Interview News

Medeski Martin and Wood Celebrate 20 Years of Groundbreaking Jazz

Source: All About Jazz @ Spinner
April 19, 2011

Jazz bands have their own kind of dynamic. Usually there is a band leader who writes all or most of the tunes, and the group size is listed after the name, hence the Miles Davis Quintet or the Bill Evans Trio. It's jazz shorthand that tells fans more or less what to expect when they are scanning live listings, record bins and download sites. From the beginning in 1991, Medeski Martin and Wood have been different. On the suggestion of ...

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Casey Abrams: New American Idol Contestant is a Messenger with a Jazz Message

Source: Jazz (Jazzers Jazzing) by Carl L. Hager
April 18, 2011

Before last Wednesday, I was like more than a few music fans in my instinctive dislike of the American Idol phenomenon. Cheap and showy, lowest-common-denominator entertainment, it was created in the same terrifying cauldron that Fox's 1989 Cops voyeurism and MTV's 1992 Real World success originally inspired, and which has since produced Survivor, Big Brother, Fear Factor, America's Next Top Model, etc., in addition to permutations like Glee, in a long term strategic response to the 1988 WGA strike, whose ...

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Albam from the Archives

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
April 18, 2011

One Monday night in the '70s, I found myself seated at a table in the Village Vanguard with Manny Albam, listening to the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. During a break, I said to him, “I wonder why you haven't written something for this band."

“So do I," he said.

To my knowledge, Albam never did write for the Jones-Lewis band. I wish that he had. He created wonderful music for lots of other people, though. It has always puzzled ...

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Something Else! Featured Artist: The Isley Brothers

Source: Something Else!
April 17, 2011

In a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career dating back to the early 1950s, the Isley Brothers stayed on the move—transforming themselves from gospel shouters to doo-woppers to early rock 'n' rollers to nasty funksters to lover-man balladeers. Of course, nowadays, you're more likely to hear their 1973 Top 10 hit “The Lady Pt. 1," with its Santana-ish Latin feel, as part of a commercial for the Swiffer sweeper. They're worth listening to when the housework is done, too. ...

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Creed Taylor: Impulse Years

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 16, 2011

The founding of Impulse Records in 1960 by Creed Taylor is a fascinating story. My interview with Creed in today's Wall Street Journal here looks at how he came up with the Impulse name while working as the jazz producer at ABC-Paramount. He also talks about the branding strategy behind Impulse's signature orange and black color scheme, the laminated covers and the gatefolds—covers that swung open to reveal liner notes and photos. Creed has always been first and foremost a ...

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Sean Jones on "No Need for Words"... Soon Come

Source: The Independent Ear by Willard Jenkins
April 15, 2011

Trumpeter Sean Jones, who at 29 has become one of the busiest players of his generation is on the cusp of releasing a bracing new disc on Mack Avenue that deals with love in a more spiritual dimension. In addition to his recording and performing career Sean is a professor in the jazz studies program at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and artistic director of the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra. Through my ongoing work as artistic director of Tri-C JazzFest (Cleveland) its ...

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Something Else! Interview: Former Yes Frontman Jon Anderson

Source: Something Else!
April 14, 2011

By Nick DeRiso After a difficult bout with respiratory problems, Jon Anderson has returned with a furious creativity, beginning with last year's successful collaboration with fellow Yes alum Rick Wakeman. A forthcoming solo release, set for late spring, is to be part of a three-album cycle of songs—a rebirth both in the figurative and literal sense of the word for the co-founder of progressive rock's most recognizable band. Incorporating fusion, folk, jazz and classical music into a series of form-shifting ...

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Al Di Meola: Head and Heart

Source: JamBase
April 14, 2011

By Dennis Cook It's a small wonder that Al Di Meola isn't a major player in the jam scene. His pioneering work while just 20-years-old in Return To Forever alone should bestow the same elder statesman status as John Scofield and other electric jazz and fusion groundbreakers enjoy. Perhaps it's because Di Meola has cut his own swath through the music world since the beginning, never teaming up with anyone for anything other than musical reasons and never courting easy ...

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