Interview News

Philadelphia Tenor Saxophonist Larry McKenna Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
November 21, 2007

Larry McKenna is a master tenor saxophone player. He has resided in Philadelphia all his life, and so is best known in that city, although he has been on the road a number of times, in particular with the Woody Herman band, and musical insiders everywhere know his work. His CDs as a leader include My Shining Hour (EPE, 1996), It Might As Well Be Spring (Dreambox Media, 2001), and 4 Brothers 7 (Jazzed, 2007), the latter with Frank Tiberi ...

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Extensive Interview with Red Morocco's Joe Giardullo Now up on Web

Source: All About Jazz
November 20, 2007

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Us3 Producer Geoff Wilkinson Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
November 20, 2007

In 1992 Geoff Wilkinson produced the groundbreaking jazz/hip-hop crossover track “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)," gaining international recognition with his Us3 project. Fourteen years and six albums down the line he's still going strong, but it could all have been very different.

For a man whose achievements are so widely respected, Wilkinson comes across as a genuine, open person--not at all pretentious or arrogant. AAJ contributor Frederick Bernas spoke with Wilkinson at London's Jazz Cafe, where Us3 played two nights, launching a ...

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Legendary Pianist Herbie Hancock Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
November 19, 2007

If Herbie Hancock never played another note, or gave the world nothing more for the rest of his life other than electronic pop or dyed-in-the-wool, straight-ahead, VSOP-style jazz--it wouldn't matter. His stature, accomplishments and legacy are secure. But he doesn't do that. Not his nature. Which is one of the reasons why, even among great pianists--and Hancock resides at the zenith of his instrument--he is held in a particularly higher esteem.

His latest project is River: The Joni Letters (Verve, ...

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Bluesman James Harman Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
November 15, 2007

James Harman is a senior member of the first wave of white American musicians who entered the blues during the 1960s, starting when he was only sixteen. With a pasted-on mustache, he was slipped into black night clubs in Panama City, Florida, promoted as “That boy who sings like a man." Within a year, he started his own band. In the years to follow, he restarted several times by moving to Chicago, New York, Miami, New Orleans and, finally, California. ...

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Trumpeter Ted Daniel Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
November 14, 2007

Trumpeter Ted Daniel was born in Ossining, New York on June 4, 1943. Encouraged early on by his father and brother, Daniel played trumpet from age nine and throughout high school played in bands with his brother and the guitarist Warren “Sonny" Sharrock, a neighborhood pal. Stints at Berklee and SIU provided some context, but the university of the Lower East Side jazz scene provided the most fruit--where he played with Sharrock, Byard Lancaster, Dave Burrell, Archie Shepp and others. ...

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Trumpeter Frank London Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
November 13, 2007

Frank London is one of the most interesting and colorful figures in the current revival of Jewish music--mistakenly identified only as Klezmer music--of the last two decades. London seeks consciously and constantly to expand the terminology and vocabulary of Jewish music with groups including Hasidic New Wave, Shekinah Big Band and Klezmer Brass All-Stars. The Klezmatics won a 2006 best World Music Grammy Award for its versions of Woody Guthrie songs on Wonder Wheel (Jewish Music Group, 2006). “It was ...

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Trombonist Robin Eubanks Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
November 12, 2007

Robin Eubanks is only one member of a notoriously musical Philadelphia family--you're probably familiar with some of his brothers--and was playing trombone at a tender age. He moved to New York City after graduating from the Philly-based University of the Arts, has collaborated with an enormous range of musicians and was a prominent participant in the 1980s M-Base movement most associated with Greg Osby and Steve Coleman.

If you attend jazz concerts with any regularity, you've almost certainly gone to ...

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