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Interview
Aaron Parks: Rising To The Challenge
"I'm always trying to put myself into scenarios with people who play in a way that challenges me and gives me a chance to grow," says pianist Aaron Parks, who has carved an impressive career in jazz since going to jny: New York City early in the new century and eventually garnering a major gig with trumpeter Terence Blanchard's band. The group's he's played in are nothing but challenging, as he serves music made by people like Kurt ...
read moreGeneration Next: Four Voices From Seattle
Each generation, an insidious notion arises, and is passed about the musical world that jazz music, the only uniquely American art form is somehow experiencing a slow, but certain death. Inevitably, this notion is set aside, and somehow projected forward in time, as a new generation of artists rise to the occasion, not only facilitating the survival of, but enabling the forward journey of the genre. In Seattle, the vibrant scene has moved forward from Quincy Jones and Ernestine Anderson, ...
read moreMiles Mosley Gets Down!
Bassist, singer and composer: Miles Mosley is all of this and much more. After studying with bass giants like John Clayton and Ray Brown, Mosley extensively toured with musicians of the caliber of Lauryn Hill, Jeff Beck, Gnarls Barkley and Mos Def and participated in the recording of albums by Korn's Jonathan Davis and Avenged Sevenfold, showing remarkable versatility and contempt for music barriers. Mosley is one of the pillars of the West Coast Get Down collective together with his ...
read moreTerri Hinte: Co-Creating the Image of Jazz
[This is the second of an All About Jazz series of interviews and articles on “The Many Faces of Jazz Today: Critical Dialogues" in which we explore the current state of jazz around the world with musicians, journalists, and entrepreneurs who give us their own unique perspectives. In the first interview of the series, saxophonist Bobby Zankel provided the perspective of a seasoned musician on his efforts to maintain his creativity and independence in an increasingly “homogenized" consumer-based environment. The ...
read moreBobby Zankel: The Soul of Jazz - Past, Present, and Future Tense
[This is the first of an All About Jazz series of interviews and articles on “The Many Faces of Jazz Today: Critical Dialogues," in which we will explore the current state of jazz around the world. Jazz has expanded in many directions. The business, educational, geographical, recording, and entertainment aspects have undergone major transformations. Today, there are myriad ways of playing and understanding the music. So what is jazz all about today, towards the end of the second decade of ...
read moreEri Yamamoto: The Poet’s Touch
One of the many places to go if you want to listen to jazz in New York is Arthur's Tavern. The special thing about that place is not that it is a jazz bar, but the fact that the same piano trio has played there for nearly 20 years. The name of the trio is Eri Yamamoto Trio and together with bassist David Ambrosio and drummer Ikuo Takeuchi, Yamamoto has been refining the lyrical language of the piano trio.
read moreDavid Finck: The Bass, Scatting Offenses, and the Back Hoe
David Finck is not only a first-call bassist with a long resume of high-profile recordings and gigs, but he's one of the most versatile musicians on any instrument. Finck has been in the studio, touring, and/or sharing the world's greatest stages with everyone from Andre Previn to Ivan Lins, Woody Herman to Natalie Cole and Kenny Rankin, and Elton John and George Michael. He's on all four of Rod Stewart's platinum albums. In recent years Finck has expanded ...
read moreSFJAZZ Collective: Remembering Miles
The SFJAZZ Collective has been operating since 2004. In the beginning, it may have seemed to some as just another all-star collection of musicians who strut their stuff for a while, then go about their own business. It has shown over time it is much different. The format--eight outstanding musicians banding together to play the music of jazz icons, works hard at what the band was designed for: a leaderless, democratic group where musicians write arrangements that re-imagine ...
read moreJoe La Barbera: Experiencing Bill Evans
In his own unassuming way, Bill Evans changed the face of jazz piano trio forever. He made the piano a lyrical, expressive voice for the most subtle and deep emotions, and he transformed the rhythm section from a time-beating, swing-maintaining outfit into an intimate, conversational musical unit. He loved tradition. It was just his grasp of the music and the special way that he composed, arranged, and played that influenced his contemporaries and the generations that came after him. He ...
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