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Greg Abate: “Be-Bop-Er” Takes His Music To The World
by Rob Mariani
This article was published posthumously and on behalf of All About Jazz's long-time friend and contributor, Rob Mariani. “Bebop is one of the more complicated forms of jazz music," says Greg Abate, one of New England's most well-known alto sax players. He's been keeping this “art form" alive and thriving for years. “It takes a lot of technique and dexterity to play bebop right," Abate says. “Every good musician knows that jazz is an art ...
read moreMoers Provides a Festival Blueprint for the Future
by Phillip Woolever
Germany's Moers Festival has a long-standing reputation for expanding the boundaries of top-quality musical formats. Performance scope and content is always unique, but last year's 2020 edition provided even more noteworthy distinction than usual. That truly exceptional pandemic production featured typically abundant instrumental, vocal and electronics highlights but more important, even at a greatly reduced scale, the live scene at Moers offered a bright ray of hope at a time Covid-19 was upending life as we knew it.
read moreTaiwan's Blue Note Taipei: Jazz Mainstay For Locals And Expats Alike
by Doug Hall
Though jazz knows no boundaries, it still remains a wonderful surprise and reward to find a gem of a jazz club in whatever corner of the world you happen to find yourself. Since 1974, The Blue Note Taipei, a cozy historic jazz café in the capital city of Taiwan, has been just such a place for loyal local listeners, tourists visiting from abroad, students of jazz or new ears to the music. In short, since becoming co-owners/managers in 2019, Huang ...
read moreCon Alma: Keeping Pittsburgh Jazz Thriving in Trying Times
by C. Andrew Hovan
Not mentioned nearly enough as a locale that nurtured some of jazz music's most memorable artists, jny: Pittsburgh can boast a jazz history that is unparalleled, especially for a city of its size. Just a partial list of icons that hailed from the area would include Ahmad Jamal, Art Blakey, Erroll Garner, George Benson, and Stanley Turrentine. Over the past several decades, the jazz scene there has continued to thrive under the auspices of such presenters as Manchester Craftsmen's Guild ...
read moreThelonious Monk: A Thriving Legacy
by Doug Hall
If legendary jazz musicians were collected together in one giant jigsaw puzzle and each musician was one piece—Thelonious Monk's individual piece would be impossible to cut out. As a singular artist, his shape or place in jazz is too uniquely non-conforming. From a musical and historical standpoint, he is recognized as one of the first creators of modern jazz and a major influence on the later development of the bebop movement. He influenced all its key players, along ...
read moreRoy McCurdy: From Cannonball to the Rochester Music Hall of Fame
by Scott Gudell
When we placed a call from New York to Los Angeles in the early part of 2021, the articulate and vibrant drummer Roy McCurdy answered and quickly connected us back to the 1950s. He told us about his hometown of jny: Rochester, New York, his early days performing with Chuck Mangione and Gap Mangione and how he went on to play with world class jazz saxophonists, including Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley and others. Now, as a teacher at the USC/Thornton ...
read moreChick Corea: The Passing Of A Giant
by Doug Hall
The passing of a giant in all categories of jazz. Chick Corea, NEA Jazz Master, 22-time Grammy Award winner, keyboard virtuoso as pianist, composer and arranger has earned, by contribution and breadth of musicianship, all the accolades, awards and recognition. If ever the title applied: a legendary figure in jazz. Beyond Corea's range of solo compositions and collaborations are the breadth of cutting-edge bands he formed over six decades. A highlights list includes the seminal jazz-rock fusion group Return to ...
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