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Something Else! Interview: Lenny White, of Return to Forever
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Something Else!
Fusion jazz drummer Lenny White is prepping for a reunion with the newly expanded Return to Forever, which will make 32 stops in the U.S. beginning in Pittsburgh on Aug. 7. The newest members are former Mahavishnu Orchestra violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and guitarist Frank Gambale. But White's life away from a band he's played with off and on since the early 1970s has remained as hectic as it is varied. After releasing the well-regarded Anomaly, his first solo album in ...
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Latin Jazz Conversations: Benny Velarde (Part 1)
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The Latin Jazz Corner by Chip Boaz
When recounting musical legacies, history books show a partial picture, capturing major trends but neglecting the wider scene. We tend to associate musical movements with towering historical figures, but forget that individuals can't create vast styles on their own. Every musical legacy has a hidden history, filled with names and faces that spent years working hard on their own artistic statements. Behind every major historical figure in Latin Jazz, there are countless musicians that filled their local scene with the ...
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Fabled Music Man Bob Mintzer Shares Decades Worth of Wisdom
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Best. Saxophone. Website. Ever.
Bob Mintzer is a 20-year member of the Grammy Award winning Yellowjackets, has recorded some 30 solo projects including his own Grammy winning big band, holds the Buzz McCoy endowed chair position on the faculty University of Southern California, does workshops all over the world, writes books on jazz, writes for orchestra, concert band, and big band, travels with his own quartet, and plays with numerous other bands around the globe. He is equally active in the composing, performing and ...
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Lalo Schifrin
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Sound Insights by Doug Payne
A very happy 79th birthday to Lalo Schifrin, one of the greatest composers jazz and film has ever known, a damned fine pianist and truly one of the nicest people you could ever want to meet. Born June 21, 1932, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lalo Schifrin's resume would be impossible to list here (check out my discography for that). But there are so many high points, including Dizzy Gillespie's historic Gillespiana, Jimmy Smith's award-winning The Cat and Paul Horn's award-winning ...
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Ricky Riccardi on Louis Armstrong
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Ricky Riccardi's much anticipated What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years (Pantheon) is out today. Ricky is an Armstrong scholar and archivist for the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, N.Y. He also writes the blog The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong. [Pictured: Ricky Riccardi] Here's a taste from Ricky's new book: Armstrong's longtime physician Alexander Schiff agreed that the engagement [at the Waldorf-Astoria in 1970] should have been canceled. “Even at the end, when his ...
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Q&A: Mike Metheny
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Jazz Online By Joseph Vella
We last heard from Mike Metheny on his excellent and insightful blog Doc Severinsen-A Legend, And A Friend. Since then he's been working on another musical project close to his heart, a compilation of his own favorite recorded tracks over the past 20 years. So we meet up again in the Q&A to talk about his new “best of" recording Old Wine/New Bossa: Selected Tracks. - JV How would you describe yourself artistically over the past 20 years? More experienced ...
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Latin Jazz Conversations: Bobby Sanabria (Part 3)
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The Latin Jazz Corner by Chip Boaz
A full time dedication to music is an honorable way for a person to spend their life, and their legacy should be honored at every turn. When an individual focuses their complete energy upon artistic growth and the extension of a musical tradition, they take the road less traveled, insuring a life outside the mainstream. Unfortunately, our culture doesn't always celebrate individualism, and the noble choice of a life in music generally doesn't come with financial and social rewards. Although ...
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