Results for "Alphonso Johnson"

Alphonso Johnson

Born: February 2, 1951

Dean Brown: Global Fusion on Acid

by Jim Worsley
April 23, 2021

From the outset, the equation was simple enough. Jazz + rock = fusion. However, whether it was Miles Davis, Larry Coryell, John McLaughlin, or any of the pioneers of fusion, the music has always been far from simplistic. Musical depth has long been the trademark of a genre that has been through many incarnations and traversed ...

Jon Armstrong Sextet: Reabsorb

by Mark Corroto
December 25, 2020

Saxophonist Jon Armstrong reminds us that life and death are two sides of the same coin. Although seemingly disparate, like two sides of an LP, they cannot be separated. His sextet recording Reabsorb models this contrasting device by presenting two contrasting compositions, one on each side of an LP (also available as a CD and download). ...

Jimmy Haslip: Amperes Beyond the BASSics, Part 2

by Jim Worsley
February 24, 2020

In case you missed it, Part One of my conversation with Jimmy Haslip covered a lot of ground and had a few good laughs along the way. Although we talked about the Yellowjackets, we delved more deeply into why and how he parted ways with the band some eight years ago. Haslip has been producing records ...

Michael Ragonese: Day to Day

by Paul Naser
May 24, 2019

If you haven't heard Michael Ragonese's name before, you're sure to hear it a lot more. The award winning pianist is a constant fixture in Los Angeles; if he's not a sideman at one club, he's leading a band at another. Among the many luminaries he has performed or recorded with are: Bennie Maupin, David Binney, ...

Peter Erskine: Up Front, In Time, and On Call, Part 1

by Jim Worsley
February 22, 2019

Part 1 | Part 2Peter Erskine is affable, engaging, and humorous. He, of course, is also one of the finest drummers of his generation. He has left his mark on the jazz and fusion world for nearly fifty years now. An icon, whose name is mentioned with the greats of all time, Erskine continues ...

The Complete Jan Akkerman: Focusing on a Life's Work

by John Kelman
November 24, 2018

He may be largely regarded as the most influential guitarist to emerge from the Netherlands, a country that, bordering on the North Sea, is roughly one-quarter the physical size of England and, with a current number of about seventeen million, has just one-third the population of the UK's largest country. Still, despite garnering major in-country recognition, ...

Basic Beauty: Arthur Blythe on Columbia

by Jakob Baekgaard
May 23, 2018

Back in 2016, BGO Records started reissuing the complete works of alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe (1940-2017) on Columbia. The first volume containing Lenox Avenue Breakdown (1979), In the Tradition (1980), Illusions and Blythe Spirit (1981) has already been reviewed on AAJ. The following two volumes complete the project of putting an important body of work from ...

Jazz Is Phsh: He Never Spoke A Word

by Doug Collette
March 3, 2017

Phish prefer not to be compared to the Grateful Dead in any respect, which is understandable up to a point, yet it's fair to say each band's respective legacy has its own momentum including twists and turns of evolution that inevitably result in parallels and intersections illuminating the process(es). So it is that Jazz ...

Audio Fidelity To Release Two Jazz-Fusion Classics On Hybrid SACD By Weather Report And Return To Forever

October 22, 2016

Marshall Blonstein's Audio Fidelity will be releasing Weather Report, Tale Spinnin' and Return to Forever, Musicmagic on Hybrid SACD. Both recordings are considered essentials from the jazz fusion era of the mid-'70s. Recorded in early 1975, Tale Spinnin', Weather Report's fifth studio album is filled with sunny textures of Latin and African flavors. The album stands ...