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625

Article: Interview

Randy Weston: African Stories, African Rhythms

Read "Randy Weston: African Stories, African Rhythms" reviewed by Ian Patterson


In over 60 years as a leader, pianist Randy Weston has achieved an incredible amount. He has recorded nearly 50 albums and has been hailed in the process as the natural heir to Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Three times he has been voted Downbeat's composer of the year, and his compositions have been recorded by ...

929

Article: Live Review

New Voices and the American Song Book

Read "New Voices and the American Song Book" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner


Monk Vocal CompetitionKennedy CenterWashington, D.C.October, 2010 One of the premier jazz events of the year, the annual Thelonious Monk competition rarely fails to deliver. Each year the jazz elite gather to celebrate the legacy of Thelonious Monk and to recognize up-and-coming talents of the jazz world via ...

914

Article: Record Label Profile

Retrieval Records: Treasures Lost and Found

Read "Retrieval Records: Treasures Lost and Found" reviewed by Nathan Holaway


“The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago."-- Louis Armstrong “You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmie Luncefords, and the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was ...

522

Article: Album Review

Philip Larkin: Larkin's Jazz

Read "Larkin's Jazz" reviewed by Chris May


The author of the immortal opening couplet, “They fuck you up, your mum and dad/They may not mean to, but they do," the poet Philip Larkin (1922-85) was in 2008 voted “the greatest British writer" of the last half century by the readers of The Times. No longer the newspaper of record it was in the ...

458

Article: Take Five With...

Take Five With Antoinette Montague

Read "Take Five With Antoinette Montague" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Meet Antoinette Montague:Antoinette Montague likes to say she simply sings “people music." Make no mistake about it, she is a jazz singer through and through, but one who pushes the genre's boundaries. On her new recording, Behind the Smile, Montague sings classic jazz standards (new and old), resurrects lovely-but-obscure melodies, blends in blues and ...

492

Article: Album Review

Catherine Russell: Inside This Heart Of Mine

Read "Inside This Heart Of Mine" reviewed by Marcia Hillman


Singer Catherine Russell covers a lot of jazz territory on her new CD--performing material from vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, New Orleans, Delta blues, the Swing Era and the Django-esque '30s. Accompanying her on this journey is a full battery of musicians that replicate the sounds of each of the styles covered: musical director Matt Munisteri (guitar ...

135

News: Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bessie Smith

Jazz Musician of the Day: Bessie Smith

All About Jazz is celebrating Bessie Smith's birthday today! JAZZ MUSICIAN OF THE DAY Bessie SmithBessie Smith- vocalist, composer, recording artist (1894-1937) “Empress of the Blues” She embodied the meaning of the blues, living the life she sang about. Bessie Smith set the standard for blues singers on how ...

440

Article: Album Review

Various Artists: Murder. Songs From The Dark Side Of The Soul

Read "Murder. Songs From The Dark Side Of The Soul" reviewed by Nic Jones


Themed compilations such as Murder. Songs From The Dark Side Of The Soul afford opportunity to hear just how diverse a range of interpretations a theme can provoke. Here the title is self-explanatory and that element of diversity exists in abundance. Sonny Boy Williamson's “Your Funeral My Trial" is still as irresistible as ever; ...

238

Article: Album Review

Terry Waldo: The Ohio Theatre Concert

Read "The Ohio Theatre Concert" reviewed by Andrew Velez


No less a ragtime icon than composer Eubie Blake himself endorsed pianist, musical director, arranger and early jazz scholar Terry Waldo as being “an extension of my own musical self." Waldo's irresistible way with this music is in full glory on this 1974 concert. Blake himself was to have participated, but missed the concert due to ...

983

Article: Interview

Roberta Gambarini: Making Listeners Fall 'So In Love'

Read "Roberta Gambarini: Making Listeners Fall 'So In Love'" reviewed by R.J. DeLuke


It's been an out-of-the-ordinary career trip for Roberta Gambarini--a trip that's seen her go from a young girl in Italy, scatting along with records by American singers Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, to struggling to get singing gigs in her native land, to grabbing an opportunity to come to the United States, to gaining recognition by ...


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