Results for "Chicago"

That Slow Boat to China: How American Jazz Steamed Into Asia

by Arthur R George
March 3, 2021

A kind of jazz was already waiting in Asia when American players arrived in the 1920s, close to a hundred years ago. However, it was imitative and incomplete, lacked authenticity and live performers from the U.S. Those ingredients became imported by musicians who had played with the likes of Joseph “King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, ...

Take Five with Zvonimir Tot

by AAJ Staff
March 1, 2021

Musician Zvonimir Tot: Zvonimir Tot (z-VON-e-mere TOTE) is a Chicago-based jazz guitarist, composer and arranger with a style deeply rooted in the jazz tradition but flavored by his European origin. Tot has performed in the United States, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Macedonia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, and Spain. He has performed and/or ...

Leonid & Friends: Chicago

February 27, 2021

The first time I heard Leonid & Friends, I thought for a second they were syncing to Chicago's recordings from the early 1970s. Turns out Leonid & Friends is a Russian-Ukrainian cover band with impeccable ears and talent. Leonid is Leonid Vorobyev (third from left), a Moscow producer, bassist, transcriber and arranger. In concert, the tentet ...

Bryan Lubeck

Born: July 11, 1967

Amazon #1 Best Selling Guitarist and Billboard Magazine’s “Critic’s Choice” Bryan Lubeck is known for the fusion of his romantic Spanish guitar style and smooth and energetic urban grooves. Bryan has become a familiar name in contemporary pop and jazz instrumental radio and streaming platforms over the last decade. His new release “Welcome Winter” hit #1  on Amazon in 2023 and is already receiving major radio play. In 2021 ranked in the top 100 Blues/Jazz Artists in the world and even broke into the top 10 deep smooth jazz artists Globaly as well.

Remembering Lester Bowie

by Lazaro Vega
January 21, 2021

From the 1995-2003 archive: This article first appeared at All About Jazz in December 1999. Lester Bowie played several concerts and made one so far un-issued recording in the late 1990's with Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio plus poetess Ntozake Shange. The evening of grooves, improvisation and poetry came to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in ...

Zvonimir Tot

Zvonimir Tot (z-VON-e-mere TOTE) is a jazz guitarist, composer and arranger with a style deeply rooted in the jazz tradition but flavored by his European origin. He holds too many university degrees. Tot has performed in the United States, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Macedonia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, and Spain. He has performed and/or recorded with many world-renowned musicians, including:

- Saxophonists Chris Potter, Scott Hamilton, Billy Harper, Jamey Aebersold, Eric Alexander, Chip McNeill, and Peter King
- Violinists Johnny Frigo and Stefan Milenković
- Drummers Ernie Adams, Paul Wertico and Byron Landham
- Bassists Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and John Clayton
- Pianists Larry Novak and Larry Vuckovich
- Harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy
- Accordionist Lelo Nika
- Guitarists Philip Catherine, Henry Johnson, and Paulinho Garcia
- Organists Joey DeFrancesco and Bobby Floyd
- Vocalists Patricia Barber, Jackie Allen, and Carmen Lundy

Tot has recorded seven CDs as a leader: Balkan Roots (Groove Art Records, 2022),  Sarabande Blue (Groove Art Records, 2021), Standards Live at the Jazz Showcase (Groove Art Records, 2016), Eloquent Silence (Chicago Sessions, 2009), Unspoken Desire (Groove Art Records, 2007), Blue Quest (Groove Art Records, 2007), and Travels and Dreams (Groove Art Records, 2004), as well as numerous CDs as a sideman

Meet The JazzTwins, Arnold and Donald Stanley

by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
December 9, 2020

For our first two-for-one Super Fans column, we present the JazzTwins, Arnold Stanley and Donald Stanley, who got started pretty young (just wait till you see who played at their high school concerts). All jazz Super Fans are VIPs, but these two take things to another level. From invitations to musicians' family dinners to being the ...

Isabella Isherwood

Born: April 3

Isabella Isherwood is a Chicago-based jazz vocalist, pianist, and actor. Critic Neil Tesser writes, “Her range includes thrilling low notes, a middle register that resonates warmth, and ghostly obbligatos to enhance an arrangement. In our atmosphere of deep fakes and broken trust, her unadorned reading cuts the fog like a quavering beacon.”

Isherwood has shared her artistry on stage and screen both across the United States and internationally. Notable performances include appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Center and Ravinia, performances with her quartet at the Chicago Jazz Festival, and three concert tours throughout Europe.

Greg Murphy

Born: December 1, 1959

Chicago native Greg Murphy has been a major contributor to the New York City jazz scene since the 1980s and he’s probably best known for his twenty-two year association with John Coltrane’s multidirectional drummer, Rashied Ali. Greg began his musical adventures in 1971 when he joined the Ray-Fisk Grammar School Band in Chicago. His classical studies began later that year with Lucia Santini at Roosevelt University. Between 1980 and 1984, he played with the jazz/funk band Lightning Flash Thunder Roar, The University of Illinois at Chicago Big Band, The Northern Illinois University Big Band, and other local Chicago bands. A jazz study grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1984 gave Greg the opportunity to go to New Orleans and study with the eminent pianist and jazz educator, Ellis Marsalis

Meet Kenny Barron

by Craig Jolley
March 8, 2001

From the 1995-2003 archive: This article first appeared at All About Jazz in March 2001. Jazz Education I recently retired from Rutgers University. Right now I teach piano one day a week at Manhattan School of Music. In September I'll be teaching at the new jazz program at Julliard. I've taught David Sanchez and ...