Catching Up With
Less formal than our standard interviews with a focus on an artist's recent recording project or tour.
Josiah Everhart: From YouTube Cover Artist To Confessional Songwriter
While in the third grade, Josiah Everhart recorded a mixtape of music for his school bus by setting a Casio boombox in front of his television and recording songs from his favorite video games. The Oregon-based singer-songwriter's love for video game soundtracks eventually led to a career on YouTube, where he has posted covers of video game music since 2012, now reaching an audience of more than 10,000 subscribers. After YouTube unexpectedly terminated his channel on December 18, ...
read moreMichael Weiss: Soul Journey
Bebop is a complex craft, and like all crafts the only way to get any good at it is by learning from those who mastered it before you. Jamming through the night, getting on to that bandstand and firing away your best improvised lines, jousting with your partners (be they friends or strangers) like in the cutting contests of old. This is all part of the studious process that jazz musicians all over the world work their way to hone ...
read moreGary Bartz: Music For Expanding One's Own Mind
Some jazz musicians are the embodiment of a specific historical period. Their performances conjure memories of the very ideals, passions, and philosophies that characterized an era. This is certainly true of American saxophonist Gary Bartz. After joining Art Blakey & the Jazz Messangers and collaborating with McCoy Tyner on the pianist's tenth album, Expansions (Blue Note, 1968), Bartz joined Miles Davis' band in 1970, playing an active role in recording the groundbreaking album Live-Evil (Columbia). Bartz's diverse musical ...
read moreCrosscurrents Trio: East meets West
The Crosscurrents Trio is comprised of three master improvisers: Dave Holland, Zakir Hussain and Chris Potter. Emanating from a multicultral septet project, which was the brainchild of Zakir Hussain, the trio developed out of the desire to explore the cultural and musical connections between the East and the West. From this perspective, music is not only a form of self-expression but rather a way of understanding reality through the deepening of human relations based on mutual respect and dialogue.
read moreMiguel Zenon Celebrates Sonero!
As the song's lyrics about freedom were sung, the child's conscience consumed them whole. This child, ten years young at the time, had never heard the singer, Ismael Rivera, or the song, “Las Tumbas," before, but, three decades later, this initial impression remains in Miguel Zenon's memory. “I was taken by the song's overall structure and the way his voice worked within the song," said Zenon, an alto saxophonist, composer, and band leader, whose music has earned him ...
read moreMike Vax: Getting Vaxinated
Mike Vax has one of the shortest surnames in jazz music—he's “tied" with Tommy Vig and Jack Six for that honor. However, those familiar with his activities as a well-respected lead trumpeter and soloist with Stan Kenton, a stalwart member of the famous Dukes of Dixieland, the leader and man behind the annual tour of the Stan Kenton Legacy Orchestra, and as an ardent proponent of jazz education know that what the name Vax lacks in length, Vax delivers in ...
read moreEliane Elias: Chanteuse
Eliane Elias has glistened across the global music scene since first coming to the United States in 1981, playing fiery jazz, beautiful pop tunes, and warm and charming music from her native Brazil. She became established as a major jazz pianist. But as her career has grown and her popularity has endured, she's become known as something else. Singer. She probably always sang, even as a child and then a child prodigy, studying piano at age ...
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Contest Giveaway
ELIGIBLE WINNERS: 1 | DAYS REMAINING: 22
Prize: GroundUP Music Festival Tickets
Enjoy Three Days on the Beach with Snarky Puppy, Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band, Lettuce, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Lila Downs, Michael McDonald Acoustic Quartet, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Flor de Toloache and more—February 14-16, 2020 at the North Beach Bandshell in Miami, FL.
The winner receives a 3-day pass for two. Excludes travel or lodging.
Acclaimed by the New York Times as one of the “Top 10 Definitive Moments of the Decade in Jazz Music,” GroundUP goes beyond the typical festival experience, breaking down the barriers between audience and artists...
