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Paul Motian: Time And Time Again
by J Hunter
Of all the things that make me hold my head about Jazz at Lincoln Center, the most ridiculous item showed up in an article on the first year in their new digs, Frederick Rose Hall. In a section on J@LC's organizational mindset, an unnamed staffer reportedly dissed Paul Motian as a drummer because, “He doesn't swing. ...
Kurt Elling: Nightmoves
by J Hunter
Everyone deserves a fresh start. What's more, everyone gets a fresh start, every day: It's called “sunrise. That sounds like a bad joke, but it's true. Every day is a clean slate, if we just commit ourselves to that concept. This theme of renewal and redemption drives Nightmoves, Kurt Elling's first disc in four years.
BeatleJazz: All You Need
by J Hunter
Remember when Miles Davis used Michael Jackson's “Human Nature" and Cyndi Lauper's “Time After Time" as concert staples? The uproar over his choices brings up a question: What, exactly, is a standard? Is the definition strictly limited to the contents of The Great American Songbook? Or is it simply a tune that did not originate as ...
Uri Caine: Uri Caine Ensemble plays Mozart
by J Hunter
I'll be the first to admit that jazz's treatment of classical music has a bad rap. To my mind, it's not so much the “stuffiness of the latter genre as it is the tendency to simply take a classical composition and “make it swing. What separates Uri Caine's work from other efforts is his ability to ...
Ari Hoenig: Inversations
by J Hunter
There is nothing unusual about drummers as leaders (Blakey, Max Roach, Roy Haynes), or drummers taking less-traveled roads while soloing (Eric Harland, Brian Blade). Ari Hoenig follows both these arcs on Inversations, although there's no question the former Joe Lovano sideman works to separate himself from the current pack. Hoenig and his compatriots, pianist ...
Frank LoCrasto: When You're There
by J Hunter
Jazz is like the Constitution--a living thing that evolves with the times. If that weren't true, every player would sound like Louis Armstrong. And while there are more than a few people who would be good with that, obsessively repeating and archiving past triumphs only serves to preserve this music. To keep the genre alive and ...
SF Jazz Collective: Live 2006: 3rd Annual Concert Tour
by J Hunter
You heard it in science class... for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That maxim works in many spheres outside the scientific, no more so than in jazz. So it was only a matter of time before there was an answer to Jazz at Lincoln Center's “strict-constructionist view of what jazz “is. Where ...
Steve Kuhn Trio: Live at Birdland
by J Hunter
You have to crank the volume hard to hear Bill Evans' whisper-soft intro to Miles' “So What" on Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959). When you hear it, though, you know something special this way comes. Steve Kuhn comes from the same school of subtlety as Evans, and Kuhn's one-finger opening to his trio's Blue Note debut, ...
Charles Tolliver: With Love
by J Hunter
The Days of the Big Band are long gone, but large ensembles still roam the plains: JazzTimes recently detailed ongoing concert efforts by the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Jazz @ Lincoln Center, and any number of Mingus tribute bands; Maria Schneider uses ArtistShare to continue her expansion on Gil Evans; and earlier this year Dave Holland released ...
Hendrik Meurkens: New York Samba Jazz Quintet
by J Hunter
What would you call an NBA-sized German guy who plays harmonica and vibes, and is an unqualified expert in the history, composition, and performance of samba, choro, and bossa nova? Well, “Mister Meurkens seems a little too New York Times, though Hendrik Meurkens certainly deserves that level of respect. More of said respect should follow on ...
