Results for "Greg Thomas"

Greg Thomas

Jon Hendricks: Vocal Ease

by Greg Thomas
November 23, 2017

This article was first published at All About Jazz on April 18, 2008. Scat and vocalese master Jon Hendricks and his wife Judith have maintained a residence at Gateway Plaza in Battery Park City for a quarter century. Their high-rise apartment overlooks the Hudson River going north. From the living room window you see ...

August Is Vocalists Month At The Sunday Renaissance Jazz Brunch In Harlem

August 2, 2014

Vocals Month at Harlem's Renaissance Jazz Brunch The weekly Harlem brunch that has a reputation for fantastic food and top notch music, the Renaissance Jazz Brunch, features a month of singers: Tony Jefferson, Lainie Cooke, Whitney Marchelle, Nat Adderley Jr. (and a special Motown Revue), and Dennis Jeter. For reservations: 866-317-1152. TONY JEFFERSON AUGUST 3 As ...

Albert Murray: The Hero Of The Blues And Jazz

August 20, 2013

By Greg Thomas Albert Murray, one of America's most significant writers and thought leaders of the 20th century on the blues, jazz and their influence on American culture, died in his Harlem home on the evening of August 18, 2013. In his non-fiction books The Omni-Americans, The Hero and the Blues, Stomping the Blues, The Blue ...

Jazz Master Benny Golson And Double Grammy Nominated Bobby Sanabria Kick Off New Series In Harlem

January 28, 2013

NEW YORK, NY: During Black History Month, the sister venue of Marcus Samuelsson’s Red Rooster restaurant—Ginny’s Supper Club (310 Lenox Avenue, between 125th and 126th)—premieres two jazz series that evoke Harlem’s storied past and reflects its diverse present. From February 21-23, the internationally renowned jazz composer and tenor saxophonist Benny Golson returns to Harlem with his ...

Montreal Jazz Festival: Montreal, Canada, June 28-July 7, 2012

by Greg Thomas
August 21, 2012

Festival International de Jazz de MontréalMontréal, CanadaJune 28-July 7, 2012From the time of the airplane's descent to the airport in Montréal, I knew something was different and perhaps special about this place. Instead of a square or rectangular grid style of suburban housing plots, from my window I saw circular formations of housing, ...

BAM or JAZZ: Part Two!

by Greg Thomas
February 6, 2012

Jazz, an art form given birth in the United States by descendents of the formerly enslaved, has a complicated relationship with race. Although race, as a popular idea, has no basis in biology, many people mentally adhere to the idea of dividing groups of people based on “race" as opposed to understanding how groups of people ...

BAM or JAZZ: Why It Matters

by Greg Thomas
January 12, 2012

Since the last Race and Jazz column, the first of a multi-part discussion with John Gennari--the top scholar on the history of jazz criticism--a firestorm of controversy has arisen surrounding Nicholas Payton's declaration that, to him, the word jazz is dead. He also feels that the word jazz is tantamount to or worse than the “n" ...

Race and Jazz Criticism

by Greg Thomas
October 3, 2011

When I began this Race and Jazz series several months ago, I knew the topics I wanted to touch upon, and the general culture vs. race point-of-view I intended to pursue. With those chord changes (topics) and that melodic perspective (pro-culture, anti-race) in mind and at play, I figured I'd proceed with the rest by ear. ...

Gary Giddins on Ignored Black Jazz Writers

by Greg Thomas
July 11, 2011

In the first essay for the Race and Jazz column, I gave a first-person account of how my love and appreciation of certain “white" saxophonists served to safeguard me from the temptation of racism back in college during the early-to-mid-'80s. My second essay privileged culture over race, and told the story of how attorney and constitutional ...