Interview News

Vocalist Faith Gibson Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
June 10, 2009

To Faith Gibson, vocal jazz has been a gift that life and time laid at her door step a few years ago, transforming her into a new, more confident and brilliantly delicate vocalist; whose voice became the instrument she chose to utilize to communicate to the world around her.

Big Moon(Capricopia, 2009) is a compilation of songs following the tradition of The Great American Songbook and its ever-enchanting romanticism, melancholy and always hopeful yearning for love. Songs by Christopher Morse, ...

Continue Reading...

Pianist Antonio Ciacca Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
June 9, 2009

Antonio Ciacca knows a thing or two about multi-tasking. The New York-based pianist is a tireless statesman of jazz, composing music for his own small groups, arranging for various big bands and working as Director of Programming for Jazz at Lincoln Center. Adding to all of this, Ciacca and his wife are busy raising five children in the hustle-and-bustle of 21st Century Manhattan.

Born in Wuppertal, Germany and raised in Italy, the 40-year-old musician received a formal music education at ...

Continue Reading...

Interview: Dave Pell (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 8, 2009

Dave Pell is one of the founding fathers of West Coast jazz. After relocating to Los Angeles in 1944, Pell played on Bob Crosby's radio show and freelanced, joining Les Brown's band in 1947. In the years that followed Dave became one of California's most prolific studio musicians and ensemble leaders, forming a popular octet from the ranks of Brown's orchestra. Dave was a virtuoso player at an early age, able to mimic the sound and tone of virtually any ...

Continue Reading...

Pianist Ran Blake Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
June 8, 2009

If you close your eyes while listening to Ran Blake's Driftwoods (Tompkins Square, 2009), you may find yourself transported into the grainy, low-key black and white world of a 1940s or '50s classic noir film. Try to leave the theater and something quietly, without much fanfare draws you back into the story. This is the music of Ran Blake. While the vaguely familiar exists, there's enough hidden in the shadows of Driftwoods to make each listen seem like a world ...

Continue Reading...

Joni on Point Interview with Joni Mitchell

Source: Michael Ricci
June 7, 2009

With her provocative ballet, The Fiddle and the Drum, Mitchell finds a new grooveand a new lens on her past

Though her 1968 debut album, Song to a Seagull, was no small feat of folk glory, it was by Joni Mitchells third and fourth releasesLadies of the Canyon and Bluethat her status as one of the most significant songwriters of her generation was cemented. Songs like Big Yellow Taxi and California have been kindling to a wide swath of musiciansfrom ...

Continue Reading...

Interview: Hank O'Neal (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 6, 2009

Hank O'Neal is a jazz entrepreneur and bohemian--a rare combination. Over the years, Hank has been a jazz record producer and concert promoter, and he continues to serve on the boards of several major organizations. To satisfy his soul, he has devoted much of his life to the arts. Hank is a prolific photographer, writer and book author. [Photo of Hank O'Neal by Ian Clifford]

For most people who listen to jazz, Hank's name probably won't ring a bell. That's ...

Continue Reading...

Interview: Hank O'Neal (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 5, 2009

If you know Hank O'Neal, you're lucky. Hank is among the most powerful and prudent behind-the-scenes forces in jazz today, and certainly one of the most creative and prolific. A photographer and author of more than a half dozen books on jazz and photography, Hank also has produced more than 100 jazz festivals and is founder of Hammond Music Enterprises and Chiaroscuro Records, where during the 1970s and 1980s he produced hundreds of jazz albums. Hank's first jazz book in ...

Continue Reading...

Yoichi Uzeki Interview with Rockyoumentally

Source: All About Jazz
June 5, 2009

Continue Reading...