Home » Jazz News
Video / DVD News
Timely announcements covering new album releases, tours, concert series, special events, job postings, crowdfunding campaigns and more. You can find more news by searching our website, viewing our news stream, seeing what's trending or reading our blog posts. Subscribe to our news RSS feed and/or embed AAJ news content on your website or blog. Learn about our news service here. Submit news here.
Gene Ammons: Brother Jug!
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
The jazz-rock fusion movement of the late 1960s and '70s elevated electronic instruments, particularly the guitar and keyboards. But while the rock guitar, Fender Rhodes electric piano and synthesizers were front and center in many fusion bands, the saxophone experienced a rebirth in the parallel soul-jazz movement. Sidelined as a solo rock instrument since the rise of the electric guitar in the mid-'50s, the saxophone was once again featured prominently raised its visibility by covering hit songs of soul vocalists. ...
Continue
Reading...
Weekend Listening (And Viewing) Tip: Brent Jensen
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Bassist Bren Plummer’s live radio broadcast a couple of days ago (scroll down two items) prompted me to check out the KNKX-FM website. There, I found a post about another Pacific Northwest jazz luminary, alto saxophonist Brent Jensen, who was recently video-recorded in one of the station’s live sessions. (Jensen and bassist Jeff Johnson are pictured left.) KNKX host Abe Beeson put together an entry that includes four pieces by Jensen and his quartet with Johnson, guitarist Jamie Findlay and ...
Continue
Reading...
Bill Evans: Very Early '70s
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Bill Evans changed in early 1972. The pianist who had looked like a gaunt accountant in the 1960s sported a mustache by 1971. A year later, his hair was college-campus long. He also sounded different. Instead of playing with poetic patience and lots of space, Evans sounded more agitated in his keyboard attack. This visual and artistic transformation has been attributed to a wide range of factors, from fusion's atmospheric influence to his growing frustration with the pianos he had ...
Continue
Reading...
Chico O'Farrill: Latin Modernist
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Looking back, 1951 and '52 were groundbreaking years for jazz. Bebop was still lingering, cool jazz had already begun in '49, the R&B-influenced hard bop was just emerging and so was the relaxed sound of West Coast jazz. But these years also were important for Latin jazz and the dominant role played by Chico O'Farrill in its development. Up until 1951, the sound of Latin jazz was dominated by Machito and His Afro Cubans (above), a group that formed in ...
Continue
Reading...
Roger Guérin: Paris Meeting
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Paris in the 1950s was a special place. Unlike most urban areas in Europe, the city had endured little physical damage during World War II. Miraculously, it was spared German and Allied bombings during its capture, occupation and liberation. The toll on its population was a different story. City residents lived in harsh conditions under Nazi control, enduring cruelty, deportations and deaths at the hands of the Gestapo and German occupiers. When Allied forces liberated Paris in August 1944, residents ...
Continue
Reading...
Blossom Dearie: Sings Broadway
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Russ Garcia probably wasn't the best choice to arrange Blossom Dearie's 1960 album, Soubrette Sings Broadway Hit Songs. The show tunes are dated for 1960 (most are from forgettable shows of the 1930s and '40s), many of the songs could be classified as novelty numbers, and the arrangements are too cute by half. In some respects, that was the fault of the album's concept. A soubrette is an actress or other female performer playing a lively, flirtatious role in a ...
Continue
Reading...
StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Keyon Harrold comes home
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
This week, let's take a look at some videos featuring trumpeter Keyon Harrold, who will be coming back home to perform next Wednesday, February 7 and Thursday, February 8 at Jazz at the Bistro. Harrold, who grew up in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, has been in the spotlight recently thanks to the release in September of The Mugician, his second album as a leader. Featuring guest appearances from guitarist and singer Gary Clark Jr., rapper Big K.R.I.T., R&B ...
Continue
Reading...
James P. Johnson And “Carolina Shout”
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Today, February 2, is the birthday of James P. Johnson (1894-1955), who developed stride piano as an art form within an art form. In his time, piano cutting contests were proving grounds—most often in Harlem apartments—where competing pianists showed their stuff. If James P was playing, their stuff was likely not to be good enough. Johnson’s most famous composition was “Carolina Shout,” a test of a pianist’s swing, power and rhythm. He recorded it several times. Many pianists, critics and ...
Continue
Reading...
Album Showcase
Trending
Award / Grant
How Can Album Notes Compete For A Grammy Nomination?
Performance / Tour
Smoke Jazz Club Announces October Line-up Including...
Recording
Macedonian Saxophonist Hristijan Risteski Releases...
Music Industry
Harvard’s Ming Mei Residency Concert Features...
Recording
Jelly Roll Morton - 'New Orleans Joys: The Earliest...
Recording
Dan Papirany Trio Captures Lyrical Interplay On New...
Recording
What Happened To The American Dream?
Featured Video
VOTE!
