Jazz Articles

For Those Who Chant

by Peter J. Hoetjes
April 24, 2020

Luis Gasca was one of the hottest trumpet players in California during the 1970s, recording a handful of albums fueled by the drugs, the culture, and the excitement of that time and place. Though they all featured large ensembles, only one of them allowed some of the era's most legendary musicians to blur the lines separating jazz, latin, and rock and roll. “Everyone should have two favorite cities; their own and San Francisco," claimed Gasca. It was there, ...

Hugh Masekela: Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela

by Eric J. Iannelli
July 11, 2004

Still Grazing is a retrospective. Like all retrospectives that lack any kind of bonus material (even the token unreleased alternate take or live recording), it raises the question of just whom it is for. Fans of the South African trumpeter/flugelhorn player/vocalist/songwriter will already have most or all of these eleven songs, compiled from six albums released between 1966 and 1974 ("a formative stretch of a long career," notes the cover blurb). And because it's being issued in conjunction with an ...

Paco de Lucia: Cositas Buenas

by AAJ Staff
March 5, 2004

Most veteran jazz listeners probably came across Paco de Lucia during his rip-roaring '80s adventures alongside fellow guitarists John McLaughlin and Al DiMeola. In that particularly heated setting, each player aimed for pure intensity--and amazingly enough, nobody fell by the wayside.

Diehard flamenco fans probably found Paco de Lucia elsewhere. His first record, 1961's La Fabulosa Guitarra, featured his brother Pepe on vocals and proudly displayed a slicked-back hairstyle on the cover. It fell directly into the longstanding ...

Paco de Luc: Cositas Buenas

by Eric J. Iannelli
February 25, 2004

When a musician as rare and as skilled as Paco de Lucía falls silent for over five years, you might guess that he’s either suffering a nervous breakdown in relative privacy, or he’s busy composing some of the best music of his career (though some artists have managed to do both at once). Cositas Buenas would seem to be a confirmation of the latter hunch. It qualifies as the flamenco guitarist’s most praiseworthy album behind the still unparalleled Siroco (1987).

Stanton Moore: Flyin' The Koop

by Glenn Astarita
March 1, 2002

Drummer, Stanton Moore extends the lineage of the great New Orleans reared drummers along with a deeply personalized and often rip-roaring viewpoint on his latest solo effort. A founding member of the so-called, “steamroller funk" outfit known as Galactic, the drummer and his notable musical associates endow the listener with a downright riotous series of grooves on this upbeat production. Simply put, Moore and bassist, Chris Wood (Medeski, Martin & Wood) display magical synergistic qualities throughout these jazzed-up, and thoroughly ...

Action Figure Party: Action Figure Party

by Mike Robinson
November 1, 2001

I thought Art Good was nuts. There, on the Sunday morning lineup of the 2001 JazzTrax Catalina Island Festival was this band, “Action Figure Party."

“Action Figure Party?!"

The band consists of twentysomething musicians from bands like “Garbage," “Buck Cherry," “Incubus," and “Beck." One of the musicians' names is “Flea." Another goes by “Yogi," and a third, with the more-promising sounding name of Sean Lennon, plays ... umm ... turntable??

While some of my friends quietly decided that maybe they ...

Lucky Peterson: Double Dealin'

by Al Rearick
July 1, 2001

For those who think that the blues has used up all its ideas in overly-cliched songs about somebody’s woman doin’ him wrong, played over the usual ba-DA-da-Da-da beat, a new record has appeared on the horizon brimming with new twists on grand old ideas.

That record is Lucky Peterson's Double Dealin’.

What makes a record truly great is its ability branch out into different genres while remaining rooted in the foundation from which it sprang. In this case, every excursion-from ...

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown: Back to Bogalusa

by C. Michael Bailey
July 1, 2001

Why Clarence “Gatemouth" Brown is a National Treasure.

Louisiana born, Texas bred Clarence “Gatemouth" Brown is a trans-genre, journeyman, multi-instrumentalist Renaissance man. Equally at home with Texas Blues, Cajun Zydeco, Western Swing, Rhythm and Blues, Country and Western, and Jazz, Brown spread his influence around generously. In this respect, one could see him as a rural Ray Charles. Brown is every bit the National Treasure that Charles is for no other reason than he, like Charles, possesses a fearlessly inquisitive ...

Leon Redbone: Any Time

by Alan Jones
June 1, 2001

Do you remember the first time you heard Leon Redbone? I was six years old, elbows at the edge of my parents’ bed, hands propping up my chin. Saturday Night Live was an occasional family ritual. At such a simple age I was partial to Mr. Bill, Land Shark, and of course, the musical guests. I remember when they announced Leon Redbone (was it Buck Henry? Charles Grodin?). Leon had all the facets of a common cartoon character; the gag ...

Lucky Peterson: Lucky Peterson

by Ed Kopp
December 1, 1999

Son of Buffalo blues musician and club owner James Peterson, 34-year old Lucky Peterson recorded his first album at age 5 -- and Willie Dixon produced it. Lucky is aptly named, but the thing that makes him lucky is not his birthright or his early start -- it's his talent. Peterson plays nasty wah-wah-tinged guitar, soulful B-3, saucy electric piano, and he sings with captivating intensity.This self-titled release contains more soul than blues tunes. Some of its tracks ...