Interview News

Photostory2: Miles Davis

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 4, 2009

Last week I started a new series called “PhotoStory," in which I feature an iconic jazz photo and invite the photographer to relate what happened the moment the shutter came down on the image. The shaky photo of Miles Davis you see above was taken by Sal Criscillo, a photographer from New Zealand whose color work is smart and stunning. Sal snapped this photo of Miles in 1970, from the photographers' section up front during an Auckland concert stop. Here's ...

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Bassist Daphna Sadeh Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
June 3, 2009

It's to her credit that Israeli-born composer and double bassist Daphna Sadeh has embraced the vibrant multi-culturalism of the great melting pot of Israel to be the defining character of her music. Her openness to all cultures and a brighter future shines through the beautiful music she creates with The Voyagers. Now based in the UK, this most original of bass players has led The Voyagers since 2003 and is now touring to promote the release of Reconciliation (2009), the ...

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Guitarist Mike Moreno Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
June 2, 2009

A native of Houston Texas, Mike Moreno has been making waves. The guitarist first paid his dues playing gigs around New York, and has since been able to perform with some of the biggest names in jazz, including the Joshua Redman Elastic Band, Lizz Wright, Nicholas Payton, Greg Osby and Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Though he spends a lot of his time playing and touring as a sideman, Moreno leads his own band and has ...

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Introducing a Belgian Jazz Ensemble

Source: All About Jazz
June 1, 2009

“What do elephants dream of? Tuba trunks being played full blast, bursts of sonorous modesty, squawking – wooded poetry – rustling skins, reverberating cords, imaginary dancers, pulsation, blow, rubbing, blow, breathe, blow, pauze. What do elephants dream of? Of the jungle, of course. Duke’s jungle? The DJs’? Ellington would never have abjured this dense, vital stickiness. Sound manipulators find their witching gear in it too. Digitised elephants’ Dreams add a new hue to the jazz spectrum, a desire for water ...

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Legendary Pianist Marian McPartland Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
June 1, 2009

Marian McPartland, whose personal artistic history is deeply entwined with that of jazz, continues writing, touring and educating. Following her muse, she has encountered a who's who of jazz while leaving her own indelible mark on the music. Her radio program, Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, is the longest running show on National Public Radio, and she continues to tape new episodes.

At the age of 91 she's still going strong with Piano Jazz, as well as periodic performances and composing ...

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"Boy, Do I Miss Paul Desmond"

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
May 31, 2009

Thirty-two years ago today, Paul Desmond bid his girl friend goodbye as she set off for London, urging her to have a good holiday. That was on Friday. He would be fine, he told her; he had friends coming the next day. But his only companion that weekend was the lung cancer that had ravaged him during the past year. His housekeeper found him dead on Monday, Memorial Day.

Marian McPartland said, “It's just like Paul to slip quietly away ...

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Who Was Bobby Scott?

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 30, 2009

Bobby Scott is one of those virtually unknown jazz artists today who had a brief career as a top-flight pianist, composer and arranger in the 1950s. Then he moved into the pop world and disappeared from the jazz scene as a leader, working instead mostly as a studio sideman. In the 1960s and beyond, Scott worked extensively with Quincy Jones and wrote the music for two enormous pop hits: A Taste of Honey with Ric Marlow and He Ain't Heavy ...

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Waiting For Bill Evans

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 29, 2009

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know by now that I love photography, especially black-and-white works from the New York School between 1936 and 1963. So from time to time I enjoy inviting photographers of jazz images I admire to explain what happened at the precise moment the shutter closed on their subject. Here's photographer Brian McMillen on the story behind his gripping image of Bill Evans above:

“This photo was taken at the 1978 Montreux Jazz ...

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