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Results for "John Chacona"
Hilary Gardner: On the Trail With the Lonesome Pines
by John Chacona
It might be hard for the young'uns to believe, but there was a time when movie houses and television screens were filled with westerns. Tales of cowpokes and their trusty horses, outlaws, dogies and tumblin' tumbleweeds were so popular that various sub-genres of westerns flourished as brand extensions. One of these featured the singing cowboy trope, ...
Ken Vandermark’s Edition Redux at BOP STOP at The Music Settlement
by John Chacona
Ken Vandermark's Edition Redux BOP STOP at The Music Settlement Cleveland, OH February 27, 2024 Every jazz concert brings an experience that you've never had before and likely weren't expecting. In the case of the Cleveland concert by protean saxophonist Ken Vandermark's Edition Redux, the source was a new Apple Watch ...
Giorgi Mikadze Trio: Same Garden
by John Chacona
Your assignment for today is to name the composer of “Same Garden" (no fair looking!). Could it be a Jerome Kern deep cut? A rarity by Cole Porter? Wait! Victor Young, right? All good guesses for this tuneful, 32-bar AABA line, but the prize goes to the sharp-eared listener who named Shota Milorava, a ...
Elan Mehler: Trouble In Mind
by John Chacona
There's a scene in Michael Cimino's 1978 film The Deer Hunter where five friends celebrate a successful hunt at the bar owned by their older companion. The mood is celebratory, but as John (George Dzundza), the bar's owner, sits down at the piano to play Chopin's G-Minor Nocturne, the room grows quiet. Three of the younger ...
Hilario Durán and his Latin Jazz Big Band: Cry Me A River
by John Chacona
Believe it or not, people were writing kiss-off songs long before Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake. This one was made famous by the unjustly neglected Julie London in 1955, but you've never heard it done like this before. Havana-born pianist Hilario Duran arranged this title song from a 2023 recording on his own Alma Records label ...
Mike Reed / The Separatist Party: A Low Frequency Nightmare
by John Chacona
In 2021, the Chicago instrumental drone trio Bitchin Bajas dropped Switched on Ra (Drag City), a collection of Sun Ra covers for synthesizers. Drummer, bandleader and scenemaker Mike Reed probably heard the cassette-only release and he almost certainly heard the band's October 2021 performance of that material at his Hungry Brain venue. They must have made ...
Yuhan Su: Naked Swimmer
by John Chacona
For Liberated Gesture, her fourth release, Taiwan-born, New York vibraphonist Yuhan Su assembled a band of saxophonist Caroline Davis, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Marty Kenney and drummer Dan Weiss, all of whom play at their usual exalted level. That's fast company, but Su holds her own, moving smoothly in and out of taut ensemble passages and ...
Ethan Philion: Gnosis
by John Chacona
When it comes to making memorable entrances, Ethan Philion is on a par with Seinfeld's Kramer. The Chicago bassist burst into the scene with Meditations on Mingus (Sunnyside Records, 2022), an audacious debut recording on which he arranged familiar selections and deep cuts from the towering jazz bassist Charles Mingus. On Gnosis, the forces are smaller ...
Michelle Lordi: Only Love Can Break Your Heart
by John Chacona
"Only Love Can Break Your Heart," a minor 1970 Neil Young hit, was ostensibly written for Graham Nash after the latter's split from Joni Mitchell (a claim Young later walked back), a breakup song then. It's a lilting waltz with a simple melody more sweet than sad. Cycling eight-bar verse and chorus sections without a bridge ...
Anthony Fung: Boo Boo's Birthday
by John Chacona
Show business savants know the power of a marquee name in the credits, and the lesson has not been lost on jazz musicians. So it's no surprise that Canadian-born drummer Anthony Fung invited fellow Angeleno Mark Turner to guest on Fo(u)rth (Self Produced, 2023). The risk of being upstaged is always present, even with an artist ...
