Results for "Interview"

East Meets West in the Music of Rez Abbasi

September 18, 2009

One of the most interesting jazz arrivals in recent years has been the emergence of South Asian guitarist Rez Abbasi, pianist Vijay Iyer and saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. All three are truly jazz musicians of the highest order, but they also draw upon their cultural heritage as South Asians (Abbasi is Pakistani and the other two are ...

Interview: Meredith D'Ambrosio (PT 4)

September 18, 2009

Meredith d'Ambrosio's voice comes closest to Bill Evans' sound on the piano of any vocalists I know. Both artists' recorded works are deeply poetic and worship space. Unfortunately, Evans and Meredith never recorded together, though the union would have been a near-perfect marriage of styles. By the time Meredith was recording in earnest in the 1980s, ...

Dr. Lonnie Smith Interview

September 18, 2009

Eva Cassidy: The Voice and the Silence

September 18, 2009

I'm used to reading lists of the favorite musicians of young people and not knowing but - maybe - one out of every ten. As opposed to when I was twenty and could name every band in the free world, their members, their albums, who produced their albums, and what session musicians they used, now I ...

Interview: Meredith D'Ambrosio (PT 3)

September 17, 2009

When you first speak with vocalist Meredith d'Ambrosio, you hear a shyness that comes when artists devote most of the their waking hours to their work and little time interacting with others. But Meredith is no mouse. Spend time with her and you hear a distinct take-charge sensibility, a gentle get-it-done mindset that has served her ...

Interview: Meredith D'Ambrosio (PT 2)

September 16, 2009

Meredith d'Ambrosio's life reads like an Edith Wharton novel. For years, the Boston vocalist struggled with a mother and father who rarely spoke to each other, leaving her somewhat unprepared to deal with an early love and then a marriage that quickly fizzled. Through it all, Meredith managed to remain focused on studying visual arts, a ...

Diane Birch, a Rebellious Spirit with a Soulful Bent

September 16, 2009

Soul music has become a burgeoning youth movement of sorts. The best new artist trophy at the Grammy Awards the last two years has gone to Adele and Amy Winehouse, two-younger-than-30 artists steeped in vintage sounds. Like the aforementioned artists, Diane Birch is drawing from the decades before she was born. Titled “Bible Belt," Birch's debut ...

Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon Interviewed at AAJ

September 16, 2009

Wycliffe Gordon is one of the busiest jazz trombone players in the business today. He has traveled the world performing with the Wynton Marsalis Septet and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, under his own name and as a duo with Jay Leonhart. As an educator he has performed and taught master classes at various schools. AAJ Contributor ...

Wycliffe Gordon: Keeping the Spirit and the Letter Alive

by Marcia Hillman
September 16, 2009

Wycliffe Gordon is one of the busiest jazz trombone players in the business today. He has traveled the world performing with the Wynton Marsalis Septet and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, under his own name and as a duo with Jay Leonhart. As an educator he has performed and taught master classes at various schools. ...

Interview: Meredith D'Ambrosio (PT 1)

September 15, 2009

Over the summer I received a sweet e-mail from Meredith d'Ambrosio thanking me for including her in a roundup of superb vocal versions of Bill Evans songs. You may not be familiar with the vocalist, but what's about to happen to you happened to me in the mid-1990s. Back then, a friend gave me a copy ...