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Article: Album Review

Rick Hannah: Handful Of Strings

Read "Handful Of Strings" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
January 24, 2016

The guitar is a deceptively simple instrument to play, as any teenager who learns the basic strumming chords, and then tries to go beyond that, in any style, will tell you. It hints at being self-contained, that the player can accompany himself. Contrapuntally however, the piano, which allows two independent hands, dwarfs the guitar, even in ...

Article: Bailey's Bundles

Christmas 2015 V: A Concord Christmas – David Benoit, Jane Monheit and the Count Basie Orchestra

by C. Michael Bailey
December 19, 2015

Well, it ain't over 'til it's over...The Concord Music Group issued two notable Holiday releases. The David Benoit Trio with Jane Monheit and the All American Boys Chorus Believe Concord 2015 What Believe is, is a slick updating of Vince Guraladi's A Charlie Brown Christmas (Fantasy, ...

Article: Interview

Wardell Gray, "Forgotten Tenor:" An Interview with Filmmaker Abraham Ravett

by Victor L. Schermer
December 8, 2015

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 [This is one of two interviews and an article intended to bring readers' attention to the revered but neglected tenor saxophonist, Wardell Gray, whose brief career spanned the transition from swing to bebop and whose life was cut short by sudden and tragic circumstances.]

Article: Profile

Why the World Should Remember Wardell Gray

by Victor L. Schermer
December 7, 2015

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 [This article is a commentary to accompany All About Jazz interviews about Wardell Gray with filmmaker Abraham Ravett and biographer Richard Carter, all of which are intended to bring readers' attention to this outstanding but under-recognized tenor saxophonist whose brief career spanned the transition from swing ...

Article: Album Review

Ella Fitzgerald: Live at Chautauqua: Volume 1

Read "Live at Chautauqua: Volume 1" reviewed by James Doherty

by James Doherty
November 20, 2015

Live at Chautauqua, Volume 1 (Dot Time Records) captures Ella Fitzgerald in concert in July 1968. Accompanied by the Tee Carson trio, the eclectic programme ranges from her 1938 breakthrough hit “A-Tisket A-Tasket" through to contemporary pop and Broadway tunes, taking in some selections from her famed songbook series along the way. As Ella explains on ...

News: Recording

CD Release: Aaron Aranita Big Band "Rough Jazz"

November 9, 2015

Jazz, naturally, has a rich and varied history but it could be argued that it misplaced a little something on its way to becoming a Respected Art Form. Not to imply that jazz shouldn’t be taken seriously, but there is such a thing as taking a thing too seriously. Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Thelonious Monk, Duke ...

Article: Album Review

M'Balia: Halfway There

Read "Halfway There" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 7, 2015

Halfway There is the debut recording of one Philadelphia- native M'Balia Singley, a talented singer matriculating from Yale with a degree in history and Temple with one in law. That is an embarrassment of riches. But can counselor Singley translate all of this brain power into music? Her life arc had her practicing law and raising ...

Article: Album Review

Linda Dachtyl: A Late One

Read "A Late One" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 29, 2015

Organist/drummer Linda Dachtyl, by virtue of her percussion-keys intersection, makes a fitting and insightful interpreter of the jazz organ repertoire. She displayed considerable command of this on her recording, For Hep Cats (Summit, 2008). On the present A Late One, Dachtyl steps out of the organ grinder box to expand her pedal palette in to areas ...

Article: Album Review

Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra: Cuba: The Conversation Continues

Read "Cuba: The Conversation Continues" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
October 16, 2015

“I believe that there is no country in the world including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba...in part owing to my country's policies..." --President John F. Kennedy, October 1963 Revolution and musical genres share the characteristic of having an embryonic state. ...

Article: Extended Analysis

Talk Thelonious: NRBQ + Terry Adams plays Terry Adams Arrangements of Thelonious Monk Songs

by C. Michael Bailey
September 24, 2015

Musician and AAJ contributor Skip Heller calls the New Rhythm and Blues Quartet (NRBQ), “the greatest band of all time." A listen to the band's catalog reveals a depth and breadth of material that betrays an omnivorous appreciation of all American Music, all with a wicked and acute sense-of-humor, something so much music lacks. Never a ...