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Planeta Imaginario: Optical Delusions
by Mark Redlefsen
The term “progressive," when used to describe jazz fusion/rock, suggests a constant forward movement in the music. On Optical Delusions, Planeta Imaginario's third release (and the group's second for international distribution outside of their homeland of Spain), there is a shift towards a sort of larger jazz group sound. The Barcelona-based group delivers thirteen intricate compositions ...
Geni Skendo: Breaking Free
by Gordon Marshall
Flautist and shakuhachi master Geni Skendo does not genre-mash so much as genre-crash, like a late-night interloper joining a lame party and livening it up with exotic sound. It's miraculous, this color he brings to anything, given the drab Iron Curtain he exited under on his flight from his native Albania, traveling to Boston, Massachusetts to ...
Stanley Clarke: Path Maker
by Esther Berlanga-Ryan
Innovation is a cherished quality in any art form and, truth be told, some follow greatness while others create the patterns that make that same greatness possible. There are teachers, and then, there are students. In jazz, musicians skilled in all sorts of instruments tend to look at their older peers in amazement, and challenges within ...
Tom Moon: From Musician to Critic--And Back Again
by R.J. DeLuke
Award-winning writer Tom Moon spent about three years doing research for a book that recommends recordings people should listen to at some point, well, before they die. It's a well-considered and valuable book, and it champions a great way to fill leisure time while enlightening oneself. It guides readers into musical areas they may otherwise not ...
Oasis Lifetime Achievement and Hall of Fame Awards Announced
Keyboardist George Duke will be given a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's Oasis Contemporary Jazz Awards in San Diego. Posthumous awards will also be handed out to Saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr. and Bassist Wayman Tisdale for its Hall of Fame. A multi-talented musician, Duke has worked with numerous acclaimed artists, spanning numerous genres as a ...
Led Bib: It's Not Lady Gaga
by Bruce Lindsay
Led Bib: a short, sharp shock of a name for one of the hardest-hitting bands on the UK jazz scene. But the name doesn't tell the whole story, for this is also a band that's capable of inventive and intensely emotive music as well as the riff-laden numbers that have helped it to earn the label ...
Dr. Lonnie Smith, Marva Whitney, Billy Prince, Marc Ribot & Steven Bernstein
by Martin Longley
Dr. Lonnie Smith Big Band Jazz Standard December 30, 2010 The holiday season allowed organist Dr. Lonnie Smith the luxury of surrounding himself with big band ranks. The virtual guarantee of sold-out sets created a situation where the Hammond B-3 man was able to make the change ...
Colin Towns & The NDR Big Band: John Lennon - In My Own Write
by John Kelman
Since 2005, British arranger/conductor Colin Towns has trawled the discographies of Frank Zappa, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis for collaborative potential with Germany's NBR Big Band. In every case--most recently, on Visions of Miles (In + Out, 2009)--the focus was on source material in and around the jazz sphere, with plenty of built-in grist for Towns' ...
Winter Jazzfest, New York City, Day 2: January 8, 2011
by Daniel Lehner
Day 1 | Day 2 Winter JazzfestNew York, NYJanuary 7-8, 2011 Kirk Knuffke Quartet Trumpeter Kirk Knuffke certainly has an enthusiasm for the “hot" jazz of the 1920's, even if it isn't straight from the source. Knuffke's quartet--co-fronted by trombonist Brian Drye, and backed by ...
Frank Zappa: Hammersmith Odeon
by John Kelman
Christmas came early for Frank Zappa fans in 2010 with the release of Hammersmith Odeon on December 21, to celebrate the birthday of the late, great rock guitarist/composer/satirist who would have been 70, had he not passed away in 1993, just shy of turning 53. A three-CD set, culled from a series of early 1978 performances ...
