Jazz Articles
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The Mount Rushmore of Hard Bop
by Michael Ricci
Member votes were tabulated and the top four vote-getters represent the Mount Rushmore of hard bop. Thank you to everyone who voted. 1Horace Silver2Art Blakey3Lee Morgan4Hank Mobley5John Coltrane6Miles Davis7Sonny Rollins8Freddie Hubbard9Cannonball Adderley10Clifford Brown11Wayne Shorter12Thelonious Monk13Max Roach14Charlie Parker15Dexter Gordon16Dizzy Gillespie17Charles Mingus18Kenny Dorham19Jackie McLean20Bobby Timmons21Benny Golson22Joe Henderson23Curtis Fuller24Paul Chambers25McCoy Tyner26Herbie Hancock27Jimmy Smith28Bud Powell29Donald Byrd30Philly Joe Jones31Sonny Clark32Grant Green33Bill Evans34Red Garland35Wes Montgomery36Ron Carter37Art Farmer38Art Pepper39Bobby Hutcherson40Lou Donaldson41Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers42Duke Ellington43Billie Holiday44Ahmad Jamal45Eric Dolphy46Cedar Walton47Michael Brecker48Phil Woods49Roy Hargrove50Elvin ...
read moreGeoff Stradling: Nimble Digits
by Jack Bowers
Remember the good old days when bandleaders would give a downbeat and their bands would start swinging and keep on doing so until their audiences literally begged for more? Welcome to the past--present tense--courtesy of pianist Geoff Stradling's superb Los Angeles-based StradBand, which swings heartily and with seldom a pause on its radiant and power-laden introductory album, Nimble Digits. Yes, the album does swing--more than thirty of the L.A. area's most accomplished musicians make sure of that--but ...
read moreKavita Shah: Embracing the Saudade of Cape Verde
by Lawrence Peryer
Today, the Spotlight shines On award-winning vocalist, composer, ethnomusicology researcher, and educator Kavita Shah. Kavita's work sits at the intersection of modern jazz, new creative music, and world traditions. The impetus for her visit today was her 2023 tribute to African legend Cesária Évora, Cape Verdean Blues (Folkalist Records). We cover her personal experiences as a lifelong New Yorker of Indian origin, her work as an advocate for gender and racial equity in the arts, and the musical ...
read moreAngles + Elle-Kari With Strings: The Death Of Kalypso
by Chris May
As a genre, jazz-opera is thinly populated. The recorded archive is marked more by quality than quantity, with albums by Mike Westbrook and Kate Westbrook, Carla Bley and Charlie Haden to the fore. But the best ever jazz-opera, in this parish anyway, predates anything by these musicians. Composer Todd Matshikiza and lyricist Pat Williams' King Kong premiered in the Great Hall of the University of Johannesburg in February 1959 to rapturous reviews, and went on to romp through sold-out proscenium-arch ...
read moreStephen Gauci / Joe Hertenstein / Alexander von Schlippenbach / Jan Roder: Soundlift Berlin-New York
by John Sharpe
Soundlift Berlin-New York is the second release documenting NYC tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci's visit to the German capital following Live At Sowieso, Berlin (Gaucimusic, 2023). It finds him in different company, with drummer Joe Hertenstein, who divides his time between the two cities of the title, the familiar face this time out. Also on this studio date are acclaimed pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and bassist Jan Roder, a pair with common ground in Die Enttäuschung and their rendition of Thelonious ...
read moreThe Doors: Live at Konserthuset, Stockholm September 20, 1968
by Doug Collette
An excellent companion piece to the comparably memorable Live in Bakersfield August 21, 1970 (Rhino, 2023) and Live At The Matrix 1967: The Original Masters (Rhino, 2023), Live at Konserthuset, Stockholm September 20, 1968 features a live radio broadcast from September 20, 1968. Capturing The Doors at one of their performing peaks, it is apposite to another stop on the same European tour with Jefferson Airplane where lead vocalist Jim Morrison missed a show. As was usually the ...
read moreHarmony and the Harmonic Series: I-V to Rule Them All
by Kurt Ellenberger
Preamble Since writing my article on Music and Evolution, I have received many emails asking the same question: “How does harmony and the movement of chords function in conjunction with the harmonic series and our ability to predictively 'hear' simple resolutions to complex wave relationships?" This article will try to answer that question by delving into the relationship between the three most important chords in tonal music--I, IV, and V. These three chords and their relationship with each other are ...
read moreFlukten: Flukten
by Chris May
A supergroup of the best sort--based on talent rather than streaming numbers--Flukten consists of four musicians from some of the most creative bands in Norway, a stylistically varied crowd including Hanna Paulsberg Concept, Atomic, Espen Berg Trio Trio and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. The group--tenor saxophonist Hanna Paulsberg, guitarist Marius Klovning, bassist Bárður Reinert Poulsen and drummer Hans Hulbækmo--debuted in 2021 with Velkommen Håp (Odin). The sound was, approximately, in the same bag as Britain's similarly constituted Partisans: jazz-rock played with ...
read moreMazz Swift: The 10000 Things: PRAISE SONGS for the iRiligious
by Gareth Thompson
The writer and critic Amiri Baraka (1934-2014) spoke of free jazz in terms of an essential and spiritual Blackness. Further, he described a return to collective improvisation as the “all-force put together." More vitally he suggested that free jazz reinforced the valuable memories of a people while at the same time creating new forms. This reasoning and sense of the “all-force" might apply to Juilliard-trained violinist Mazz Swift, who blends old praise and protest songs, electronica and mindfulness into their ...
read moreThe (Record Store) Day After - Part 2
by Ludovico Granvassu
More un-earthed gems and special edition re-issues released for Record Store Day in this set, which also focuses on two wonderful Sun Ra tribute albums produced by the Red Hot Organization. Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Lettuce “VIBE" VIBE (Lettuce) 0:16 Host talks 6:10 Kenny Garrett, Svoy “Ascendence" Who Killed AI? (Mack Avenue) 7:48 Host talks 11:42 Brother Jack McDuff “[Untitled]" Ain't No Sunshine: Live ...
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