Interview News

Pianist Onaje Allan Gumbs Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
March 20, 2007

Pianist Onaje Allan Gumbs has been successful in a wide array of musical styles for more than thirty years, from arranging and performing pop and R&B tunes for Phyllis Hyman, Norman Connors and Noel Pointer, to blowing on top-notch straight-ahead stuff with Woody Shaw and Betty Carter, among others. And things in between. But it is songs like “Lament" and the title cut to the new CD that exemplify a big part of what is behind the work of the ...

Continue Reading...

Maria Schneider Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
March 19, 2007

From a certain angle, it would almost appear that composer, arranger extraordinaire Maria Schneider is living in a fantasy world. Her music is highly acclaimed, her performances are killer. The commissions for compositions, conducting and arranging having come steadily, for other musical organizations as well as her own work. Her last recording not only won a Grammy, but is the first recording to do so while being entirely sold over the Internet, at her website, through her association with ArtistShare. ...

Continue Reading...

Joe Vella Interviewed About Traneumentary Podcast Series at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
March 15, 2007

Joe Vella has been merging jazz and technology for decades, starting with early Internet bulletin boards, founding JazzOnline.com, and then moving into the world of podcasting. As a podcaster, he's produced series on everyone from The Beach Boys, for the fortieth anniversary of Pet Sounds (Capitol, 1966) to Pat Metheny. Now he's turned his attention to one of the towering musical figures of all time--saxophonist John Coltrane. Vella's Traneumentary is a multi-episode exploration of Coltrane's music and influence. It features ...

Continue Reading...

Jazz Journalist Paul de Barros Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
March 13, 2007

An artful writer, interesting, informative, opinionated, with a wealth of knowledge, and a touch of arrogance, to back up his take on all things musical, Seattle-based Paul de Barros's approach to criticism is direct and unforgiving when it needs to be, reminiscent of Robert Conrad with a battery on his shoulder, daring you to knock it off. Local challengers to the jazz critic title would be hard pressed to last a few rounds with de Barros, whose resume includes co-founding ...

Continue Reading...

Vocalist Sheila Jordan Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
March 12, 2007

Her voice really cooks but what is the recipe for the way Sheila Jordan picks songs and transforms them into something special and swinging? Well, you take a quarter Cherokee child raised in poverty in Pennsylvania's coal-mining country, you add to it the definitive influence of a genius, Charlie Parker, and mix it all with a hard life, a great and creative voice able to express the soul through melodies and lyrics and... Sheila is ready to serve you plenty ...

Continue Reading...

Singer Coral Egan Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
March 8, 2007

Canadian singer Coral Egan has always done things her way, moving from the greater complexities of her last record, My Favorite Distraction, to the more economical approach of her forthcoming disc, tentatively titled Magnify.

Robert Lewis was fortunate enough to attend one of the sessions for Magnify, and his interview with Egan finds an artist confident in her own direction and completely frank about all the aspects of getting from concept to finished result.

Check out Coral Egan: In the ...

Continue Reading...

West Coast Violinist John Ettinger Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
March 6, 2007

Although violinist John Ettinger's been a presence in the San Francisco Bay Area music scene since he moved to the region from Arizona in 1992, he was by no means a household name even on the West Coast and was virtually unknown elsewhere. That state of relative obscurity made his recorded debut as a bandleader, August Rain (Ettinger Music, 2003) a wonderful surprise. Simply put, the album was great---who was this guy? August Rain's compositions--all but one Ettinger's own pieces--had ...

Continue Reading...

Mahavishnu Project's Gregg Bendian Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
March 5, 2007

Drummer Gregg Bendian knows all about adventurous music making; for over twenty years, this classically trained musician has led a number of stylistically diverse, forward-looking groups, whose leitmotif is controlled improvisation.

And if it is true what they say about the company you keep, then collaborations with saxophonist Ornette Coleman, pianist Cecil Taylor, saxophonist John Zorn, and guitarist Nels Cline and Derek Bailey speak volumes about Bendian's musical vision. This musical vision has driven Bendian over the last five years ...

Continue Reading...