. Elliott and his band mates — the trumpeter Peter Evans, the ...

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