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What Is Your Favorite Jazz Interpretation Of The Beatles?
When The Beatles landed at John F. Kennedy Airport on February 7, 1964, they were greeted by around three thousand fans. Two days later, when The Fab Four performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, the television audience topped 70 million. Popular music was never the same again. It was not long before jazz musicians followed the lead of countless pop acts in covering The Beatles' songs. The list is an incredibly long one and, some sixty years later, ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Hiromi's Sonicwonder At SFJAZZ
Hiromi's SonicwonderSFJAZZ, Miner AuditoriumSan Francisco, CAApril 14, 2024 Hiromi and her merry band of simpatico sonic warriors concluded their jny: San Francisco run at SFJAZZ's Miner Auditorium with an exhilarating jolt of electricity as they dove into their latest release, Sonicwonderland (Concord Records, 2023). The uniquely coiffed pianist wore a bright yellow dress over black tights and cute sneakers and was in perpetual motion throughout the show. “Sonic" is code for plugged in. ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
The Mosaic Records Story
In memory of Mosaic Records co-founder Michael Cuscuna (1948-2024). Although Mosaic Records' first release came out in July of 1983, the seeds for the business were planted in 1970. As a journalist, radio show host and record producer, I began coming into contact with many musicians who had been major players in Blue Note's repertory company. Since Blue Note had always been my favorite label for its consistent quality, conversations would ultimately drift to those great days of ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Duke Ellington: Isfahan
Part of Duke Ellington's Far East Suite (1967), “Isfahan" took its inspiration from a visit to the city of Isfahan, Iran, in 1963. Of the ancient city Ellington wrote: “everything is poetry," a sentiment transferred beautifully to this most moving of Strayhorn/Ellington compositions. Curious too, to see Ellington holding the sheet music for soloist Johnny Hodges. The same tour also took the Duke Ellington Orchestra to Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, among other stops. Will such an itinerary ever ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Dickey Betts: Another Man Done Gone
Although Forrest Richard 'Dickey' Betts did not share the surname of the Allman Brothers Band to which he contributed so significantly, in terms of success both creatively and commercially, he was arguably as responsible for the seminal blues rockers' legacy as the two namesakes of the group, Duane and Gregg. And it does not take a sorrowful perspective on the man's passing to contemplate how, in a very real sense, Dickey Betts' significant participation in the Allmans came ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Clint Maedgen: Life Before & With Preservation Hall
My first memories of listening to music as a kid? I was probably listening to Fats Domino and rock 'n' roll on the radio. The power of AM radio at that time in the '70s was a huge foundational influence on me, as it has been for a lot of people in those days. And sittin' in the car with my father, as he played cassettes with Hank Williams and Bob Wills, among others, I remember filing all that away ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
George Coleman at the 25th anniversary of Smoke Jazz Club
George Coleman Smoke Jazz Club 25th Anniversary Concert New York, NY April 12, 2024 Jazz thrives in places that rarely endure for very long. Sure, there are the longtime jazz temples--the Village Vanguard in New York, Ronnie Scott's in jny: London, Preservation Hall in jny: New Orleans--but most premier clubs are lucky to last into adulthood, at least as jazz-only venues. The rent's too damn high, the music too commercially marginal. Smoke ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald Judith Tick 560 Pages ISBN: 978-0-393-24105-1 W.W. Norton & Company 2024 In his 859-page monograph The Swing Era (1989), composer and historian Gunther Schuller skipped past Ella Fitzgerald. In 2011, when Judith Tick asked him about the omission, he responded that “there wasn't room to cover two singers, and he had chosen Billie Holiday" (Becoming Ella Fitzgerald, p. 429). Tick's meticulously researched and insightful Becoming Ella Fitzgerald fills that hole ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Take Five with Tap Dancer Petra Haller
Meet Petra Haller Petra Haller, based in jny: London, UK, is a respected figure in the fields of tap dance and music. Honored as a Rising Jazz Artist by Jazzwise Magazine and mentioned as one of Reader's Digest's “10 Female Jazz Musicians You need to Know" Haller has swiftly risen in prominence in the UK and beyond. Haller's artistic niche includes jazz, free jazz, improvised music and multimedia performances. In 2018, she initially collaborated with pianist Richard Lewis ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Lorne Lofsky: Steward of the Canadian Guitar Tradition
