Roads Less Travelled

Ned Kelly's Last Stand, Hong Kong

by Hrayr Attarian
April 28, 2016

Most guides to Hong Kong list the genre melding Fringe and Bert's and the loungish Blue Room among the city's jazz venues. Very few mention “Ned Kelly's Last Stand." The oldest Hong Kong pub has presented live music sessions from the start. Among those who have graced its stage include vocalist Rosemary Clooney, saxophonist Charlie Barnet and pianist Sergio Mendes. Lately it has been home to trombonist and vocalist Colin Atchison and his China Coast Jazzmen who play many hard ...

The Cotton Club, Shanghai

by Hrayr Attarian
April 27, 2016

On the night of April 15th 2016 the Cotton Club in Shanghai was teaming with young, fashionably dressed locals and intrigued tourists. Despite the overpriced drinks and extra charge for sitting down at a table (even standing at one) music lovers packed the small space. Located in the historic and hip French Concession neighborhood, The Cotton Club made Downbeat magazine's short list of Chinese jazz venues and every traveler's trusty companion; Lonely Planet lists it as the best in Shanghai. ...

Club Jazzda: Seoul's Hidden Gem

by Hrayr Attarian
April 1, 2015

One of the hidden gems of the Seoul music scene in South Korea is the Club Jazzda. Located in the youthful Mapo neighborhood, the intimate basement venue has live music every night of the week showcasing young, up-and-coming local talent. Trumpeter Ye Jung Kim owns this intimate listening room, and sometimes joins the musicians onstage for an impromptu jam session. His clear, burnished tone rose high over guitarist Kyu Ha Kim's earthy groove on a few delightfully deconstructed ...

Rio de Janeiro’s shrine to Brazil’s fabled Bossa Nova

by Mark Holston
March 26, 2014

While CD stores have virtually disappeared in most countries, Brazil remains a notable exception. In most large cities, specialty shops featuring contemporary and historic recordings by the country's legendary music-makers are still prospering. Visitors from abroad will delight in finding so much entrancing Brazilian sound at their fingertips. Enter the multi-level Bossa Nova & Companhia store in jny: Rio de Janeiro and one is transported to a magical time and place. Enveloped by sultry bossa nova grooves and ...

Eric Dolphy: A Deeply Dedicated Musician

by Nic Jones
December 21, 2004

In the forty years since his death Eric Dolphy's career has taken on a kind of substance that it never had in his lifetime. Partly this is due to the course jazz has taken within those forty years, one of the end results of which is a scene that in many ways is more conservative now than it was then.Brian Morton has referred to Dolphy's career as a series of transitions1 and there is something in this, hinting ...

Art Pepper: West Coastin'

by Nic Jones
October 28, 2004

The last article in this series discussed the most significant strand in the recording history of Sonny Criss , a musician who was unjustly neglected during his lifetime. By contrast, Art Pepper might have been overexposed during his. If so, then this was a process helped in no small part by his autobiography1 in which he candidly discloses what loathsome traits were to be found in his personality. None of these, however, have any bearing on his abilities as a ...

Sonny Criss: Catching The Sun

by Nic Jones
October 1, 2004

There have sometimes been itinerant qualities to the jazz musician's life, not only in terms of where they've lived, but also where and when they recorded. Sonny Criss spent the best part of his life in Los Angeles, and the sad fact is that the devotion he showed not only to the city and its people but also to his music brought him little reward, a fact only compounded by what posthumous acclaim he has been afforded.

The albums he ...

Buddy Tate From Texas State

by Nic Jones
August 27, 2004

By the end of the 1930s both the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands had established signature styles of music making that were in some respects antithetical. Whilst the latter was dependent on composition as an integral part of its musical output -and arguably no-one before or since has married composition and the making of jazz so successfully, the former had developed a kind of inner momentum from which its music flowed and which was shaped in no small part ...

Peter Brotzmann: Der Kaput Play

by Nic Jones
July 18, 2004

The cultural life of post-war West Germany was always subject to significant American influence, and though this may seem surprising on the surface it says a lot about American hegemony in this period and the means through which it was acheived. Julian Cope has quite rightly highlighted the presence of American service personnel as a agent for cultural change1 particularly with reference to rock 'n' roll radio and the allure of plenty for people living in austere times. But by ...

Albert Ayler: Backwards And Forwards

by Nic Jones
May 20, 2004

By March of 1965, when the first of the Village Vanguard recordings were made, Albert Ayler's career as a leader was less that five years old. He'd covered a lot of ground. It was also only thirteen years since he'd worked in Little Walter's band, yet in that time he'd moved as far away from the mainstream of African American popular music as it was possible to be, at least that was an impression. The reality of the situation was ...