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TALKING 2 MUSICIANS

Ronny Jordan: A pioneer of Acid Jazz, a Staple of Smooth Jazz

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This month marks guitarist Ronny Jordan's 55th birthday. A trailblazer in acid jazz, his debut album The Antidote foreshadowed Miles Davis' embrace of hip hop with the album Doo-Bop by six months. Moreover, Jordan's track “After Hours" also had a profound impact on smooth jazz as you will read in the following interview. This interview was conducted a year before his unexpected passing in January of 2014 at the age of 51, and was published only in an audio format ...

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Guitarist Mike Seal

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Guitarist Mike Seal first caught my attention at the end of 2014 as part of the Jeff Sipe Trio. At that time I described him as an extraordinarily talented young musician, an assessment shared by many, including the legendary dobro virtuoso Jerry Douglas. This summer the three time winner of the Country Music Association's Musician of the Year award invited Mike Seal to join his band. At the beginning of this exciting new chapter in his musical journey, it seemed ...

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2016 Guitar Star series winner Zayn Mohammed

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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, ...

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Barbara Dennerlein

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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 ...

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Keyboardist Matt Slocum

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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 ...

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Carl Mörner Ringström

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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 ...

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Jon Batiste

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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 ...

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John McLaughlin

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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 ...

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Oteil Burbridge

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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 ...

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Filmmaker Denny Tedesco

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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 ...