Results for "Frank Zappa"

Gordon Grdina: Cooper's Park

by Mike Jurkovic
October 16, 2019

Cooper's Park's eighteen minute centerpiece crashes into energetic existence sounding like someone just remembered to push record while the ensemble was in high flight mid jam. Flailing majestically away, guitarist Gordon Grdina, alto saxophonist/bass clarinetist Oscar Noriega and pianist Russ Lossing are heard early working overtime on every level from solo to tag-team tandem, giving, taking, ...

Ernie Watts: Home Light

by Angelo Leonardi
October 16, 2019

Giunto a 73 anni, con alle spalle una ricca e variegata carriera di collaborazioni entro e fuori il mondo del jazz, Ernie Watts predilige da oltre un decennio il suo quartetto con i tedeschi Christof Saenger al pianoforte, Rudi Engel al contrabasso ed Heinrich Koebberling alla batteria. Home Light giunge esattamente 50 anni dopo ...

Take Five with Ed Palermo

by AAJ Staff
October 9, 2019

Meet Ed Palermo Ed Palermo is an arranger, composer and alto saxophonist mostly known for his big band and their interpretations of the music of Ed's hero, Frank Zappa. Coming out of college in Chicago, his initial plan was to become a great jazz tenor saxophonist in the vein of Michael Brecker, Steve Grossman and Dave ...

Zappity-Doo-Dah

by Patrick Burnette
October 4, 2019

To be perfectly Frank, the boys don't know all that much about rock and roll's prickliest, most demanding composer/conceptualist/guitarist/ideologue, so they look at a couple of recordings by the maestro himself and a couple by other musicians paying homage to the man with a mustache. Burt Bacharach meets Hal Wilner's tribute to Thelonious Monk in a ...

The Ed Palermo Big Band

Active since: 1980

Under the leadership of arranger/ composer/ bandleader/ saxophonist Ed Palermo, the Ed Palermo Big Band has been together since 1980, performing live around New York (NYC’s Iridium, Marlboro’s The Falcon) and at US and international jazz (and Zappa!) festivals, and recording albums to the delight of fans and critics worldwide. Composed of top-notch jazz musicians, the tightly-honed big band performs Palermo’s extraordinary arrangements, which combine music from the worlds of rock, pop and blues (Frank Zappa, Todd Rundgren, Paul Butterfield, The Beatles) alongside jazz (Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Mile Davis) and Palermo originals

Marco Pacassoni Group: Frank & Ruth

by Mario Calvitti
September 26, 2019

A oltre 25 anni dalla scomparsa di Frank Zappa, l'eredità musicale che ci ha lasciato il genio di Baltimora è ancora più viva che mai, grazie ai numerosi dischi tributo diretti o indiretti che continuano ad apparire sul mercato. Alcuni di questi omaggi provengono da musicisti italiani, come quelli di cui ci siamo recentemente occupati di ...

A Lousy Day in Harlem is a great day for jazz with The Ed Palermo Big Band! Available now!

September 30, 2019

A Lousy Day in Harlem is a great day for jazz with The Ed Palermo Big Band, as the band known for reinventing the music of Frank Zappa turns its attention to a riveting program of Monk, Coltrane, Ellington, and hard-swinging originals, confirming Ed Palermo’s place in jazz’s top ranks of contemporary big band arrangers. In a ...

Ed Palermo

Ed Palermo is not a “business as usual” musician. After all, when most people think of “big bands” they think of Duke and Dorsey. But go to see Ed Palermo’s Big Band and you might hear Zappa, Hendrix, the blues of Paul Butterfield & Mike Bloomfield or one of Ed’s own compositions, loaded with lush turns and unexpected twists.

Gil Evans wonderfully articulated Palermo’s unusual approach to traditional instrumentation:

“I first heard Ed Palermo’s music in a small club in the SoHo section of Manhattan. He was using the instrumentation of a traditional big band yet his arrangements and songs were anything but that. When I thought the music was going a certain direction, it would suddenly turn a corner. Ed has the ability to keep that important balance between cohesiveness and unpredictability. Ed Palermo’s music is alive and represents now.”

Ostrava Days 2019

by Martin Longley
September 17, 2019

Ostrava Days Various Venues Ostrava Czech Republic August 22-31, 2019 The biennial Ostrava Days festival rolled around again, and there's nothing quite like a once-every-two-years event to make time appear to flow even faster than normal. As a moderne composition festival, it is difficult to accurately ...

André Lassalle