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Interview: Robert Glasper (PT. 2)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Jazz fans tend to be highly partial. We insist that one trumpeter is better than all others or that one drummer is faster, stronger or more rhythmic than everyone else. We take music personally and like to fight for our particular tastes and choices. This king-of-the-hill view also tends to spill over into the kinds of music we listen to—and what we write off. I would argue this way of thinking isn't a good thing, since it prevents a wealth ...
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Interview: Robert Glasper (PT. 1)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Jazz isn't dying—it's changing. And what's emerging is ruthlessly exciting and eclectic. This nascent jazz form, like many that preceded it, is a collage of styles—mixing acoustic improvisation with hip-hop themes, turntable sampling and black-jazz forms from earlier decades. At the front of this movement is pianist Robert Glasper. As I wrote in the Wall Street Journal a week and a half ago (go here), Robert is fast becoming the Duke Ellington of jazz electronica. Unlike many jazz musicians today, ...
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Pianist Armen Donelian Interviewed at All About Jazz!
Source:
All About Jazz
61 year-old pianist Armen Donelian, a New York City native who now lives in upstate New York but who has traveled the globe as a jazz artist and as Fulbright scholar, has played all kinds of music during his lifetime. He studied classical music intensely and he allows other influences to seep in to his creativity. But he's attracted to jazz, leading his own groups of various sizes and playing with the likes of saxophonist Sonny Rollins, percussionist Mongo Santamaria ...
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1979 Herbie Hancock Interview Unearthed at All About Jazz!
Source:
All About Jazz
For the second installment of AllAboutJazz.com's new column, Jazz in the Aquarian Age Bob Kenselaar unearths a 1979 interview with pianist Herbie Hancock. At the time of this this interview, Hancock had been making ventures away from straight-ahead jazz for some time, but they were still fresh enough to have some fans up in arms. From today's perspective, though, it's clear that his eclecticism is a big part of what makes him the grand man of music that he is. ...
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Pianist Matthew Bourne Interviewed at All About Jazz!
Source:
All About Jazz
"I've accepted that I'm not a traditional composer who sits and scores things out, plays them, learns them. I just have a rough sense of something and go out and do it. It often ends up being completely different," says pianist, improviser and composer Matthew Bourne. It's a characteristically honest appraisal, but it fails to do justice to Bourne's talent as a writer or player. This approach makes him one of the most fascinating of Britain's contemporary performers; it also ...
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A Chat with Mitch Ryder
Source:
JamBase
By Dennis Cook Americans tend to have short musical memories. Our culture is so obsessed with newness and fashion that it's easy for pioneers to be dusted away with the sands of time. It's a pity because understanding who broke the ground one walks on is informative and often revelatory in a really joyful way. Case in point, Mitch Ryder, whose forward thinking, electrifying merger of muscular, tightly wound rock and propulsive, sweaty R&B in the 1960s lies at the ...
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Interview: Jimmy Wilkins (Part 3)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
For Jimmy Wilkins and his brother Ernie, receiving a call from Clark Terry in 1951 to join Count Basie's new band in New York was a stroke of incredible luck. Both musicians were jumping from one territory band to another trying to keep the paychecks coming. But big bands were folding fast. Small swing groups weren't faring much better. In 1950, Basie's had been working with a sextet that included Terry (tp),Buddy DeFranco (cl), Wardell Gray (ts), Freddie Green (g), ...
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Interview: Jimmy Wilkins (Part 2)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Most of us think of jazz's evolution after World War II as one big surge forward as the years progressed. In truth there were economic ups and downs, triumphs and setbacks as well as opportunities and dead ends. Success often was the product of relentless hard work, talent and good fortune—such as being in the right place at the right time. It also didn't hurt to have lots of friends and a brother or two in the business to improve ...
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