Jazz News

Sonny Rollins, Nearly 80, Looks to the Future

Source: Michael Ricci
May 15, 2010

Jazz's tenor sax titan brings his pianoless group to Walt Disney Concert Hall Sunday. “I was really blessed to be born when and where I was," Sonny Rollins says.

In the mid-1950s, through the sheer gale force of his surging theme- and-variation solos, Sonny Rollins turned the tenor saxophone into jazz's iconic horn. Before Rollins, the trumpet and alto saxophone shared pride of place in jazz's frontline with the tenor. That's not to disregard the seminal contributions of tenor patriarch ...

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Sol & Funk Root in Richmond, Virginia, May 21

Source: Just Roots PR
May 15, 2010

"Sol is a fierce guitarist and soulful singer"- Jambase

What: Sol & Funk Root in Richmond VA When: Friday May 21, 2010 at 8:00pm Where: Capital Ale House Downtown Music Hall 623 East Main Street Richmond, Virginia 23219

Sol & Funk Root perform in Richmond VA on Friday May 21! featuring an all-star cast of top notch musicians: Sol, Mike Tony Echols, Scott Rabino, and Bobby Thompson.

Sol has performed ...

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Los Lobos: Reborn in East L.A. for New Album Due Aug. 3

Source: Michael Ricci
May 15, 2010

Los Lobos returned to their East L.A. roots in creating the new Tin Can Trust album thats been set for an Aug. 3 release on the Shout! Factory label.

The long-running quintet set up shop in a gritty studio known mostly for recording underground punk and indie bands for its first album of original material in four years.

Los Lobos: Louie Perez, Steve Berlin, Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano, David Hidalgo.

The group had been doing much of its recording ...

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Review: Jakob Dylan at the Wiltern

Source: Michael Ricci
May 15, 2010

It couldn't have been by accident that the Wiltern Theatres stage lights were angled Thursday night so that Jakob Dylan's signature fedora rendered the upper part of his face obscured for much of his homecoming concert.

For much of the supernaturally gripping material on his exceptional new Women + Country album deals with the shadowy parts of life, ghosts and vacated homes and hearts. Those songs served as the anchor for what Dylan described as his first show in Los ...

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Live Review: James Taylor and Carole King at the Hollywood Bowl

Source: Michael Ricci
May 15, 2010

James Taylor and Carole King made no effort to disguise their ages Thursday night at the Hollywood Bowl, where the two sixtysomething singers played the first of three dates on their Troubadour Reunion trek. The world tour which stops Tuesday at the Santa Barbara Bowl and wraps July 20 at the Honda Center in Anaheim comes 40 years after Taylor and King first performed together at the cozy West Hollywood club that gives the road show its name; a live ...

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The Rolling Stones Shine a Light on 'Exile on Main St.' Reissue

Source: Michael Ricci
May 15, 2010

Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and recent producer Don Was discuss the band's 1972 album and the rerelease's previously unheard material.

Keith Richards remembers the period in the early 1970s when the Rolling Stones were working on “Exile on Main St." as a fairly down time. The parts he remembers at all, that is. That's partly due to the fact that the recording sessions took place as the Stones guitarist and songwriter's heroin habit took hold in a big way, a ...

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"My Kinda Jazz" Hosted by the Legendary Jeff Healey Returns to Jazz.FM91

Source: Michael Ricci
May 15, 2010

Toronto, Ontario -- JAZZ.FM91 is honoured to announce the return of Jeff Healey's “My Kinda Jazz" to the programming line-up on JAZZ.FM91 beginning this Monday, May 17th at 9PM.

The program originally aired from May of 2005, right up until Healey's passing in March of 2008 at the age of 41 after a lengthy struggle with cancer. “My Kinda Jazz" showcases the traditional jazz of the 1920s and '30s, and includes listener requests in addition to Healey's personal choices. A ...

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JJA Nominates Steve Wilson as 2009's Best Soprano Saxophone Player

Source: Seth Cohen PR
May 15, 2010

Wilson Nominated by Jazz Journalists Association as 'Best Soprano Saxophone Player'

Steve Wilson's recent headlining stand at the legendary Village Vanguard in New York City was documented by NPR and featured in a riveting 'Live at the Village Vanguard'

Wilson previewed the appearance with a terrific interview about the state of jazz on WBGO's 'The Checkout' with Josh Jackson. While at the Vanguard, Wilson and his band Wilsonian's Grain were filmed for inclusion in an upcoming MSNBC-TV segment of “Your ...

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