Featured Jazz Articles
Dave Holland: More Than Just Notes
by Ian Patterson
The creative juices, if not the hunger, desert many artists as they advance in years. Repetition and mediocrity--a blunting of the sword-- can creep in, while past glories are often left to provide the kindling for flames that never quite catch. Such charges could never be levelled at English bassist Dave Holland, who turns seventy-five in October. On the contrary, what is striking about Holland's output in the fifty years since emerging as a leader in his own right is ...
read moreCharles Mingus: An Essential Top Ten Albums
by Chris May
Charles Mingus was rarely a happy man and yet his music possessed a power to uplift listeners unlike that of most other composer / bandleaders before or after him. It still has that power in 2021, four decades after his passing and on the eve of his hundredth anniversary in 2022. In his personal life, too, Mingus was a mass of conflicts and contradictions. He was by turns depressed and exuberant, though mostly depressed. He could be violent one moment ...
read moreDave McMurray: Blowing on the Edge of Grate-ness
by Lawrence Peryer
Saxophonist Dave McMurray's discography is reflective of the musical melting pot of his hometown jny: Detroit. Dave came up playing with everyone from bluesman Albert King, pianist Geri Allen, even Kid Rock. He is most known for his decades-long association with eclectic producer, and Blue Note label President, Don Was. Through Was, who is a band mate of Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir in their group Wolf Bros, Dave became familiar with the music of the ...
read moreZakir Hussain: Making Music, Part 1-2
by Ian Patterson
"Everybody wants to play with Zakir. He's amazing..." The words were spoken by Herbie Hancock, one of many musicians who paid tribute to the great Indian tabla player and composer Zakir Hussain on the occasion of his Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Francisco Jazz Centre in 2017. In a short film made for the occasion, directed by Hussain's daughter, Anisa Qureshi, jazz luminaries Vijay Iyer, Eric Harland, Charles Lloyd and John McLaughlin paid glowing tribute to Hussain, ...
read morePasqua, Erskine, and Oles: The Art of the Jazz Trio
by Jim Worsley
"We've known each other and have been playing together for fifty years now," was proudly, if even more sentimentally, reminisced by pianist Alan Pasqua in reference to drummer Peter Erskine to an intimate and appreciative audience at Sam First in Los Angeles during a recent performance. Bassist Darek Oleszkiewicz, who has been part of the mix for a “mere" twenty years, rounded out this stellar and superbly connected trio. Pasqua's warm hearted moment also included a remembrance of the late ...
read moreTop Ten Kennedy Center Musical Moments
by Alan Bryson
It's a good bet that most of us have heard people say they don't like jazz, or even worse, drop the H-bomb: “I hate jazz." If you choose to engage them, the key is to tread lightly and tailor an approach that considers their tastes and sensibilities. This So You Don't Like Jazz column explores ways to do just that. One particularly effective approach is to ignore labels and concentrate on the joy of music. To that end, ...
read moreFreihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival 2021
by R.J. DeLuke
Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saratoga Springs, NY June 26-27, 2021 The possibility of Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival returning this year was shaky in the spring months of 2021. COVID was showing signs of remission, but troubles still lingered. Both Danny Melnick, president of Absolutely Live Entertainment, which produces the festival at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and SPAC President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol had their doubts, but worked hard behind ...
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