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What Next After Kind of Blue?
by Steve Cook
For those dipping a first toe into jazz, the Miles Davis classic Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959) is a common initial purchase or listen for many plausible reasons. Web searches for “best jazz albums of all time," or the like, bring up numerous lists that put it at the top and on newcomers' radars. Prominent placement ...
Jean-Luc Ponty: Imaginary Voyages, Part 2
by Peter Rubie
Part 1 | Part 2American violinist Stuff Smith once said about the young, classically trained and self taught jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, “He plays violin like Coltrane plays saxophone." Born in 1942, Ponty has almost single-handedly taken jazz violin from the swing era into modern jazz, and beyond. At rock musician Frank Zappa's urging, ...
From George Coleman to Meeco: Ten Overlooked Classics
by Chris May
The only thread running through this installment of Building A Jazz Library is that of unsung quality. No particular artist is spotlighted, nor any particular genre. There are simply ten, randomly selected albums, recorded in the US and Europe between 1953 and 2021, which show jazz off at its finest, but which, for one reason or ...
Caleb Wheeler Curtis and Laurent Nicoud: Substrate
by Paul Rauch
The duo, in jazz or any musical form, is an intimate conversation that requires a large degree of artistic courage. The participants must be willing to expose themselves emotionally as well as musically. It is brutally honest, a practice in individuality within the context of mutual respect and humility. In the case of Swiss pianist Laurent ...
Miles Davis & Don Cherry: Which One Is The Grifter?
by Chris May
The Swiss-based ezz-thetics label's Revisited strand of reissues is a jazz connoisseur's dream. The label identifies outstanding albums of the 1960s, sets one of its gifted audio engineers to mastering them and makes them newly available. Earlier editions of many of these albums are hard to find and the sound on all of them is substantially ...
Melissa Aldana: 12 Stars
by Chris May
Before we get into tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana's album--which is excellent, so hang on in there--a word about press releases and publicity campaigns. Specifically, those from Blue Note. The label's headquarters in Los Angeles is in danger of becoming known for award-winning b.s. in this regard, as demonstrated during the campaign for Aldana's label ...
Anthony Williams: Life Time & Spring Revisited
by Chris May
Drummer Tony Williams' first two albums as leader, recorded for Blue Note in 1964 and 1965--Life Time when he was only eighteen years old, Spring when he was nineteen--still sound delightfully fresh all these years after their original release. At the time he made them, Williams was a rising star with Miles Davis' second and third ...
Jazz Musician of the Day: George Coleman
All About Jazz is celebrating George Coleman's birthday today! No tenor saxophonist better epitomizes the robust muscularity of that heavyweight instrument of jazz expression than George Coleman. With brilliant technique and a deeply soulful tone firmly rooted in his hometown of Memphis, George has performed with many of jazz’ most legendary figures and influenced countless saxophonists ...
Meet Jack Sirica
by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
Self-raised on rock and roll, Jack Sirica's connection to music always comes back to rhythm. Sure, there was that teenage flirtation with a Fender Mustang electric guitar (which ended when his dad, worried about slipping grades, intervened), but Sirica credits Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts' swing feel on the ride cymbal for opening up his ears ...
George Coleman: An Alternative Top Ten Albums
by Chris May
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, saxophonist George Coleman cut his teeth in local rhythm and blues bands and made his first recording, aged twenty, with B.B. King in 1955. That year he switched from alto to tenor, because King already had an alto player; but Coleman has continued to play the alto from time to time and, ...
