Home » Search Center » Results: duke ellington
Results for "duke ellington"
Wadada Leo Smith: A Vital Life Force
by Lyn Horton
To teach and create and not expect or demand anything in return."--Wadada Leo Smith, quoted in an article printed in The Houston Chronicle, November 4, 2006 On the nine-by-eleven inch cover of the February, 2010, issue of Wire magazine is a full-page photo of trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. Only the upper half of his body is ...
The Claudia Quintet with Gary Versace: Royal Toast
by Troy Collins
The humorously titled Royal Toast is the fifth album from the Claudia Quintet, percussionist and composer John Hollenbeck's longstanding five-piece that is--in the eternal words of Duke Ellington--a band beyond category." Eradicating the tenuous boundary lines between idioms, Hollenbeck and company draw on ethnic traditions, free jazz, contemporary composition and progressive rock in their multifaceted explorations.
Marcus Strickland at Bohemian Caverns, Washington, D.C.
by David Lighton
Marcus Strickland TrioBohemian CavernsWashington, D.C.May 1, 2010 The current stream of tenor saxophonists is often lamented by older generations of musicians and fans alike as decidedly postmodern: producing artifice over art. And while this has been a frequent, and often unfounded critique of the old guard's throughout the history of the music, it ...
Antoinette Montague: Behind The Smile
by Marcia Hillman
Antoinette Montague shows what is Behind the Smile--eclectic taste and strong delivery. She is joined by choice company on this outing: Mulgrew Miller (piano), Bill Easley (saxophone, clarinet and flute), Peter Washington (bass) and drummer Kenny Washington, who doubles as producer. Montague's programmatic choices are a varied mix, including blues, soul, the Great ...
Graham Collier: Darius / Midnight Blue / New Conditions
by Nic Jones
Graham Collier Music Darius / Midnight Blue / New Conditions BGO 2009 The benefit of hindsight reveals how the three LPs, recorded in the mid-1970s, collected here form the bridge between British bassist, composer and bandleader Graham Collier's early small group work and the expansion of tonal palette and compositional ...
Sonny Rollins Elected as Member of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
by Jack Bowers
This month's most welcome news has nothing to do with big bands but everything to do with artistry and excellence: saxophonist and jazz icon Sonny Rollins has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The Academy, a center for independent policy research (I don't quite understand what that has to do ...
Kenny Wheeler / Colours Jazz Orchestra: Nineteen Plus One
by John Kelman
Following Kenny Wheeler's career can be a knotty proposition. Born in Canada, the trumpeter/composer relocated to Britain in the 1950s, becoming an integral part of its jazz scene. He recorded for Germany's ECM Records for over two decades, including the classic Gnu High (1976) in addition to his Azimuth collaborations with pianist John Taylor and singer ...
Ken Greves: The Face Of My Love
by Raul d'Gama Rose
On The Face of My Love, countertenor Ken Greves answers what could well be an eternal question: Why make another album about love? And he does so emphatically: Because there may be a more complete way to tackle its rainbow of moods and feelings. It is very possible that no one in recent memory has gotten ...
Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense (Theatrical Version)
by John Kelman
Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense (Theatrical Version)IndiePix Films2009 Distilling a groundbreaking, four-part, four-hour television documentary--one which finally examined the evolution of jazz in a contemporary, rather than purely historical, context--into a shorter theatrical version is no mean feat. When Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense aired on ...
Mike Reed: The Drum Thing
by Gordon Marshall
There is not a name yet for what Mike Reed does on drums. Elvin Jones created polyrhythmics; Rashied Ali, multi-directionalism. Reed is delivering something related but distinct. It has as much to do with tonal complexity as with keeping the beat, but the complexity goes beyond that, into a recombination of the many drumming styles of ...


