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Catching Up With

Learn about what your favorite artist is up to...

CATCHING UP WITH

Gordon Au: Untraditionally Mad About Trad

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Gordon Au draws upon a palette ranging from the traditional jazz of Louis Armstrong to the modern jazz of today. In New York, Gordon leads the Grand St. Stompers, a traditional jazz band called “a pillar of New York's hot jazz scene" by The New York Times, and appears with the Grammy-winning Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, the Louis Armstrong Eternity Band at Birdland, Dandy Wellington, and others. He is in demand around the country as a soloist (International Trumpet ...

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Michael Feinstein: Errands and Rhythm Galore

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"If you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would you choose?" That's a game many of us played as we imagined chatting up apostles, prophets, and heroes from the past. With Michael Feinstein, it's not a game. He's done it. He, more than anyone else, is the jazz Boswell: observer and companion to the likes of George Shearing, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra, Andre Previn, Ira Gershwin, Johnny Green, and many more who wrote or interpreted great ...

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Zach Brock: Jazz Violin's New Wave

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Best known for his work with Snarky Puppy, Zach Brock is among the most creative violinists of his generation. Zach Brock is bringing the violin back to center stage. Influenced by European masters of the seventies like Jean-Luc Ponty, Zbigniew Seifert, Didier Lockwood, Brock has widened his perspective from modern jazz to rock, finding a synthesis that connects classical precision with a strong melodic sense and remarkable improvisational skills. Brock has recorded and toured with the likes of Stanley Clarke ...

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Linda May Han Oh: Talent and Dedication

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Over the past decade, bassist Linda May Han Oh has been hailed as one of the most gifted bassists, bandleaders and composers of her generation. She is a virtuoso who can swing hard while keeping instrumental grace and precision, structuring her lines through a most free-flowing cascade of ideas. After completing her master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 2008, she recorded her debut album, Entry with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and drummer Obed Calvaire. In the following years ...

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Harold Lopez-Nussa: from Havana to Indianapolis

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This interview was translated from Spanish. Harold Lopez-Nussa's music reflects the full range and richness of Cuban music, with its distinctive combination of classical, folk and popular elements, as well as its embrace of jazz improvisation and interaction. His trio was invited to play at this year's Indy Jazz Fest in Indianapolis, Indiana. Lopez-Nussa was born into a musical family in Havana on July 13, 1983, and still lives in the city's Vedado neighborhood. He has ...

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Stu Mindeman and trio explore a Chick Corea classic at the Chicago Jazz Festival

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When reflecting on his 1968 recording Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, Chick Corea shared the following with jazz journalist Don Heckman: “The title...comes from I Ching, an ancient Chinese book that I was into in the '60s when I was studying different philosophies and religions. It's also known as the Book of Changes. And it has a section named “Now He Sings; Now He Sobs--Now He Beats The Drum; Now He Stops." The poetry of that phrase ...

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Frank van Berkel: New Programmer at Amsterdam's Bimhuis is Committed to Serve and to Curate

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Frank van Berkel, the new Programmer at the Bimhuis, Amsterdam's premier jazz club, is no stranger to the music world. He started out as a musician, double bass/bass guitar, and played many venues back in the '80s and '90s, including Amsterdam's rock palace Paradiso and the Bimhuis, with different bands, that included Nine Tobs, Remo Tobs, The Schismatics and the Berkel band. “I was a musician who started organizing and promoting concerts because making a living as a musician is ...

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Erik Friedlander: Reversing Abstraction

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Music works in mysterious ways. Take the latest project by Erik Friedlander. Some time ago, the New York cellist went to an exhibition of six absinthe glasses by Pablo Picasso at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Despite the somewhat abstract and deconstructed nature of these sculptures, he got inspired to write some of the most tactile, swinging, even groovy, music he has ever composed. Perhaps Throw a Glass, the name he chose for this project, represents just ...

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Elio Villafranca: Five Islands & A Revolt

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The setting was Systems Two, a well-known, state-of-the-art recording studio in Brooklyn. The sessions, occurring over five days in May (7-11) 2017, were set up to record Cuban pianist/composer Elio Villafranca's sixth album, the elaborate and thoroughly rehearsed double-CD Cinque (artistShare), the music previously performed in shows at Lincoln Center in 2015. Present at Lincoln Center and at Systems Two was a well-coordinated team of musicians, including Steve Turre (trombone, conch shells), Greg Tardy (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Vincent ...

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Gideon King: Street Jazz

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New York based guitarist/composer/ songwriter Gideon King is no stranger to the city. Growing up there, he is well positioned to tell a story or two about the place. This is just what he sets out to do with his forthcoming release with his band City Blog, entitled Upscale Madhouse. Far from a condemnation, the title is his King's way of hinting at the subject matter of the record, which deals with real stories as well as the general energy ...