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Interview

Jody Watley Interview: Live in San Francisco, March 15-17

Source: Corey Andrew
March 15, 2012

Live music fans in San Francisco have a rare opportunity to see a pop icon this week when Jody Watley arrives on the intimate stage of the Rrazz Room in Hotel Nikko. She doesn't mind at all that some people don't realize Watley has been a chameleon in the world of music—gathering hit records since the '70s along the way. Sure, it's easy to remember her '80s smash radio tunes—and iconic music videos—like “Looking for a New Love," the pop-rap ...

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Interview

Interview: Larry Greene (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 15, 2012

Back in the late 1940s, the number of radio stations in the U.S. multiplied rapidly thanks to the F.C.C.'s willingness to hand out licenses. Many of these stations filled airtime with records rather than live musicians. As a result, a station's success was highly dependent on the personalities and tastes of their disc jockeys. To promote their dj's and image, stations developed jingles and promotions. One of the first to help them with this strategy was Larry Greene—a Los Angeles ...

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Interview

Skerik continues his collaborative adventures

Source: Groove Notes
March 14, 2012

"I very much believe in a collaborative environment, and trying to get a real band where everyone has an equal say in writing the music, arranging the music and shaping the music. That's always been a real priority for me." —Skerik I had the opportunity to speak to saxophonist Skerik by phone this afternoon, on the day of his new release Skerik's Bandalabra: Live at the Royal Room (Royal Potato Family). In this interview, Skerik talks about his early influences, ...

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Interview

Interview: Herb Snitzer (PT. 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 13, 2012

To wind up with exciting candid photos of jazz musicians, photographer Herb Snitzer [pictured] had to be part big-game hunter and part button-pushing bully. On assignment, Herb developed tricks for making himself invisible and stealthfully moving in on subjects. But he also had to know when to prod a little to stir up a musician's human side. To produce the desired results, Herb had to be fearless, patient, invasive and congenial. In Part 2 of my two-part conversation with Herb, ...

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Interview

Thinking About John Gilmore

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
March 12, 2012

John Gilmore (1931-1995) was a tenor saxophonist highly regarded by leaders in a wide stylistic range. He worked with Earl Hines, Buster Smith, King Kolax, Miles Davis, B.B. King, and Charles Mingus, among many others. Gilmore was equally comfortable playing mainstream tenor with fellow Chicagoan Red Saunders and exploring the planets with Sun Ra. During his time with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the first half of the 1960s, Gilmore's front-line partner was trumpeter Lee Morgan. Blakey, bassist Victor Sproles ...

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Interview

Interview: Herb Snitzer (PT. 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 12, 2012

What makes a jazz photographer tick? For years I have admired Herb Snitzer's unorthodox images of jazz greats Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Lester Young and many others. Herb's photos always have this “how did he take that?" quality, leaving you both baffled by their execution and grateful for his daring, since they expose new sides of these musicians' personalities. In Part 1 of my two-part conversation with Herb, 79, he talks about life growing up in ...

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Interview

Drummer/Percussionist Robert Mehmet Sinan Ikiz Interviewed at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz
March 13, 2012

As an integral member of acclaimed outfits Nils Landgren Funk Unit, Magnus Lindgren Batacuda Jazz and Dan Reed Band, 32-year-old drummer and percussionist Robert Mehmet Sinan Ikiz has already toured the world several times over. The wealth of places, people and musical styles he has encountered on his travels has helped shape the diverse sound of Ikiz's debut recording as a leader, Checking In (Stockholm Jazz Records, 2012). James Pearse spoke with Ikiz recently about the road to Checking In, ...

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Interview

Singer Al Jarreau Interviewed at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz
March 12, 2012

In a career now in its fifth decade, singer Al Jarreau's 30 albums as a leader—garnering an almost unprecedented eleven separate Grammy Award nominations and seven wins—have defined him as one of the most popular singers of the past 40 years. Endless positivism in times of trouble, Jarreau's soulful delivery and buoyant stage presence have also made him one of the best-loved vocal performers, regularly crossing genres from jazz to soul to R&B. Esther Berlenga-Ryan spoke with the 72 year-old ...

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