Interview News

Multi-Instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi Interviewed at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz
September 27, 2011

It has often been said that composer/harpsichordist/violinist Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was the first jazz musician. His contrapuntal techniques and ideas on harmony, rhythm and form have influenced countless jazz musicians. Numerous are the jazz musicians who have also studied classical music, usually prior to shifting to jazz. Few, however, are those who have taken a Master's degree in jazz and then opted to study early music, a term that refers to European classical music dating roughly from the Medieval ...

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Something Else! Interview: Rock Bassist Tony Levin

Source: Something Else!
September 22, 2011

The latest incarnation for bassist Tony Levin, best known for his work with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel, is as part of a fearless new trio album with guitarist David Torn and Yes drummer Alan White. Part prog, part free-form improvisational music, part noise rock, Levin Torn White brings in each of their familiar textures and sounds, yet sounds somehow completely new. Both White and Levin have ties back to John Lennon, with the drummer performing on Live Peace in ...

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Jazz Face: Bobb Fantauzzo

Source: JazzINK by Andrea Canter
September 21, 2011

Bobb Fantauzzo is a many of many flutes. Each flute generates a slightly different face, I would guess a slightly different embouchure given the varying sizes of the wooden cylinders and their mouthpieces. For his performance tonight at The Nicollet with the trio Jazz Zen (electric cellist Aaron Kerr, drummer Darren Pinto), Bobb brought along seven or eight diverse-looking instruments in the flute family, and said it was just a fraction of his collection. Maybe one looked somewhat like the ...

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Vibraphonist Tim Collins Interviewed at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz
September 20, 2011

Tim Collins likes to mix it up. It starts at home; the vibraphonist is married to a successful concert violinist and is intimately connected to the world of classical music. Recording with pianist Matthias Bublath, Collins has also worked with guitarist Charlie Hunter, who produced his second album, mixing rock, jazz, and string quartets. He seeks melodies and inspiration without regard to genre, covering songs by artists a disparate as Tom Petty and Björk on Castles and Hilltops (Nineteen-Eight Records, ...

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Alan Pasqua on Bill Evans

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
September 20, 2011

It takes a lot of courage for a pianist to take on Bill Evans. It requires even more courage for that pianist to overdub himself recording Evans' songs. After all, any pianist who would attempt such a thing would be asking for a ton of trouble. Evans fans are pretty particular, passionate and protective of the late pianist and have a low tolerance for intruders. Unless, of course, a pianist paying tribute to Evans actually pulled it off. Alan Pasqua ...

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Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey's Chris Combs Interviewed at All About Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
September 19, 2011

On a Memorial Day in 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma, an encounter between a young black shoe shiner named Dick Rowland and a white elevator operator named Sarah Page—an incident that was reported with hazy details and shocking incompleteness—started one of the most brutal and tragic race riots in American history. Even more tragic, however, was how little the event was discussed by national or even Oklahoman sources. It was an event that Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey's pedal steel guitarist Chris Combs, ...

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Branford Marsalis on KUOW

Source: Seattle Jazz Scene
September 17, 2011

Branford Marsalis is a three—time Grammy winning saxophonist and composer. He works with new and established jazz musicians as the head of Marsalis Music, and teaches students new ways to think about jazz music. Today, Branford Marsalis joins us to talk about the legacy and future of jazz music, the importance keeping the culture of music thriving in New Orleans, and how jazz music shaped who he is and how he expresses himself today. Click here to listen on KUOW. ...

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Saxophone Prodigy Grace Kelly's Astounding Musical Journey

Source: Best. Saxophone. Website. Ever.
September 16, 2011

When putting these interview articles together, sometimes I get an artist whose accomplishments are so impressive and numerous that it makes putting everything into a few paragraphs, well, kind of a pain in the tush. That said, thanks a lot Grace Kelly. I'll go ahead and list just a few of the bullet points here:

Has recorded 7 solo albums with appearances by Phil Woods and Lee Konitz among others In 2011 she became the youngest musician ever to be ...

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