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Recording

Saxman Richard Elliot Pays Tribute to His Jazz-Funk Influences on "In the Zone"

Source: Great Scott P.R.oductions
October 12, 2011

Icon celebrates 25 years as a solo artist; radio welcomes “Boom Town" Escondido, CA: A contemporary jazz giant whose power and passion have made the soulful saxophonist into one of the genres most consistent chart-toppers in the 25 years since he released his solo debut, Richard Elliot salutes the instrumental jazz-funk legends from his formative years in the 1970s & 80s that influenced his brand of music on In The Zone, which was released today by Artistry Music (Mack Avenue ...

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Recording

Allen Lowe's Three-CD Gigantisaurus "Blues and the Empirical Truth"

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
October 11, 2011

Allen Lowe is a provocative, original cat. He has strong ideas about the music, its history and his place in it. Now up in Portland, Maine, spending time working on some comprehensive musical anthologies and no doubt occupying more than one brown study thinking about it all, he re-emerges with a heady three-full-CD set devoted to the Blues and the Empirical Truth (Music & Arts 1251). First off, there is a great deal of music to digest. It doesn't hand ...

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Recording

Spiritual teachings guide new album from pianist Kenneth Grice

Source: Lauren Rogers
October 10, 2011

The Word of God is heard through the keyboards of Kenneth Grice, whose sleek, incandescent instrumentals convey spiritual depth on his new album, The Victory. Both the album title and the names of the songs are rooted in religious faith; minus lyrics it is Grice's emotionally uplifting melodies that reflect his Gospel background. But this is not creaky church music. Grice's work stitches together a variety of related inspirations, namely smooth jazz, funk, and '70s R&B, to form a warm, ...

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Recording

Magma Legend Christian Vander To Release Tribute To John Coltrane

Source: Glass Onyon PR - Keith James
October 10, 2011

Paris, France—Music visionary and Magma legend Christian Vander will be releasing a tribute to jazz innovator John Coltrane on October 15, 2011—l'homme suprême . “On July 17, 1967, time stopped. The great saxophonist John Coltrane left us. I was lucky enough to discover, at a very young age, an exceptional musician. The beauty, the spirituality, the strength, the softness, as well as the fragility of notes. The expression of that sound which spoke to me like a voice. From that ...

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Recording

Chico Hamilton: Revelation

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 10, 2011

For whatever reason, drummer Chico Hamilton isn't taken seriously enough today. Nor is he celebrated nearly as often as he should be. My guess is that much has to do with his West Coast jazz lineage and that jazz heads don't view him in the same league as hard bop drivers or fusion bangers. Or perhaps it's because controversy was never his style and he didn't fit the classic image of the jazz drummer. Or maybe his role in Sweet ...

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Recording

MAXJAZZ to Release David Budway's a New Kiss on Tuesday, November 8

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
October 10, 2011

MAXJAZZ has set Tuesday, November 8 as the offical release date for A New Kiss, pianist David Budway's debut recording for the St. Louis-based independent label. A veteran performer and educator who plays classical and rock as well as jazz, Budway has played and/or recorded with many well-known musicians over the course of his career, including Branford Marsalis, Michael Brecker, Stanley Turrentine, Hubert Laws, Jeff “Tain" Watts, Jimmy Heath, Jon Faddis, Louie Bellson, Mark Murphy, Marlena Shaw, Ravi Coltrane, Joe ...

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Recording

John Zorn - At the Gates of Paradise (Tzadik, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
October 9, 2011

When I was in college I had to take one humanities class to fulfill a requirement for graduation. I took a class on the visionary poet and engraver William Blake. I found it fascinating, although I admit that some of his more complex later works were a bit beyond me. Blake's work has had an effect on composer John Zorn as well, and he put together this suite performed by John Medeski on piano and organ, Kenny Wollesen on vibes, ...

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Recording

Gordon Grdina, Gary Peacock and Paul Motian - Think Like the Waves (2006)

Source: Something Else!
October 10, 2011

By Mark Saleski In his essay, “Listening To Music," composer John Cage offers a possible definition of music and a framework for its evaluation: “I have talked with several musicians who have seriously claimed that music is not made of sound, but rather of the relationships of the sounds, and that in order to appreciate it we must understand its structure." The implication is that only the trained musician (or person well-versed in music theory) can properly decide what is ...

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