Results for "In the Artist's Own Words"
Bobby Sanabria: West Side Story Reimagined
by Bobby Sanabria
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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! ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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