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New York Beat
Nick Catalano has a beat on the Big Apple. Find out what's cookin' in NYC.
Gretchen Parlato at The Jazz Standard
The New Year was dramatically ushered in at the Jazz Standard on January 2nd when Gretchen Parlato and her band wowed an SRO audience with some of the most prescient music of the season. No vocalist of recent vintage has garnered more acclaim than the brilliant chanteuse, transplanted from L.A. to Gotham awhile back. Grammy nominations, critical commendation from writers and musicians ("A singer with a deep, almost magical connection to the music." --Herbie Hancock, “There's no one out there ...
read moreJazz at Kitano: Duduka Da Fonseca and Brazilian Express
Brazilian percussionist Duduka Da Fonseca has led a variety of groups in Gotham venues for the past several years, performing the wildly popular samba music he learned growing up in Rio de Janeiro. His December 8 performance at The Kitano Hotel lounge in New York City was a high point of the holiday season, celebrating the music of pianist Dom Salvador. Fourteen-year-old Da Fonseca would play along with Salvador's album Rio 65 Trio (Philips, 1965). Da Fonseca and Brazilian Express ...
read moreSonny Rollins Remasters Legendary Album with Clifford Brown
At 87, saxophone immortal Sonny Rollins remains at work honing his recording legacy. No longer performing upon receiving medical advice, the star is busily attending to an archive which contains recordings he made with virtually every bop and post-Bop virtuoso in jazz. His latest effort is a remastering of Sonny Rollins + 4 a Prestige session recorded on March 22, 1956 with Clifford Brown and Max Roach. The recording is significant for several reasons. Initially, it contains outings ...
read moreEric Reed at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club
Hard Bop continues to find a home in NY's Smoke Jazz & Supper Club. For decades the room featured One for All -a group whose stalwart players Eric Alexander, Steve Davis, David Hazeltine, John Webber, Jim Rotondi, and Joe Farnsworth had critics comparing them to Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. These players often led smaller groups into Smoke with players such as Harold Mabern and other hard boppers. Last week (7-22) the club brought in Eric Reed and company ...
read moreCecil Taylor: Courage in Creation
Ever since innovative artists were faced with reflecting and reacting in their art to seismic events (WWI) revolutionary science (Einsteinian relativity, Darwinian evolution, and political convolution (fascism, bolshevism) over a century ago, many faced years of scorn and condemnation. When they chose abstraction in art (Mondrian, Kandinsky) dissonance in music (Schoenberg, Bartok) or stream of consciousness in writing (Eliot, Joyce) to describe a disjunctive new world they were destined to lose the masses and rely on clairvoyant critics for small ...
read moreBobby Sanabria & Band at Dizzy's
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 ...
read moreAfrican-American Music: A retrospective at Jazz at Lincoln Center
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 ...
read moreJelly Roll Morton Front and (Lincoln) Center
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 ...
read morePat Martino at The Jazz Standard
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 ...
read moreJohn Pizzarelli Celebrates Sinatra-Jobim
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 ...
read moreCollegiate Jazz at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola
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. ...
read moreJohn Pizzarelli Soars at Birdland
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 ...
read moreOcean Blues
"Ocean Blues" performed by the Dave Wilson Quartet at Chris’ Jazz Café (Philadelphia) on March 29, 2018. From the album One Night At Chris’ (2019) featuring Dave Wilson (saxophone), Dan Monaghan (drums), Tony Marino (bass) and Kirk Reese (piano).
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