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Talking 2 Musicians

TALKING 2 MUSICIANS September 5, 2016

2016 Guitar Star series winner Zayn Mohammed

By ALAN BRYSON

Appearing on the main stage at the Latitude Music Festival was Zayn Mohammed's prize for winning the 2016 season of the UK SkyArts TV series Guitar Star. He was welcomed to the stage by legendary rock producer Tony Visconti, of David Bowie fame, as, “an incredible performer, a consummate artist, great guitarist, great musician and a visionary!" George Benson, who like Visconti was a judge and mentor on the series, appeared via video on the stage screens with these words, ...

TALKING 2 MUSICIANS August 30, 2016

Barbara Dennerlein

By ALAN BRYSON

Music is wondrously implausible, an invisible art form that is arguably best appreciated with your eyes shut. Yet it is equally true that live music, like great sporting events, has the capacity to trigger powerful emotional responses, focus people on the present, and unite a disparate crowd around a shared experience happening on stage. Each approach has its own charm, and occasionally you can shut your eyes during a concert to have the best of both worlds. Showmanship ...

TALKING 2 MUSICIANS July 23, 2016

Keyboardist Matt Slocum

By ALAN BRYSON

Matt Slocum is a prominent keyboardist on the Southern music scene, best known for his work with Oteil Burbridge, the Lee Boys, and Susan Tedeschi and his role as Jimmy Herring's go-to keyboard player. Last year he was recruited by Bruce Hampton to join the Aquarium Rescue Unit's 30 year anniversary tour. He's also a member of the band King Baby, who just finished recording their first album. It will be released this fall on Abstract Logix. He ...

TALKING 2 MUSICIANS November 17, 2015

Carl Mörner Ringström

By ALAN BRYSON

Sweden's Carl Mörner Ringström is not the first musician I've interviewed whose parents were music teachers, but there the similarities end. He got his first electric guitar at the age of seven, and although his father is a classical guitarist, the son was determined to master the instrument on his own. He spent the next four years in his room with the door closed learning to tune and play guitar by listening to Eddie van Halen--a decision which gave him ...

TALKING 2 MUSICIANS September 5, 2015

Jon Batiste

By ALAN BRYSON

As is commonly known in jazz circles, talent doesn't inevitably guarantee success. In my nearly nine year association with All About Jazz I have come across way too many struggling musicians with undeniable talent. If you're an ardent jazz fan, it's pretty much a given that you develop a deep admiration for people willing to follow their passion and dedicate themselves to the pursuit of a career in jazz. It's wonderful when such a person achieves something extraordinary, and today ...

TALKING 2 MUSICIANS August 31, 2015

John McLaughlin

By ALAN BRYSON

With a musical career that spans five decades and as many continents, John McLaughlin has established himself as one of the premier guitarists on the world stage. At the age of 73 his youthful vigor is nothing short of astounding. If he's not touring with one of his two working bands, chances are he's either preparing for his next tour, or he's in the recording studio, or he's embarking on a new project that has captured his imagination. He continues ...

TALKING 2 MUSICIANS May 24, 2015

Oteil Burbridge

By ALAN BRYSON

Oteil Burbridge's name has come up often during my interviews, and it was a treat to finally speak with him. He is one of the most respected musicians on the Southern music scene, probably best known as the Grammy Award-winning bassist of the Allman Brothers Band--a position he held for 17 years until the band's recent retirement. His roots in the Southern scene go deep, he is also an original member the Aquarium Rescue Unit, a band with a cult ...

TALKING 2 MUSICIANS March 11, 2015

Filmmaker Denny Tedesco

By ALAN BRYSON

Although the '60s and '70s are considered by many to be a golden era in music, for decades the people who played the instruments on many of the most popular and iconic recordings of that era were essentially unknown. Fortunately, over the last couple of decades that has begun to change. Several excellent music documentary films have helped these great studio musicians and session players get the respect they deserve. Documentaries such as Muscle Shoals, Standing in the Shadow of ...

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Streams by Jakob Bro
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Atmosphères by Tigran Hamasyan
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Ida Lupino by Giovanni Guidi
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The Declaration Of Musical... by Andrew Cyrille
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Nearness by Joshua Redman

About Jazz Story

Jazz Stories

The best show I ever attended was going with my father to see Dizzy Gillespie play at the Royal Festival Hall in London, England. Dizzy was a man full of charisma and play. He managed to get four different sections of the audience to sing four different vocal parts in one song
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The best show I ever attended was going with my father to see Dizzy Gillespie play at the Royal Festival Hall in London, England. Dizzy was a man full of charisma and play. He managed to get four different sections of the audience to sing four different vocal parts in one song. He captured everyone's attention and got us all up on our feet dancing alongside him to this incredible music we call jazz.
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By Dorothy Johnson-Laird
Member since: 2016