Home » Search Center » Results: J.J. Johnson
Results for "J.J. Johnson"
Various Artists: First Impulse: The Creed Taylor Collection 50th Anniversary
by Chris May
The headline news on this lavishly packaged, four-CD collection of the work of the Impulse! label's founding producer, Creed Taylor, is that it includes three previously unreleased tracks by John Coltrane. These were recorded during rehearsals for what would become the saxophonist's Impulse! debut, Africa/Brass, in 1961. They have a combined playing time of less than ...
Pianist Joe Block: At the Start of His Big Bang
by Victor L. Schermer
According to cosmologists, our universe started as a tiny speck and within a fraction of a second exploded into a huge ever-expanding space with all the galaxies, stars, and planets condensing out of the dispersed matter within it. This picture of the origins of the cosmos provides an apt metaphor for the way in which some ...
Alternative Guitar Summit: Honoring Pat Martino, Volume 1
by Jack Bowers
Each year the Alternative Guitar Summit, led by Joel Harrison, presents a concert to honor a living jazz composer/guitarist. That wasn't possible in 2021, however, as venues in and around New York City were shuttered tight by the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, it was clear that the chosen honoree, the great Pat Martino, was gravely ill and ...
Karl Silveira: A Porta Aperta
by Dan McClenaghan
Toronto-based trombonist Karl Silveira opens his debut recording, A Porta Aperta, with no ego at all. The disc spins into life with “Nymark Plaza," featuring an arrangement which allows the rhythm section—pianist Chris Pruden, bassist Dan Fortin, with Nico Dann on drums—a good deal of room to stretch out after a brief beginning of understated harmony ...
Tiziana Ghiglioni—Giancarlo Schiaffini Duo a Dozza
by Libero Farnè
Crossroads, XXIII edizione Teatro Comunale Dozza (BO) 6.3.2022 Il delizioso borgo di Dozza, sulle colline imolesi, ha ospitato il terzo appuntamento della ventitreesima edizione di Crossroads—Jazz e altro in Emilia Romagna, che si è aperta due giorni prima a Casalgrande (RE) con Francesco Bearzatti nell'omaggio a Tony Scott e si ...
Bill Charlap: Intellect And Emotion
by R.J. DeLuke
"I don't ever remember a time when I didn't play the piano," reflects pianist Bill Charlap, who has become one of the giants of his generation on his instrument of choice, as evidenced by the array of other great players with whom he has performed. With his deft and agile approach he can summon a fiery ...
Jazz Musician of the Day: J.J. Johnson
All About Jazz is celebrating J.J. Johnson's birthday today! Considered by many to be the finest jazz trombonist of all time, J.J. Johnson somehow transferred the innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to his more awkward instrument, playing with such speed and deceptive ease that at one time some listeners assumed he was playing valve ...
Emma-Jean Thackray: Yellow
by Jim Trageser
Many of the most prominent exponents of melding jazz with soul, funk and hip-hop have been trumpeters. Even in the late 1970s, Chuck Mangione was already taking soul-jazz and moving it further into an R&B orbit (and taking heat from jazz purists for supposedly “selling out"), and in so doing exposing lots of pop fans to ...
Ulysses Owens: Big Band, Big Sound
by R.J. DeLuke
Some jazz drummers, as remarkable as they may be and as successful as their careers are, just aren't suited to drive a big band. It's not for every percussionist. But every big band needs a good one or the effort will fall short. A ship needs a rudder. Ulysses Owens Jr., who started beating out rhythms ...
