Jazz News

Latin Music Series and Dance Party

Source: All About Jazz
June 17, 2008

Summer afternoons in Boston can sizzle, but evening respites in a neighborhood park listening and dancing to tropical sounds and syncopated beats can be even hotter. The fourth-annual Tito Puente Latin Music Series - presented by Berklee College of Music; La Casa de La Cultura /Center for Latino Arts, IBA; and ParkARTS - combines the Latin rhythms of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica, with influences from far-flung corners of the world, reflecting Berklee's sonic melting pot.

WHEN: ...

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Kate McGarry Quartet, KJ Denhert, Howard Fishman at "Summer on the Hudson"

Source: Reva Cooper
June 17, 2008

Summer On the Hudson, one of New York City's largest free summer festivals, continues its eighth season with a summer of unique contemporary music events at Riverside Park South, including the Kate McGarry Quartet, KJ Denhert and Howard Fishman's Biting Fish Brass Band on its July 13-August 24 “Acoustic Sundays" series. Summer On The Hudson is an Annual Arts and Cultural Festival in Riverside Park South Presented by The New York City Department Of Parks & Recreation Date: Sundays, July ...

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Ondrej Pivec's New Hammond Organ Album from New York with Jake Langley and Joel Frahm

Source: All About Jazz
June 17, 2008

Young jazz Hammond organist Ondej Pivec (b. 1984) is releasing his new album Overseason. Pivec is leader of the Prague-based Organic Quartet, an ensemble which has already recorded two albums during its brief existence (Don't Get Ideas, winner of the Czech Academy of Popular Music's 2006 Best Jazz Album award, and Never Enough). The album was recorded in New York, where Pivec and his colleague from Organic Quartet, drummer Tom Hobzek were visiting in the summer of 2007 on a ...

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Demetrius "DJ" Turner Up-and-Coming Saxophonist

Source: All About Jazz
June 17, 2008

Ongoing series to provide a vital youth perspective to both established artists and future stars.

We've all heard comments about jazz being “the music of old men," and an art form with a questionable future. Then along comes young Demetrius “DJ" Turner II, whose performances have garnered the admiration of thousands, before he's even old enough to drive a car!

Jazz enthusiasts lucky enough to hear him play such old school classics as “Take Five," “'Round Midnight," and “Georgia On ...

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2008 Annual Jazzmobile Finals This Thursday June 19th

Source: All About Jazz
June 17, 2008

This Thursday will be the last performance of the 2008 Annual JazzMobile Finals. “a serious awakening of how alive & live Jazz still is" This Thursday June 19th Doors Open 630pm Showtime 730pm The River Room 145th st & Riverside Drive NYC There were 12 finalists in a series of the first & second ...

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Kidd Jordan's Sax is Honored at the Clemente Soto Velez

Source: Michael Ricci
June 17, 2008

A Sax Man of Distinction and That Vision Thing

To the extent that the tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan is known in the general jazz world, he's known as a New Orleans patriarch and educator. Dig deeper and you might also hear about his long, eclectic career as a sideman and his role in inspiring the formation of both the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the World Saxophone Quartet. But Mr. Jordan, 73, has never made much of a dent as ...

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2008 Playboy Jazz Festival Review

Source: Michael Ricci
June 17, 2008

Young performers impress (not that Herbie Hancock and Al Jarreau don't).

Music at the Playboy Jazz Festival always has been inextricably connected to the sun, the wine and the partying, and this year was no exception. But what was particularly interesting about the 30th anniversary event at the Hollywood Bowl Saturday and Sunday was the youthful energy on display--though, unfortunately, the younger performers received less attention than they deserved. The performance of 27-year-old pianist Robert Glasper on Saturday, for example, ...

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BMOP/Sound Releases Its Fourth Album: Gunther Schuller's Journey into Jazz

Source: AMT Public Relations
June 17, 2008

BMOP/sound, the nation's foremost label launched by an orchestra and devoted exclusively to new music recordings, announces the release of its fourth CD Gunther Schuller: Journey Into Jazz. Representative of the “Third Stream" genre, a revolutionary style of music brought forth into the mainstream by Schuller in the 1950's, the three pieces on this album unite the structural complexities found in contemporary classical music with the improvisational elements of jazz. According to Schuller, “few people would've imagined jazz in the ...

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