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Ron Blake: Mistaken Identity
I'm picky about saxophonists. There are plenty of contemporary good ones but great ones tell a story on their horn with seductive determination, confidence and conviction. And when it comes to recording albums, taste is everything, especially regarding song choices. Ron Blake is a saxophonist who checks off all these boxes. His new album, Mistaken Identity ...
Take Five With Pianist Sean Mason
by AAJ Staff
Meet Sean Mason On Friday, November 17th at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey, pianist Sean Mason will lead a five-piece ensemble and two wonderful singers in a special tribute to Disney's centennial. In a one-night only concert, audiences will hear 100 years of Disney through the lens of jazz. “When You ...
Backgrounder: Wes Montgomery - Incredible Jazz Guitar
The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery remains one of jazz's finest guitar albums. Recorded for Riverside in January 1960 and released in April, the album came out just one month after Montgomery's first album for the label, A Dynamic New Sound. It's highly unusual for any producer to release two albums by a new artist ...
Two Bill Evans Videos Recently Uploaded
Yesterday, the autumn sky in New York was bumper-to-bumper with billowy clouds in all shades of white and slate grey. No rain, just a sea of moody cumulus formations muscling their way east across Manhattan. A perfect day to write with Bill Evans playing. Which led me to three videos of Evans—two that went up at ...
Carla Bley: 1936-2023
Carla Bley, a pianist, composer and arranger who carved out her own niche in avant-garde jazz, creating a singular musical style that was both daring and distinctly tender, died on October 17. She was 87. During my interview with Carla for The Wall Street Journal in 2020, she was remarkably open and almost journalistic recalling her ...
Take Five with Tulio Araujo
by AAJ Staff
Meet Tulio Araujo Tulio is a Brazilian musician, carrying advanced degrees and experience in the fields of Percussion, Music Production and Sound Engineering. He has studied with renowned masters Ian Guest (Hungary), Santiago Reyther (Cuba), Marcos Suzano (Brazil), among others. Through his experimentation and study, he dreamt and effectively conceived a way to merge the pandeiro ...
Impressions of Zero Gravity
by AAJ Staff
We published Peter Jones's review of Zero Gravity the other week, but other staffers wanted to share their thoughts on the Wayne Shorter documentary, so we collected them and presented them here. Ellen Johnson Zero Gravity, the documentary chronicling the life and music of jazz icon Wayne Shorter, surpasses the boundaries of conventional biographical ...
Take Five with Benny Benack III
by AAJ Staff
Meet Benny Benack III By age 32, Emmy-nominated trumpeter and vocalist Benny Benack III has already become a leading voice in jazz for his generation, while his trademark ebullience onstage assures his audiences he's got “A Lot of Livin' to Do" still to come! His sophomore album sharing that title featured the likes of ...
Sol Schlinger, Baritone Sax Extraordinaire
In the 1950s, when the 12-inch album became dominant, many studios recording jazz LPs needed musicians who could record perfectly in the fewest number of takes. Such skills included top-notch sight reading, the ability to play multiple instruments flawlessly and artists who could blow beautiful solos. To streamline their operations, producers began forming groups of musicians ...
Hal Schaefer: Marilyn Monroe and Two Albums
Like Erroll Garner, Hal Schaefer had his own distinctive jazz piano style and transformd every song he played into pure magic. He could turn standards inside out with a swinging fury and, with his right hand, whip up improvised lines that left listeners dazzled. Born in 1925 in Queens, N.Y., Schaefer began playing professionally at resorts ...
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Detroit Jazz Festival 2026: A Gathering in a Great Jazz City
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Sequoia Snyder: Growing in the Light of the Masters
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