Jazz News

Jazz Siren Verona Chard Extends UK Tour

Source: Michael Ricci
July 6, 2010

Five years after making her professional debut with the late, great British jazz lynchpin Humphrey Lyttelton, vocalist Verona Chard has wrapped her sultry tones around a clutch of classic compositions on her own offering, Fever, due for release on July 21. Inspired by the music of another of the nation's great jazz stalwarts, John Dankworth--and his 1964 release Shakespeare and All That Jazz--the West Country chanteuse is now set to take the album on the road. The London-based siren will ...

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Third-time DownBeat Poll Win for Manfred Eicher and ECM

Source: Michael Ricci
July 6, 2010

For the third consecutive year, the DownBeat Critics Poll has voted Manfred Eicher Producer of the Year and ECM Records Label of the Year. Results are announced in the August edition of the US jazz magazine, which reaches international newsstands in mid-July. The latest poll wins come just two months after Eicher received DownBeat's Lifetime Achievement Award, established “to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of the jazz pioneers, entrepreneurs and clarion callers who work tirelessly to connect jazz artists with ...

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The Smokers Union - Jammin' On The Hudson

Source: Brownstone Entertainment Complex, LLC
July 6, 2010

Riverbank State Park, in association with Brownstone Entertainment Complex, LLC, for our sixth consecutive year are pleased to present: “Jammin' On The Hudson."

'Jammin'; The Summer Concert Series for the 'serious' Jazz Lover! What could be more inviting than listening to the sounds of great Jazz Artists, cast out over The Hudson River, at sunset, for Free?! On Sunday July 18th we open our Series with “The Smokers Union." The high intensity of this band of Players, with their 'take ...

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New Columns at All About Jazz

Source: Michael Ricci
July 6, 2010

All About Jazz has recently launched the following columns for your reading pleasure: Unsung HeroesBy vocalist/pianist Sean Dietrich The Art Of The Artist To Fan RelationshipBy ArtistShare founder Brian Camelio Afrobeat DiariesBy resident expert Chris May JazzLife UKBy photo journalist Bruce Lindsay Built to Sound By guitarist Jack Huntley

And though they aren't exactly new, these columns we're ...

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Pete Fountain Salutes the Great Clarinetists

Source: All About Jazz
July 6, 2010

Pete Fountain has reached that enviable stage at which the compilers of catalogues for use in record shops are uncertain whether to list him under “jazz" or in the “popular" category. In fact, Pete's success helps to underline the inherently false implication of this listing system that jazz cannot be popular music in the broadest sense.

His two years of national TV exposure with Lawrence Welk, his extraordinary success in albums under his own name and most recently the warm ...

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Lou Reed's Free Jazz Gets Hostile Reception in Montreal

Source: Michael Ricci
July 5, 2010

There must have been something in the water this past weekend--first LCD Soundsytem were subjected to a spate of bottle throwing in London, and now comes a report that Lou Reed received a less than kind welcome at a show for the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

Reed subjected the crowd to some of his free jazz work, which he performed in collaboration with Laurie Anderson and John Zorn on Friday night. “If you don't think it's music, then get the ...

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50 great moments in jazz: Miles Davis and Kind of Blue

Source: Michael Ricci
July 5, 2010

This groundbreaking 1959 album is as close to perfection as jazz gets without sacrificing its spontaneity

I had hoped that a blog on the popular and funky Hammond organist Jimmy Smith might attract more than the average number of commentators, but I wasn't prepared for the gratifying deluge of responses following my inclusion of Smith in this series.

It has to be said it was a passing disappointment to discover that most ...

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Allen Toussaint is All Smiles at the Montreal Jazz Festival

Source: All About Jazz @ Spinner
July 5, 2010

A standing ovation is a pretty great way to start a concert--and with more than 50 years of songwriting and recording to his credit, Allen Toussaint deserves nothing less. The warm welcome came at 6PM in a church basement just outside of the Montreal Jazz Festival grounds, and from there the evening unfolded like the best-kept secret of the night, if not the entire fest. Toussaint was in a chatty mood and roped his songs together with anecdotes from his ...

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