What is Jazz?
The Story Of The Bishkek International Jazz Festival Jazz Bishkek Spring: Celebrating Music Against All Odds
by Anastasia Bogomolets
The international jazz festival Jazz Bishkek Spring takes place in the capital of Kyrgyzstan every year in April, spanning two or three nights across multiple venues. This vibrant event offers a dynamic mix of local and international talent, providing a unique experience for jazz enthusiasts and highlighting the city's evolving cultural scene. For Bishkek, a city still finding its footing on the cultural stage, the annual jazz festival holds great importance. It serves as a key platform for ...
Continue ReadingSeattle Jazz Fellowship: A New Age In A New Space
by Paul Rauch
The Seattle Jazz Fellowship, a 501(c)(3) non-profit supporting jazz and jazz culture primarily at the local level, came to life in a backroom bar in the city's arts district on Capitol Hill in October 2021. The city, the nation, the world, was just beginning to fully climb out of the social slumber imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Artists and audiences alike were eager, yet cautious, in their actions to return to some form of normalcy. Vermillion, a community-oriented art space ...
Continue ReadingWorth the Wait!
by Troy Hoffman
Many historical, live jazz performances have graced the past and thankfully were caught on recording; being released shortly after. For example, Art Blakey Quintet's A Night at Birdland, which is regarded as one of the best live jazz shows ever recorded. The performance is from the winter of 1954, and it was soon released on record that coming fall. That seemed to be the average turnaround time for a live jazz record in those transformative years. Certain live recordings, however, ...
Continue ReadingIs That Jazz?
by Troy Hoffman
James Brown's funky beats, brought to you by drummer, Clyde Stubblefield, are the most popularly sampled in hip hop, but what about jazz? Has it not significantly impacted hip hop as well? The answer is of course, yes. Especially during the late '80s and early '90s golden-era of the genre. Some of the style's most iconic tracks, by groundbreaking acts like Public Enemy (see Fear of a Black Planet) and Beastie Boys (see Root Down) feature jazz as their main ...
Continue ReadingBack In The Groove: Material Matters
by Tarik Townsend
An aspect of jazz that is often overlooked is the material. That is, the very tunes that the musicians are performing. Arguably more important than the key or the tempo, the song itself dictates where the musician's inspiration will go, and even that isn't always a sure thing. They're a launching pad and an indicator of an artist's imagination. The material can also lead the players into some fascinating places normally not tread by anyone else--including themselves. Some recent records ...
Continue Reading2024 Winter JazzFest Marathons: A Survival Guide
by Ludovico Granvassu
Twenty years is a remarkable milestone for any activity, let alone one that comes with the wear and tear of a high-profile jazz festival that every year strives to up its own ante, like the Winter JazzFest. From January 11 to 18, 2024, fans, musicians, promoters and other industry people from around the world will converge to mark this special anniversary and celebrate what has become a cornerstone of New York's cultural architecture. Following the pattern ...
Continue ReadingTokyo Jazz Joints: Capturing An Old Love Story
by Ian Patterson
Could you imagine coffee shops in any North American or European city that played jazz non-stop all day, or bars where, variously, as you quenched your thirst, you heard only Blue Note Records, free-jazz or the music of, say, Miles Davis, according to the bar owner's tastes? Could you imagine such places where speaking is not only frowned upon but is actually banned in reverence to the music? Probably not, on both counts. In Japan, and especially in ...
Continue ReadingWhy Hard Bop?
by AAJ Staff
This article was first published on All About Jazz on January 1998.When trying to investigate jazz, all the classifications and categories can be a bit confusing. What do they mean when they say “hard bop?" How is it different from other types of jazz? Although a definition of the music may not necessarily enhance your listening enjoyment a little historical perceptive may be helpful for the jazz collector. The term hard bop, like many classifications in ...
Continue ReadingSeattle Jazz Fellowship: How One Week Told the Story of a Jazz Nonprofit's First Year
by Paul Rauch
When Seattle-based trumpeter Thomas Marriott announced the founding of a new 501(c)3 nonprofit to support the local jazz scene in his hometown, both the enormity of its possibilities and its challenges merged front and center in the collective mind of the Seattle jazz community. Over the past decade, the city had lost its two main venues that staged jazz featuring musicians from its historically vibrant scene. Both The New Orleans Creole Restaurant in Pioneer Square and Tula's Jazz ...
Continue Reading2023 Winter JazzFest Marathons: A Survival Guide
by Ludovico Granvassu
The fact that New York City's Winter JazzFest (WJF) is back to in-person performances may very well be among the most meaningful signs, at least for jazz die-hards, that life is returning to normal. The overall number of concerts may not be as high as in the past, with the 170+ performances of 2020 representing the historic peak. The mere fact, however, that producer Brice Rosenbloom and his team had the resolve not to let the soul-crushing, last-minute, ...
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