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2023 American Pianists Awards
by Mark Sullivan
2023 American Pianists Awards Indianapolis, Indiana April 20-22, 2023 The mission of the American Pianists Association is “to discover, promote and advance the careers of young, American, world-class jazz and classical pianists." One of the major activities in that mission is the bi-annual competitions run by the Association, alternating classical and jazz ...
Mike Allen: To a Star
by Jack Bowers
If you're a tenor saxophonist leading a piano-less trio, much of the group's melodic and harmonic components rest squarely on your shoulders. In spite of that--or perhaps because of it--Canadian tenor Mike Allen says he prefers working within that framework, as he has been doing for many years. If that is one's choice, ...
Ahmad Jamal: In his Own Sense of Time and Place
by Josef Woodard
This interview first appeared in the Santa Barbara News-Press on October 2005. The introduction has been updated. For the late, great and uniquely poetic pianist Ahmad Jamal, who passed on at age 92 on April 16, 2023, easy descriptors never sufficed in capturing his particular magic. He was a classicist, a modernist, a minimalist ...
Joe Locke: Makram
by Neil Duggan
One of the leading vibraphone specialists of the 21st century, Joe Locke has won multiple awards and performed with artists as diverse as the Beastie Boys and Ron Carter. It's not just his musicianship on the vibraphone that sets him apart. He is a highly versatile arranger, incorporating soul and international influences. Named after the Lebanese ...
Remembering Ahmad Jamal: Finished But Not Never
by Ian Patterson
Ahmad Jamal, the quiet pioneer of jazz piano has died aged 92, after a battle with prostate cancer. He passed away on Sunday, 16 April, according to a statement from his daughter, Sumayah Jamal. In a career that spanned the 1940s to the 2020s, Jamal always followed his own musical instincts. He was one ...
Ahmad Jamal: Forward Momentum
by Ian Patterson
In memory of the venerable Ahmad Jamal. This article was first published on All About Jazz on July 6, 2010. Ahmad Jamal, possibly the most influential of living jazz pianists, turned 80 years young on July 2, 2010. It is however, business as usual and instead of celebrating at home in his slippers, Jamal ...
Planet D Nonet: Blues to Be There
by Jack Bowers
The subtitle of Blues to be There, the Detroit-based Planet D Nonet's latest album (recorded in June and July 2022), is “A Salute to Duke Ellington." As with almost any bow to the Duke, it encompasses a healthy measure of Billy Strayhorn as well. Ellington wrote or co-wrote thirteen of the album's persuasive numbers, Strayhorn five ...
Lorraine Feather's Language Turns A Witty Phrase
by Ken Dryden
I got to know Lorraine Feather through reviewing several of her CDs, amazed by her gifts as a lyricist and singer, who was equally at home with witty songs and tender ballads. I first met Lorraine when she was performing at the late lamented Manhattan club Danny's Skylight Room with pianist Shelly Berg. We would chat ...
Take Five with Guitarist Grant Gordy
by AAJ Staff
Meet Grant Gordy For many guitarists, landing a gig with bluegrass mandolinist David Grisman's groundbreaking bluegrass/jazz quintet would be the culmination of a career in music. But for Grant Gordy, it was more of a beginning, an apprenticeship in combining bluegrass and jazz that served as a launchpad for his own music. How far he has ...
Rich Thompson: Who Do You Have to Know?
by Dan McClenaghan
The title of drummer Rich Thompson's 2023 release is Who Do You Have To Know?. The answer to that: John Bishop and Matt Jorgensen, the team that runs the Origin and OA2 Records labels that boast prolific and consistently good outputs, featuring an array of well-known and a goodly number of not-so-well-known, but always interesting, often ...
