Content by tag "Building a Jazz Library"

ARTICLE: BUILDING A JAZZ LIBRARY April 10, 2019

Klezmer: Jewish Jazz? Not really, but sometimes...

I've always found it funny that Klezmer music has often been described as “Jewish Jazz." And I've found it even funnier that the great Klezmer clarinetist Dave Tarras was referred to as “The Jewish Benny Goodman." Right? Its funny. But more so, its fascinating that for many listeners, Jewish and non Jewish alike, there was a ...

ARTICLE: BUILDING A JAZZ LIBRARY November 9, 2018

John Butcher

By JOHN EYLES

In the Building a Jazz Library article on Evan Parker, it says that seasoned Parker followers would describe him as the finest improvising saxophonist of his generation. Curiously, many of those same people would use exactly that phrase about John Butcher. The simple explanation for this apparent contradiction is that we are talking about two generations; ...

ARTICLE: BUILDING A JAZZ LIBRARY May 17, 2018

Cecil Taylor

By JOHN EYLES

On April 5th 2018, the world lost pianist, composer, poet and iconoclast Cecil Taylor, at age 89. Taylor was the last surviving member of a generation of players who gave birth to the music variously labelled as avant-garde, fire music or free jazz, although some sources jointly credit Taylor and Ornette Coleman as its originators.

ARTICLE: BUILDING A JAZZ LIBRARY September 11, 2017

Evan Parker

By JOHN EYLES

In his biography of Robert Wyatt, Different Every Time (Serpent's Tail, 2015), author Marcus O'Dair describes Evan Parker as “perhaps the finest British free-jazz saxophonist of his generation." The only words in that phrase that seasoned Parker followers might take issue with are “perhaps," “British" and “free-jazz," preferring just to describe him as the finest improvising ...

ARTICLE: BUILDING A JAZZ LIBRARY August 16, 2017

Forget Old Europe: 15 European Jazz Musicians You Need To Know About

By ENRICO BETTINELLO

Since the first half of the 20th century, the Old Continent has played a pivotal role both in welcoming and supporting jazz artists from the United States. Over the following decades it has expressed generations of passionate musicians with increasingly original languages and ever greater improvisatory skills.

In the 21st century there are countless ...

ARTICLE: BUILDING A JAZZ LIBRARY June 16, 2017

Derek Bailey

By JOHN EYLES

Guitarist Derek Bailey was one of the more prominent and influential musicians from the “first generation of free improvisation" that developed in London in the mid-sixties and gradually promoted the music around the world. Although several members of that generation were leaders, Bailey often seemed the de facto leader of the group. Partly, this was a ...

ARTICLE: BUILDING A JAZZ LIBRARY October 4, 2016

Jazz From Around the World: Asia

By HRAYR ATTARIAN

Asia is the most culturally and ethnically diverse continent. It is, therefore, hard to distill all its jazz influenced musical legacies into 10 albums. Some countries have robust jazz scenes that, nevertheless, are fundamentally derivative of European and American styles. In other musical cultures jazz has just recently made inroads. Below are 10 historic records that ...

ARTICLE: BUILDING A JAZZ LIBRARY July 21, 2016

Jazz From Around the World: Africa

By HRAYR ATTARIAN

There is no doubt that African heritage, particularly that of west Africa is at the root of jazz. This is simply factual and is not meant to belittle the contributions of other cultures to its growth and development. In addition, as a genre, it has proven to have a wide universal appeal. For both reasons jazz ...

ARTICLE: BUILDING A JAZZ LIBRARY July 5, 2016

Jazz From Around The World: Latin America and the Caribbean

By HRAYR ATTARIAN

The focus of the second installment of Jazz from Around the World is Latin America and the Caribbean. Because of both proximity to the US and the shared African heritage, particularly in the Caribbean, jazz was seamlessly and naturally adopted in this part of the world. Of course Latin jazz with its many guises is a ...

ARTICLE: BUILDING A JAZZ LIBRARY June 29, 2016

Jazz From Around the World: Europe

By HRAYR ATTARIAN

Jazz has had a universal appeal since its inception. As soon as the music left its cradle of jny: New Orleans in the early years of the 20th century it quickly spread to all corners of the world. Europeans were among the first non-Americans to embrace the music and place their unique twist on it. Below ...