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New York Beat

Nick Catalano has a beat on the Big Apple. Find out what's cookin' in NYC.

NEW YORK BEAT

Bobby Sanabria & Band at Dizzy's

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A scintillating evening of Latin jazz with a novel twist was the order of business Monday, March 26, 2018 at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola. Bobby Sanabria, the director of The Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Band, has conducted superlative shows at Dizzy's in the past, but this one had a packed audience chatting up laudable encomiums long after the opening set had concluded. The program “Cartoon and TV Music Goes Latin Jazz!!!" featured the theme music from ...

NEW YORK BEAT

African-American Music: A retrospective at Jazz at Lincoln Center

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One of Jazz at Lincoln Center's most thoughtful concert ideas in recent memory came to life at the Appel Room on March 2, 2018. Dubbed “Rags, Strides & Habaneras" the intimate program managed to survey a host of strategic forms from origins in West Africa that shaped the art of music in the Americas. Most jazz fans know about ragtime and its popularity a century ago, which was led by the genius of Scott Joplin. Ageless piano wizard ...

NEW YORK BEAT

Jelly Roll Morton Front and (Lincoln) Center

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With a three-night gala celebrating the music of Jelly Roll Morton, the Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra marked its 30th season at Rose Hall. Focusing on Morton's pioneer arranging achievements with amplifications of them from Jazz at Lincoln Center performers, the evening offered a penetrating exploration of the Creole legend's multifarious compositional musings and featured a quintet of sparkling piano soloists who recalled his keyboard wizardry. The full breadth and scope of Morton's talents--his multiple syncopations, latin-textured musical ...

NEW YORK BEAT

Pat Martino at The Jazz Standard

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Pat Martino Jazz Standard New York, NY August 3, 2017With his usual understated performance posturing, Pat Martino mounted the stage on opening night at The Jazz Standard and proceeded to captivate the packed house with his signature mixture of hard swing and lyrical balladry. Alongside his familiar bandmates organist Pat Bianchi and drummer Carmen Intorre Martino segued from tune to tune in the opening set with nary a word to the audience. Such has been ...

NEW YORK BEAT

John Pizzarelli Celebrates Sinatra-Jobim

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A few readers may recall a triumphant 1967 recording with Frank Sinatra singing and performing alongside legendary composer Antonio Carlos Jobim. The album, with arrangements by master arranger Claus Ogerman globally transported Brazilian music into stratospheric heights where it remains to the present day. To celebrate the album's semicentennial anniversary world-renowned singer/ guitarist John Pizzarelli is set to release Sinatra & Jobim @ 50. Performing with Pizzarelli is Jobim's grandson Daniel Jobim. The two have previously worked together ...

NEW YORK BEAT

Collegiate Jazz at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

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For the better part of a decade I've escorted my jazz class at Pace University on trips to Dizzy's to see the Manhattan School of Music Concert Jazz Band perform. The series was forged by veteran jazz academic Justin DiCioccio whose leadership and programming has prompted a rarely noticed success of Collegiate jazz bands across the country. Since DiCioccio's pioneering efforts schools such as Juilliard, Purchase, and Temple have organized similar groups and also appeared at Dizzy's. ...

NEW YORK BEAT

John Pizzarelli Soars at Birdland

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Wowing a late night crowd of worshipful fans at a packed Birdland, John Pizzarelli showcased his guitar mastery, vocal excitement, and hilarious patter this past Saturday night. Accompanied by his Swing Seven band of jazz all-stars, the scion of the famed New Jersey Pizzarelli clan (guitarist father Bucky will celebrate his 90th birthday this week at the Jazz Gallery) continued his world-renown jazz parade with a set featuring the work of legendary composers. Pizzarelli has performed in ...

NEW YORK BEAT

Joey DeFrancesco at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

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As the New York August heat blazed onto the streets on Saturday night (August 13th), Joey DeFrancesco and his trio rocketed into Dizzy's with their own burning repertoire. The B-3 wizard played four selections from his new HighNote CD Trip Mode and had an audience which included Bill Charlap, Paquito D'Rivera, and Todd Barkan roaring with approval for the tunes--some written with metronome settings breaking the sound barrier. The new group features guitarist Dan Wilson and drummer ...

NEW YORK BEAT

Clifford Brown and Max Roach in 1954: New Research

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Jazz history is all about revisionism. New material about musicians--biographical information, newly discovered recordings and photos, corrected anecdotes and stories -are some of the areas where history is constantly evolving. This is an important process and writers should always be aware of it and report its occurrences. Since I published my book on Clifford Brown Clifford Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter (Oxford University Press, 2000) I have been contacted by individuals who ...

NEW YORK BEAT

Steve Miller and Jimmie Vaughan at Jazz at Lincoln Center

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No matter what the style where African-American influences and developments upon the modern music scene have been pervasive--work songs, ragtime, jazz, stride, and boogie-woogie, the most important contribution has been the Blues. The country Blues as heard by pioneers such as Robert Johnson, The City Blues epitomized by Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, Rhythm n' Blues as iterated by players like Robert Cray continue to provide the major foundation for jazz and the other aforementioned musics. Muddy Waters, B.B. King ...