Home » Search Center » Results: Interviews
Results for "Interviews"
Elio Villafranca: Five Islands & A Revolt
by John Ephland
The setting was Systems Two, a well-known, state-of-the-art recording studio in Brooklyn. The sessions, occurring over five days in May (7-11) 2017, were set up to record Cuban pianist/composer Elio Villafranca's sixth album, the elaborate and thoroughly rehearsed double-CD Cinque (artistShare), the music previously performed in shows at Lincoln Center in 2015. Present at ...
Making The John Coltrane Jazz Festival in High Point
by La-Faithia White
John Coltrane was born in Hamlet North Carolina on September 23, 1926. When Coltrane was a young child his family moved to the town of High Point, North Carolina where he spent the first seventeen years of his life at 118 Underhill Street. Coltrane showed academic potential at Leonard Street School. Among his classmates ...
George Wein: A Life and Legend in Jazz
by Doug Hall
Last summer, in June of 2017, I had the privilege and opportunity to interview George Wein, founder and producer of the seminal Newport Jazz Festival. At 91, he was just in the process of supporting and transitioning the new artistic director Christian McBride into this demanding and critical role for the future of the Newport Jazz ...
WEWANTSOUNDS: A Forgotten Don Cherry and Other Gems
by Enrico Bettinello
A forgotten gem from the extensive and multi-colored discography of Don Cherry is available again, courtesy of the French label WEWANTSOUNDS [yes, their name is uppercase only!]. Home Boy, Sister Out, produced by Ramuntcho Matta, was originally released in 1985 on Barclay Records. It was distributed in France and Germany only and was never ...
Sidney Hauser: Justice and Jubilation
by Paul Rauch
The hiring of young saxophonist Sidney Hauser, to fill the second alto saxophone chair with the prestigious Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra may seem like a musical sidenote to the history of this 17 piece ensemble that was formed in 1995. But considering the marginalization of women instrumentalists in jazz over the course of the genre's history, ...
Michael Leonhart: Surfing on an Orchestral Wave
by Ludovico Granvassu
If one were to find an answer to the age-old “nature or nurture" debate, s/he would have to look no further than The Painted Lady Suite [Sunnyside Records]. Listening to the stunning debut album by the Michael Leonhart Orchestra makes it clear that major achievements are only possible when nature and nurture are well integrated and ...
Nicky Schrire: Permission to Be Yourself
by Seton Hawkins
To follow the recordings of Cape Town-based vocalist and composer Nicky Schrire is to watch an artist evolve right in front of your eyes. With her 2012 debut Freedom Flight, Schrire demonstrated a supple soprano vocal technique and a knack for intelligent arrangements of unusual repertoire choices. Following it up the next year with ...
Carlo Pagnotta, Direttore Artistico Di Umbria Jazz
by Libero Farnè
Da quando prese le mosse nel lontano 1973, il festival di Umbria Jazz si è evoluto nel tempo ed è cresciuto, senza mai rinunciare alla sua primaria identità, vale a dire la volontà di innestare la forza prorompente del jazz sulla cultura e la storia millenaria di un'intera regione. La direzione artistica della manifestazione, che nei ...
Monika Herzig: A Portrait of a Hero
by Hrayr Attarian
German-born and US-based pianist, author and composer Monika Herzig released her most accomplished work to date the sublime Sheroes in March of 2018. This cohesive album is a celebration of women in music and particularly jazz, on it Herzig's group of women instrumentalists stimulatingly interpret several originals and two covers. Herzig has a doctorate in music ...
Thandi Ntuli: On Exile
by Seton Hawkins
South African pianist, composer, and vocalist Thandi Ntuli entered 2018 not with a bang, but with a thermonuclear blast. At the close of 2017, she had been selected as the recipient of the 2018 Standard Bank Young Artist Award in Jazz, anointing her as the latest figure in an incredible lineage of South African ...
