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News: Event

AAJ's Chris May to speak at Royal National Theatre, London

January 1, 2011

All About Jazz senior editor Chris May will speak at the Royal National Theatre, London on January 14 under the title Fela Kuti: The Man Behind The Music. The RNT is currently staging the Broadway hit musical Fela!. May will be joined onstage by Dele Sosimi, keyboard player with Kuti's band Egypt 80 and a music ...

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Article: Year in Review

Chris May's Best Releases of 2010

by Chris May
December 24, 2010

Here are my favorite dozen new releases of 2010. It was an outstanding year on many fronts. There was ravishing lyricism from saxophonists Nat Birchall and Stan Sulzmann and beyond-touristic flamenco and Indian infusions from bassist Dave Holland and singer Amit Chaudhuri, the politically charged complete works of Fela Anikulapo Kuti and the delicious ...

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Article: Record Label Profile

Storyville Records: A Treasure Trove of Swinging Jazz

by Chris May
December 22, 2010

Since its foundation during the European revivalist movement of the early 1950s, Copenhagen-based Storyville Records has grown into a major repository of New Orleans, big band and mainstream recordings. With something approaching 600 releases in its back catalogue, the label is a treasure trove of jazz that swings. Founded in 1952 by Danish jazz ...

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Article: African Jazz

Compilations: Doing The Right Thing

by Chris May
December 5, 2010

Double-albums of classic Congolese and South African recordings demonstrate the right and the wrong ways to go about compilations. Tabu Ley RochereauThe Voice Of Lightness Vol. 2: Congo Classics 1977-1993Sterns2010 From its inception, everything about Sterns' compilation program has been pitch-perfect. Curated by enthusiasts with deep ...

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Article: Afrobeat Diaries

Part 15 - Femi Kuti: Africa For Africa / Antibalas: Who Is This America?

by Chris May
December 1, 2010

Femi KutiAfrica For AfricaWrasse Records2010 Two decades and more down the line with his band, Positive Force, singer and multi-instrumentalist Femi Kuti gets better and better. His take on rhythm may not be the same as that of his father--and why should it be?--but in other respects ...

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Article: Album Review

Charlie Haden Quartet West: Sophisticated Ladies

Read "Sophisticated Ladies" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
November 30, 2010

Gorgeous, poised and inviting. And that's just the sister on the cover of bassist Charlie Haden's latest with-singers-and-strings album. It's a retro design which, like the disc it packages, was inspired by Capitol Records' distinctive jazz-inflected vocal albums of the early 1960s. Your parents got off on this stuff big time back in the day, while ...

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Article: Album Review

Ibrahim Maalouf: Diasporas

by Chris May
November 28, 2010

Paris-based trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf's moody mix of jazz, groove and Lebanese traditional music comes across rather like a cut-up novel by William Burroughs or a collection of short stories by Paul Bowles, or at least a shot in that direction. Partly it's the source material, in which Maalouf's east Mediterranean musical heritage replaces those authors' fascination ...

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Article: Album Review

Ray Charles: Genius: The Ultimate Collection

Read "Genius: The Ultimate Collection" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
November 26, 2010

If you want a Ray Charles best-of album you've got plenty to pick from, and the run-up to the holiday season often adds another one. But this year's contender, the 21-track, 71-minute Genius: The Ultimate Collection, stands out from the crowd. For three reasons... First, the choice of tracks has a tight, coherent focus. ...

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Article: Book Review

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong

by Chris May
November 26, 2010

Pops: A Life Of Louis ArmstrongTerry TeachoutPaper; 475 pagesISBN: 978-0-547-38637-9Mariner Books2010 The most unputdownable biography of trumpeter/vocalist Louis Armstrong to be written, by a country mile, Pops is also one of the best jazz biographies on the shelves. Modestly subtitled A Life Of ...

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Article: Afrobeat Diaries

Part 14 - Fela! Original Broadway Cast Recording

by Chris May
November 19, 2010

Various ArtistsFela! Original Broadway Cast RecordingKnitting Factory Records2010 One of the several extraordinary things about the Broadway musical Fela! is not so much that approaching 400,000 people have seen the production since it opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theater in November 2009, but that the many friends ...