Guitarist Lorne Lofsky rocketed to fame when It Could Happen To You (Pablo Records, 1981), his debut release as a leader, was produced by fellow Canadian Oscar Peterson. Lofsky has since toured and recorded with a wide range of musicians from all around the world, including Peterson, but his hometown of jny: Toronto has been his base for more than 40 years. In that time he has witnessed many changes in the scene of that dynamic, cosmopolitan city, and has ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Joel Frahm Trio At Scott's Jazz Club
Joel Frahm Trio Scott's Jazz Club jny:Belfast, N. Ireland April 12, 2024 Another sold-out gig. It is not an uncommon occurrence at Scott's Jazz Club. Yet this was no ordinary occasion for Ballyhackamore's award-winning venue. For starters, the Joel Frahm Trio was in the house. Scott's Jazz Club has attracted plenty of outstanding musicians since opening its doors in 2021, but this felt like a cat-got-the-cream event. And there was an extra ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Jan Garbarek, Keith Jarrett and Azimuth light up ECM Luminessence reissues
The spring 2024 iteration of ECM's audiophile vinyl reissue series, Luminessence, presents another trio of landmark albums: Jan Garbarek Quartet's Afric Pepperbird, from 1971, Keith Jarrett and Garbarek's Luminessence, from 1975, and Azimuth's Azimuth, from 1977. The combined scope of the music on the three discs (which come with new liner notes) is prairie wide, and chronologically proceeds from howling at the moon to walking in healing moonlight. Jan Garbarek Quartet Afric Pepperbird (1971) ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Petr Kotik: Beyond Race, Beyond Genre, There’s Music
Petr Kotik has walked among giants. To the extent that he is recognized in jny: New York City, where he has made his home for 41 years, it is as an associate of John Cage and Morton Feldman with an apparent fixation on Gertrude Stein. In his Czech homeland, he is held in higher esteem--in part, arguably, due to his move to New York. But his considerable list of musical relationships also includes the now-iconic composer Julius Eastman and a ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Walter van de Leur: Jazz & Death, Part 2—Dancing With the Devil
Part 1 | Part 2 Most people would probably take a linear, historical view of jazz in an attempt to understand its complex history. Walter van de Leur, Professor of Jazz and Improvised Music at the University of Amsterdam, starts with death. His book, Jazz And Death: Reception, Rituals And Representations (Routledge, 2023) illustrates multiple ways in which jazz's fascination with death feeds into the narratives and mythologies that surround the music and its practitioners. ...
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Albert "Tootie" Heath: Class Personified
This article was first published on All About Jazz on March 9, 2015. Albert “Tootie" Heath is among the drummers who lived--and thrived--during what many call the golden age of jazz, the '40s, '50, early '60s. He's enjoyed the fruits of a varied and historic career, but never stayed put. Just kept working. He admires the musicians of today and the direction of jazz. The jny: Philadelphia native extols hip-hop for its status in today's music world. On ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Tony Miceli Quintet at Chris’ Jazz Café
Tony Miceli Quintet Chris' Jazz Café Philadelphia, PA April 5, 2024 Vibraphonist Tony Miceli has a way of drawing talent around him like a magnet. Of course, it's because of his exceptional musicianship, but he also has a knack for creating interesting situations for playing. This time, he brought together four other jazz masters for a retro take on hard bop. Their virtuosity and musical imagination made the set come alive as ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Pat Metheny at the Kaufmann Concert Hall
Pat Metheny Kaufmann Concert Hall (The 92nd Street Y) Pat Metheny's “Dream Box Tour" New York, NYApril 7, 2024 Hello, my name is Chris DeRosa and this is what I heard... Pat Metheny has been at the forefront of jazz guitar for more than 40 years. His career started way back in his University of Miami days (1972), first as a student performing with the famed Concert Jazz Band (CJB) and then ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Walter van de Leur: Jazz & Death, Part 1—A Closer Walk With Thee
Part 1 | Part 2 What is jazz? Beacon of the oppressed; music of jny: New Orleans bordellos; popular dance music; revolutionary music; high-art music with an established cannon; progressive music that absorbs and grows; hermetic traditional music... Jazz has always meant different things to different people. Even the term 'jazz' is political and contentious. Black American Music, or borderless music of the world? The most democratic form of music, or a club that is stubbornly ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Record Store Day 2024 Jazz Releases
Every year, Record Store Day (RSD) promises limited edition vinyl releases for all tastes in music. From the latest popular artists to the most obscure archival releases, RSD drops try to cover a lot of musical territory. Practically all genres of music are represented and, of course, jazz is no exception. Fortunately, the April 2024 drop promises plenty of jazz offerings, so the most difficult part for most jazz collectors might easily be deciding what not to buy. ...
SOURCE: All About Jazz