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Jazz dans la Nuit at The Montreal International Jazz Festival 2018
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4jny: Montreal is a city known for its beautiful historic churches and cathedrals. Église du Gesù, a magnificent church situated in the heart of downtown Montreal, opened its doors in 1865. The basement in the church has housed an amphitheater dedicated to the arts for almost 100 years. It was renovated in 1992 and reopened as Le Centre de créativité du Gesù. The facility offers space for art ...
read moreStill Dreaming and Dr. Lonnie Smith at Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland
Still Dreaming/Dr. Lonnie Smith Playhouse Square Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland, Ohio June 29, 2018 Now in its 39th year, Cleveland's Tri-C JazzFest has evolved over the years having started as an educational springtime event. Most recently, the action has shifted from the Cuyahoga Community College campus to downtown Cleveland's Playhouse Square complex. The event which now takes place in mid-June covers roughly three days and offers both free outdoor performances along with paid indoor shows ...
read moreGilmore Keyboard Festival
Gilmore Keyboard Festival Kalamazoo, Michigan April 25 to May 12, 2018 Thursday night is always the second night of the biennial Gilmore Keyboard Festival. Thursday night is also the first night for jazz, the festival putatively a classical music rollout with jazz confections, albeit well-considered, strewn throughout this 22-day cultural jewel based in Kalamazoo but spread throughout Southwest Michigan as well. For the first of two jazz shows at Bell's Eccentric Cafe (yes, that ...
read moreSan Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2017
August 11th to 13th turned out to be a great weekend of jazz at this year's San Jose Jazz Summer Fest. Whether you enjoyed the lawn-chair, open air atmosphere or the traditional jazz club scene, it was your choice. The power lineup included Chris Botti, Randy Brecker, Eddie Gomez, Jimmy Cobb, Dr. Lonnie Smith, George Cables, Cyrille Aimee and more. One of the festival highlights was Dr. Lonnie Smith. How he works the Hammond B3 is known worldwide, but thumbing ...
read moreTop 25 "Read" Album Reviews: 2016
All About Jazz tracks how often an album review is read, and the reviews listed below represent our top twelve published in 2016. Evolution Dr. Lonnie Smith by Dan Bilawsky Published: January 4, 2016 Spark Hiromi by Jeff Winbush Published: April 1, 2016 A Multitude of Angels Keith Jarrett by Karl Ackermann Published: ...
read moreDr. Lonnie Smith: Then and Now – Think! (1968) vs Evolution (2016)
The “doctor" with the mysterious turban and manic Hammond B-3 fingers is back. And if you think the old man at 73 can't possibly match the passion and pyrotechnics of the young man at 26... well, surprise! Evolution is Dr. Lonnie Smith's triumphant return to Blue Note. I feared it might be like a Beatles “reunion" of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr--a sentimental experiment that's bound to disappoint. I bought Evolution and resigned myself to liking Smith's younger ...
read moreDr. Lonnie Smith: Evolution
Artist repatriation seems to be something of a theme in the Don Was era of Blue Note Records. In 2013 there was the return of saxophonist Wayne Shorter, a jazz giant who delivered many of his landmark '60s albums on this storied imprint. Then, in 2015, Charles Lloyd left ECM for Blue Note, a label that had previously held one Lloyd album in its portfolio. Now, as 2016 arrives, organist Dr. Lonnie Smith returns to the fold. ...
read moreFreihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival 2014
Saratoga Performing Arts Center Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival Saratoga Springs, NY June 28-29, 2014 Perfect weather accented this years Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival, an event that had an eclectic mix of young musicians with interesting ideas and approaches, and veterans who deliver consistently. The weather is always a factor because it's primarily an outdoor festival for two days, on two stages, at the beautiful Saratoga Performing Arts Center. (There is some covered amphitheater ...
read moreDr. Lonnie Smith: Dr. Lonnie Smith Octet - In The Beginning, Volumes 1 & 2
B-3 specialist Dr. Lonnie Smith retools a dozen original compositions from early in his career and performs them live with an octet on In The Beginning, Volumes 1 & 2. Drawing material from his recordings, Finger-Lickin' Good (Columbia, 1966), Think! (Blue Note, 1968), Turning Point (Blue Note, 1969) and Move Your Hand (Blue Note, 1969), Smith, with the help of saxophonist Ian Hendrickson-Smith, cast this music against the rich palette of a horn-heavy little-big band. On these ...
read moreDr. Lonnie Smith: But Beautiful
Dr. Lonnie Smith-organist, composer, bandleader and now principal of Pilgrimage Records-is the Cheshire cat of jazz. He's been part of the scene for so long that, even though he's there, he sometimes disappears from view; when you do get a glimpse, the last thing you see and the first thing you remember is his warm and wise Buddha smile. Dr. Lonnie Smith smiles like he knows that he knows something that most people don't even know that they don't know.
read moreDr. Lonnie Smith: The Healer
Dr. Lonnie Smith has always addressed organ traditions on his own terms. He seems to intentionally avoid clichés and marketplace trends, preferring instead to chart his own course, so it's beautifully ironic that he's become something of a trendy figure-to-follow for the jazz-meets-jam crowd. While Smith recently attained septuagenarian status, he shows no signs of developing a conservative crust or going musically gentle into that good night. The Healer, culled from material recorded at the 2011 Lamantin Jazz Festival in ...
read moreDr. Lonnie Smith: Spiral
Vitality and age might be normally be at odds with one another, but not when discussing Dr. Lonnie Smith--the inimitable organ shaman of the modern soul-jazz epoch. Whether turning in clever takes on the music of indie rocker Beck, recasting familiar standards in his organic organ mold or shaping his own compositions to his liking, Smith never seems to be short on ideas. He furthers the traditional role of the organ in small-group jazz and puts a modern slant on ...
read morePoll Results
All About Jazz would like to thank the 4,000 members who participated in our poll to help us identify the world's top jazz venues. For a recap, click here.
Jazz Story
By Rafael Val
Member since: 2019
I love jazz because I love the freedom. I met guitarists Oscar Aleman and Larry Carlton. The best show I ever attended was Les Paul at Iridium Jazz Club. The first jazz record I bought was by vibraphonist Lionel Hampton.
