Jazz News

In a Digital Age, Vinyl Albums Are Making a Comeback

Source: Michael Ricci
April 26, 2009

Origami Vinyl is one of three new vinyl-only record stores opening next month in Los Angeles. Sales of such albums were up 89% in 2008, which has fueled a mini-boom in neighborhood record stores in L.A.

At least one member of the Who seems to approve. Neil Schield knows the grim state of the music business as well as anyone; last May, he was laid off from a company at the vanguard of digital music distribution.

But this ...

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Monks 'Black Monk Time' Reissued Just in Time

Source: Michael Ricci
April 26, 2009

The joyously hostile songs on the Monks 1966 album, Black Monk Time newly reissued on the Light in the Attic label would be essential, strange 1960s artifacts even without the bands back story.

The Monks were American G.I.s stationed in Frankfurt who after their discharge in 1964 stayed there, put on robes and shaved their hair into tonsures to play songs expatriated not just from the United States but from anything approaching sanity.

With instruments including a typical cheap electric ...

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New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival: The Rebirth Brass Brand, Galactic and More

Source: Michael Ricci
April 26, 2009

The Rebirth Brass Band, wearing identical green Rebirth T-shirts, stood in the bright Saturday sun on the second day of this years New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

The front line of three trumpets, two trombones and a tenor saxophonist was backed by a rub-board player, a bass drummer, a snare drummer and a tuba player -- the giant golden bell of his horn emblazoned with the bands name.

With no stationary instruments such as a keyboard or a trap-drum ...

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Larry Fuller: A Life Lived on the Side

Source: Michael Ricci
April 26, 2009

A career in parentheses even at home in Manhattan.

A woman with a white lacquered hairdo and a black lacquered handbag was pursuing Larry Fuller through a crowded theater lobby after a recent show in New Hampshire. The gig was billed as an evening of cool jazz with John Pizzarelli, and Mr. Pizzarelli, the guitarist and singer, served as the main attraction, signing CDs for a line of fans.

But the lady in pursuit appeared more interested in the shy ...

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Mark Soskin at the Kitano Hotel NY

Source: All About Jazz
April 26, 2009

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Dom Minasi Interview

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
April 26, 2009

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XV III - Xing Paths the CD

Source: All About Jazz
April 26, 2009

“Sophisticated pop that fuses Eastern and Western music influences into a seamless whole that only an exceptional talent can pull off!" - Evolution of Media USA


Created in 2003, Xenovibes [foreign+expressions] began as the sonic melange of “Singapore's 1st and only diva of the theremin" Shueh-li Ong. Conjoining her Australian- Asian heritage with her classical-music technology training, the sound is also the ‘stage’ on which Ong, a female in the male-dominated progressive music world, lets down her ...

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The Five Peace Band, McLaughlin and Corea at the Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center

Source: Michael Ricci
April 25, 2009

Looking to the Present While Peeking at the Past, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Christian McBride, Kenny Garrett and Brian Blade.

The Five Peace Band, a jazz-rock juggernaut, presents a parody of abundance. Led by the guitarist John McLaughlin and the keyboardist Chick Corea both restless virtuosos, and legends at 67 the group works hard and fast, with heroic stamina and superhuman technique. Its overall effect can be exhilarating and exhausting. On Thursday, in its first of several sold-out nights at ...

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