Results for "Ed Blackwell"

Ed Blackwell

Edward Blackwell and his drumming skills were a prime influence on New Orleans drummers in the 1950s. He was a member of the original American Jazz Quintet, which also included Alvin Battiste, and Ellis Marsalis. Blackwell toured extensively with Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Randy Weston and other jazz luminaries. Ed Blackwell was one of the greatest pioneers of free drumming whose main body of work remains within the group context in Ornette Coleman's Quartet and Don Cherry's units. Born in New Orleans, his drum concept fitted perfectly the needs of the new collective music-indeed, traditional New Orleans march rhythms combined with an African and Afro-Cuban influence in his work

Ornette Coleman: An Outsider Cracks the Egg

By STEVE PROVIZER

Part 1 | Part 2 There are two ways a musician can make a significant impact on jazz. One is to mobilize virtuosity and knowledge to push the current boundaries of the music. There are a number who fall in this category, but unassailable examples are Louis Armstrong, Art Tatum and Charlie Parker. The ...

Ornette Coleman: The Territory And The Adventure

By STEVE PROVIZER

Ornette Coleman: The Territory And The Adventure Maria Golia 368 Pages ISBN: #9781789142235 University of Chicago Press 2020 Ornette Coleman holds a singular place in jazz history. The seeds of change in jazz had been sewn by Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, John Coltrane and their cohorts, but Coleman's ...

Bill Stewart Interview

By MIKE BRANNON

From the 1995-2003 archive: This article first appeared at All About Jazz in May 2002. Upon joining The John Scofield group in the mid '80s it seemed like drummer Bill Stewart just appeared out of nowhere. They of course did a number of tours and studio dates together while word got around about Stewart's ...

Prestige Records: An Alternative Top 20 Albums

By CHRIS MAY

Along with Alfred Lion's Blue Note and Orrin Keepnews' Riverside, Bob Weinstock's Prestige was at the top table of independent New York City-based jazz labels from the early 1950s until the mid 1960s. Like those other two labels, Prestige built up a profuse catalogue packed with enduring treasures. Originally a record retailer, Weinstock ...

Trout Mask Replica

By ERIC GUDAS

“No Instruction Sheet": Trout Mask Replica's Unfathomable Origin Story If you were a teenager who liked freaky stuff, on a June day in 1969 you could bicycle down to your local record store and buy a brand-new, shrink-wrapped album with a man covering his entire face with an actual fish head on the cover. A double-LP ...

James Brandon Lewis / Chad Taylor: Live In Willisau

By MARK CORROTO

Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and drummer Chad Taylor's 2017 studio session Radiant Imprints (Musicube/Off, 2018) was hailed by many critics and fans alike as one of the best recordings of 2018. It was indeed a true revelation, yet that recording wasn't the genesis of a major talent. Lewis' inaugural release Divine Travels (Okeh, 2014) accomplished that ...

Don Cherry: Cherry Jam

By KARL ACKERMANN

In the same year that composer/multi-instrumentalist Don Cherry recorded his milestone Complete Communion (Blue Note, 1966) he took his cornet to the studio of Danish National Radio. Cherry had established himself by the early 1960s, playing with Steve Lacy, Ornette Coleman, Paul Bley, John Coltrane, Charlie Haden, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler and Ed Blackwell. Copenhagen began ...

James Brandon Lewis and Chad Taylor: Live In Willisau

By TROY DOSTERT

Somewhat forgotten amidst the excitement surrounding James Brandon Lewis' UnRuly Manifesto (Relative Pitch, 2019) was the excellent release that preceded it. Radiant Imprints (Off, 2018), a duo release with drummer Chad Taylor, put the focus squarely on Lewis' extraordinary tenor saxophone prowess and his strong accord with one of the most in-demand drummers in creative jazz. ...

Juan Vinuesa Jazz Quartet: Blue Shots From Chicago

By MARK CORROTO

Chicago, a city of big shoulders, continues to present proof of poet Carl Sandburg's words from the poem of the same name... “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning." Why is this? Because Chicago in 2020 remains the same as evoked in ...