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Interview

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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Interview

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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Interview

An Interview with Dewey Syntax: Progressive Rock meets Jazz Fusion

Source: Lauren Rogers
April 13, 2011

The death of progressive rock has been greatly exaggerated. While it's true that prog has long been extinct from the public eye for decades now, the genre remains a living and breathing entity, kept alive by its pioneers and followers in an underground network of the faithful. Among them is Denver, Colorado-based guitarist Eric Dewey, who has dubbed his project Dewey Syntax. The latest album from Dewey, the consistently mesmerizing Lark the Ivy On, is quite unlike those from his ...

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Interview

Q&A: Dave Schroeder

Source: Jazz Online By Joseph Vella
April 12, 2011

By day, Dave Schroeder is the Director of New York University's Steinhardt Jazz Studies program and by night, he is the leader and one of the featured instrumentalists of the New York City based eclectic group Combo Nuvo (a group comprised of some of Schroeder's esteemed NYU faculty). Combo Nuvo combines influences from blues, jazz, classical and world music into a hybrid of melodically rich and inspiring music that balances beautiful ensemble work, intriguing rhythmic textures and skillful improvisation and ...

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Interview

Meet Olaf Polziehn

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
April 11, 2011

Researching key signatures in performances of “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams," I made a discovery. Everyone else out there may have known about Olaf Polziehn, but he was new to me. After I heard him play the piece (in E-flat), further research turned up these facts: Polziehn is 40 years old. He was born in Ludwigsburg, Germany. He is professor of jazz piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. That is where the expatriate American ...

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Interview

New band Circuit makes its mark on London

Source: Jerzy Bielski
April 10, 2011

London-based modern jazz contemporary classical and rock group Circuit, featuring nine members from Poland, Italy, Denmark, and the UK are set to quite literally “explode" (a term written in their music) onto the scene in 2011. With their next set of gigs they'll prime their audience for the release of their debut album in September (with a guest appearance of renowned British multi-instrumentalist Stuart Hall, playing violin, banjo and guitar on it). Featuring such instruments as cello, harp and live ...

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Interview

Alex Skolnick Incorporates Thrash-Metal Origins Into His Jazz Work

Source: All About Jazz @ Spinner
April 10, 2011

People have their own path to becoming a jazz musician. Sometimes a parent or other family member who plays. Sometimes a musician starts off in one direction and then goes in another. Alex Skolnick has to be one of the most unique examples of the latter. The guitarist joined the thrash-metal band Testament when his was 16, immediately putting him on tours with arena acts like Judas Priest, Megadeath, White Zombie and Slayer. Within a few years he began to ...

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Interview

Makanda Project Jazz Ensemble is Profiled in Boston Globe

Source: MassJazz: Jazz in Massachusetts
April 10, 2011

The Makanda Project and its work in bringing jazz back to Roxbury in Boston has been profiled in The Boston Globe by Alexandra Legend Siegel. To read the full story, click here. The group was formed in honor of the late Makanda Ken McIntyre, a Boston-born jazz musician and educator who composed over 400 pieces of music in his life. The Makanda Project continues the legacy of Makanda through live concerts and educational programs. Their next performance takes place at ...

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