Jazz News

Israeli Jazz Musicians Make Mark

Source: Michael Ricci
August 27, 2012

Some two decades ago, bassist Omer Avital stepped off a plane from his native Israel and into a jazz scene in Manhattan’s West Village that was nearly devoid of his countrymen and their music. It was a lonely time, he said, and when he set up shop in Smalls, a dark and slightly tattered basement club that was, like Avital, struggling to build a reputation, he inevitably found his bands populated by Americans and his sets dominated by well-worn standards. ...

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Byard Lancaster, 70, Famed Phila. Jazz Musician

Source: Michael Ricci
August 27, 2012

Byard Lancaster, 70, the Philadelphia jazz musician who earned an international reputation as an avant-garde musical explorer in the 1960s and 1970s, died of cancer Thursday, Aug. 23, at KeystoneCare in Wyndmoor, according to his sister, Mary Ann Lancaster Tyler.

In the decades that followed his early fame, he became a local institution, playing saxophone and flute on the streets, in subway concourses, and at clubs around the city.

Mr. Lancaster played alto, soprano, and tenor saxophones, as well as ...

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Branford Marsalis to play Grace Cathedral

Source: Michael Ricci
August 27, 2012

Branford Marsalis decided to quit his coveted job as the musical director of “The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno in 1994 after playing Jacques Ibert's concerto for alto saxophone with the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of another far-ranging jazz musician, Bobby McFerrin. The performance pleased the audience and critics, but not the artist. “It was dreadful, man. I hated the way I played," says Marsalis, a forthright and funny man who's unsparing in his praise for things he ...

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Jazz Bassist Flores, Hartford Resident, Dies At 41

Source: Michael Ricci
August 27, 2012

Charles Flores, a Grammy-winning jazz bassist who was born in Cuba but made his home in Hartford for more than two decades, died Wednesday at age 41. The cause was complications related to throat cancer, according to bandleader and composer Michel Camilo, who performed with Flores and counted him as a close friend. Flores had an “unforgettable smile," said Camilo, reached at his New York home. He was “truly gifted with a unique musical sensibility as well as a profound ...

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Charlie Parker Jazz Festival at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem

Source: Michael Ricci
August 27, 2012

There comes a moment during all the Charlie Parker Jazz Festivals I have seen in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem when the crowd decides it is truly happy, and pockets of excitement form like chemical reactions onstage and in the audience. The crowd tends to be middle-aged or older — wise, skeptical, funny, good at staging an outburst. It happened this summer at around 5:30 on Saturday afternoon during a set by the singer Rene Marie. We’d seen Erimaj, a ...

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The groove where jazz and dance music meet

Source: Michael Ricci
August 27, 2012

Artists such as DJ Quantic and Robert Glasper are folding strains of jazz into a mix that sounds natural on the dance floor. The beat-tastic result is moving forward, no matter what you call it. The cavernous dance club in downtown L.A. is hopping, and the weekend is still a day away. The club is ordinarily a hotbed of thumping house music, but tonight, the headliner — Houston-born jazz pianist and bandleader Robert Glasper — is switching things up. Behind ...

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Diana Krall salutes Neil Armstrong with "Fly Me to the Moon" during LA concert

Source: Michael Ricci
August 27, 2012

LOS ANGELES — Diana Krall knows how to pay tribute to Neil Armstrong. The jazz singer-pianist tenderly played the standard “Fly Me to the Moon” during a Saturday concert at the Hollywood Bowl. She once was lucky enough to share a glass of wine with the first man to walk on the moon, Krall said. The astronaut died Saturday at 82. “He’s probably thinking, ‘Do I have to listen to that song again?’” Krall said lightly, after gazing up at ...

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Cuneiform Artists On Tour - September, 2012

Source: Steve Feigenbaum
August 26, 2012

There's a bunch of rare chances to see the Sao Paulo Underground in the USA in September, Jason Robinson's all-star Janus Ensemble, Doctor Nerve and Birdsongs of the Mesozoic at Progday, Steve Moore (who rarely plays solo shows; these four solo shows will bring the number of his solo shows performed up to 10 total!!) the amazing Sonic Circuits festival in DC (featuring Janel & Anthony, Ergo, Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores), more chances for east-coasters to be slayed ...

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