Interview News

Reed Mathis: Vernal Gratitude

Source: JamBase
May 29, 2009

By: Dennis Cook

Reed Mathis by Ariel Mathis Reed Mathis is somewhat surprised when I call him an instigator. Yet, there is a discernible musical prod at the core of his playing and personality. Mathis is a once-or-twice in a generation player, someone who will forever change the way his instrument is viewed henceforth. Those sort of pronouncements make him squirm in person, but put him on a stage ...

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Freddie Hubbard Said It

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 26, 2009

"On this session, [John Gilmore] didn't play like Wayne Shorter or Joe Henderson, but he played the type of sound that I heard for the album. When he played that solo on Caravan, I said, 'Man, what is this?'... It was kind of a Coltrane sound, and I liked that because he didn't play like anybody else. When I wrote those arrangements, I didn't really know what they were going to sound like. But I had an idea that by ...

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Happy Birthday, Miles Davis

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
May 26, 2009

The most famous jazz musician to come from the St. Louis metropolitan area, Miles Davis was born May 26, 1926 in Alton, IL and raised in East St. Louis. To help commemorate the 83rd anniversary of his birth, StLJN is pleased to present this guest post from Jeffery Hyatt, who blogs about the legendary trumpeter at Miles Davis Online and The Miles Davis Movie:Miles Davis, 2009Eighteen years after his passing and a generation or two removed ...

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Singer Deborah Brown Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 26, 2009

Deborah Brown is one of the finest jazz vocalists in the business, a “singer's singer" with a magnificent voice and mind-boggling technique. Vocalist J.D. Walter mentioned her as an inspirational teacher and mentor in a recent AAJ interview but, despite being very possibly one of the greatest jazz singers of all time, due to her own travel preferences she is less well known in the U.S. than in Europe and internationally.

Perhaps the reason for her “missing in action" status ...

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Vibraphone Icon Gary Burton Interviewed at AAJ...And More!

Source: DL Media
May 25, 2009

Since emerging in the 1960s, Gary Burton has quickly become one of the primary litmus tests for four-mallet vibraphonists in jazz. From his early days with Larry Coryell through to his groundbreaking ECM albums featuring a young legend-in-the-making, guitarist Pat Metheny, Burton changed the way that the vibraphone could be used, with music that ranged from ethereal to fiery and deeply grounded.

Since then his career has been a case of milestone after milestone, whether it's his longstanding duet with ...

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Bobo Stenson Interview

Source: All About Jazz
May 25, 2009

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Jim Goodwin

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
May 25, 2009

Sometime in the final decade of the last century (man, that's beginning to sound like a long time ago) I was on assignment in Portland, Oregon, and dropped into the restaurant of the elegant Heathman Hotel to hear pianist Dave Frishberg and singer Rebecca Kilgore. A cornetist was sitting in with them that night. On the spot, Jim Goodwin became one of my favorite living players of the instrument. His solos had echoes and intimations of Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, ...

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Lionel Richie: Man of the World

Source: Michael Ricci
May 24, 2009

The singer talks about his global tour and the U.S. leg to follow, his new album and even daughter Nicole.

Lionel Richie was wrapping up the first leg of his European tour when we caught up to him in Paris. Then it was back to L.A. (where one of his children, Nicole Richie, lives with his grandchild, Harlow) to rehearse for a performance on “American Idol." His latest album, Just Go, was released last week.

How is Paris? ...

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