Results for "In the Artist's Own Words"

ARTICLE: IN THE ARTIST'S OWN WORDS July 27, 2018

Bobby Sanabria: West Side Story Reimagined

West Side Story holds a special place in my heart. I first saw the movie as a young boy when my parents José and Juanita took me and my sister Joanne to the luxurious Loews Paradise on the Grand Concourse in my hometown Da' Bronx in celebration of the film's 10th anniversary. At that time there wasn't ...

ARTICLE: IN THE ARTIST'S OWN WORDS September 24, 2015

But Beautiful: My Life with Billie Holiday

By LARA DOWNES

Every Saturday morning, when I was a little girl, my sisters and I went to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for what we called “Saturday Classes": piano lessons, theory, music history--serious classical music training for serious little musicians. Saturday afternoons, when we got home, we had a ritual. We'd get out our “dress-up" from the ...

ARTICLE: IN THE ARTIST'S OWN WORDS September 26, 2014

The Most Beautiful Thing

By MICHAEL BISIO

For me music is full of magic, mystery, spirituality, joy, passion and fire, blue to red, yet my journey to conceptualize finds me chasing the most objective truths I can discover, truths stripped of every aesthetic element possible. In High School during an intro to theory class my teacher announced: music is sound in time. We ...

ARTICLE: IN THE ARTIST'S OWN WORDS April 24, 2011

Steve Khan: The Making of "Parting Shot"

By STEVE KHAN

The term, “parting shot" can certainly be interpreted in any number of ways. Perhaps for most of us, it would be best defined like this: “a threat, insult, condemnation, sarcastic retort, or, gesture delivered while departing." I choose to view it as the latter, thinking of a light punch to the shoulder as the final gesture! ...

ARTICLE: IN THE ARTIST'S OWN WORDS March 15, 2011

Wayne Wallace: The Thrill of the Grammys

By WAYNE WALLACE

I have had the honor of performing on four Grammy-nominated recordings. Mister E, by Pete Escovedo, S.F. Bay, by the Machete Ensemble, Then Some, by Steve Berrios, and Far East Suite, by Anthony Brown and the Asian American Orchestra. This was my second time being a part of a Grammy presentation, but my first as the ...

ARTICLE: IN THE ARTIST'S OWN WORDS January 29, 2010

Bill Dixon: Excerpts from Vade Mecum

By AAJ STAFF

Introduction by AAJ Contributor Clifford Allen. It is rare in the climate of this music to be presented with a view of an artist that is truly multifaceted, even though the collected works of most artists operate at a number of levels and, on occasion, in a number of media. Bill Dixon is probably best known ...

ARTICLE: IN THE ARTIST'S OWN WORDS December 24, 2009

Bassist Jeff Berlin Pays Tribute to Charlie Banacos

By JEFF BERLIN

[Editor's note: Bassist Jeff Berlin first emerged in the early 1970s with artists including Gil Evans, Ray Barretto, Pee Wee Ellis and Don Pullen. But it was his fusion work with British drummer Bill Bruford on albums including Feels Good to Me (Winterfold, 1977) and One of a Kind (Winterfold, 1979) that he gained greater international ...

ARTICLE: IN THE ARTIST'S OWN WORDS April 29, 2009

Mark O'Leary: Plucking the Flower

By EYAL HAREUVENI

Irish guitarist Mark O'Leary emerged on the global improvised music scene in the last few years, pushing his bold vision and broad scope of musicality through constantly-changing collaborations. O'Leary can cross easily between genres, from progressive, synth-laden rock and seventies fusion to free jazz and abstract soundscapes. The guitarist's encyclopedic interests and remarkable ...

ARTICLE: IN THE ARTIST'S OWN WORDS April 24, 2009

Venissa Santi: Reflections on the Cuban Roots of Bienvenida

By VICTOR L. SCHERMER

Singer Venissa Santi's debut, Bienvenida (Sunnyside, 2009) offers a satisfying hybrid of straight-ahead jazz with rhythms from her family's homeland, Cuba. The music is highly listenable and, in many ways, speaks for itself--even to an English-speaking audience. However, the ethnic flavorings may stimulate for some a desire to grasp the meaning of the Spanish lyrics and ...

ARTICLE: IN THE ARTIST'S OWN WORDS June 6, 2007

Steve Khan: Reflections on the Making of "Borrowed Time"

By STEVE KHAN

[Editor's Note: With the critical acclaim for Steve Khan's first album as a leader in ten years, The Green Field (Tone Center, 2006), hopes were high that another decade wouldn't have to pass before the guitarist moved forward with another project. With the release of Borrowed Time (Tone Center, 2007), Khan leverages on ...