Interview News

Saxophonist Steve Wilson Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 26, 2008

Saxophonist Steve Wilson, one of the bright talents on the New York City--or any--scene, understands the value of music education. He's very involved in it. He also understands the importance of mentor-ship, which comes from his days hanging out with some jazz giants at his days as student at Virginia Commonwealth University, and later doing the same when he arrived as a young man in New York City and started to expand an already growing reputation.

Even with his experiences ...

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Piano Icon Alexander Von Schlippenbach Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 19, 2008

This spring, Alexander von Schlippenbach celebrated his 70th birthday--on April 7th, 2008, to be precise. By way of celebration, he undertook a short tour of England in the company of Eddie Provost. On some dates von Schlippenbach and Provost each played a solo set and then played together; on others, Schlippenbach also played with Provost's trio, including bassist Joe Williamson and saxophonist Alan Wilkinson. Schlippenbach and Provost (minus the trio) played at Blackheath in south London, and the following day ...

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Bassist Joe Fonda Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 19, 2008

Bassist Joe Fonda has nourished so many groups and projects with his unerring time, deep and constant imagination and rich tone that one struggles to imagine a New York jazz scene that doesn't include him. He's played as a sideman with dozens of great, prominent players (including Anthony Braxton, with whom he played in various musical combinations for 15 years) and has led, and still leads, a number of his own groups--none of them less than worth hearing, and most ...

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Bassist Hugh Hopper Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 13, 2008

Hugh Hopper started out on his path through music as a stalwart of the British Canterbury scene, from which came bands including Soft Machine, of which Hopper was a member for five years, Caravan and Hatfield and The North. In a sense he's embodied the music which emerged from that scene, which might be best described as an idiosyncratic take on jazz-rock fusion. Any pigeonholing this might imply does him an injustice however, as it takes no account of his ...

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Bassist Steve Swallow Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 8, 2008

For 50 years, Steve Swallow has represented the pinnacle of jazz bass playing. First on acoustic, then exclusively on electric bass, the versatile Swallow approaches every musical situation with grace and understated virtuosity. His discography reads like a Who's Who of the important improvisers of the 20th and early 21st Century.

Swallow continues to tour extensively around the world and record with Carla Bley, Gary Burton, John Scofield and many others. AAJ contributor Matthew Miller spoke with Swallow at his ...

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Pianist/Composer/Arranger Jim McNeely Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
May 5, 2008

If you own some of the best records of the Stan Getz quartet or you dig the great jazz orchestras, then there is a good chance that you have heard--or better still--felt Jim McNeely's touch before. Either way, if you want to learn more about some of the jazz giants that McNeely has backed on piano, including Getz, Chet Baker, Ted Curson, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and Joe Henderson, as well as the jazz composing and arranging process, then you ...

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Saxophonist Karsten Vogel and Multi-Instrumentalist Robin Taylor Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
April 30, 2008

Meeting two diametrically different individuals currently active on the fusion scene in Denmark only drives home the fact that a variety of paths can lead to the contemporary stage. How different are they? One adorned in biker boots and pulling on a well chewed briar pipe, the other dapper in black jacket and slacks, flitting between chair and kitchen to cater for his hosts. One a self-taught musician, veteran of countless rock bands over the years and still a mean ...

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Vocalist Sathima Bea Benjamin Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
April 29, 2008

Sathima Bea Benjamin's amazing life reads like the plot to movie. She took time out of her busy schedule to recollect her life's journey from her childhood in pre-apartheid South Africa singing during movie house intermissions to self-imposed exile in Europe where she and pianist composer husband Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim) were discovered by Duke Ellington. Despite witnessing and being part of not just her country's history, but her chosen art's as well, this singer remains, to the casual listener ...

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