Home » Search Center » Results: Johnny Smith
Results for "Johnny Smith"
Johnny Smith: Roost Sessions
Each jazz instrument in the '50s had a different set of competitive criteria. Trumpet players were about tension and heat, saxophonists about developing a smooth and swinging sound, and pianists about speed and percussive intensity. As for jazz guitarists, rankings often revolved around the taste of the artists chord and note choices and who could sound ...
Jazz Musician of the Day: Johnny Smith
All About Jazz is celebrating Johnny Smith's birthday today! Guitarist Johnny Smith\'s career spans the decades of the 1940\'s through the 1990\'s. From the very beginning of his musical career he influenced the playing of other guitarists. In fact, many mention Smith as a major influence on their playing. The major guitar builders as Guild, Gibson, ...
Transitions: Musician To Artist, or Finding Your Own Voice
by Dom Minasi
Professional and amateur musicians come in all hats and sizes. There are classical, blues, jazz, country, rock musicians and musicians that specialize in all kinds of music. There are musicians from every corner of the world. If your definition of a musician is someone who: 1. Is a master of his/her instrument;2. Can ...
What's The Point, Part 1
by Dom Minasi
This is the first entry for my new column at All About Jazz. I actually published What's The Point? in my own blog in January 2012. All About Jazz asked if I would be interested in writing for them; I was surprised and honored. I decided to update and rewrite the original article; because of the ...
Pat Martino Quartet: Undeniable
by Chris May
Pat Martino QuartetUndeniableHighNote2011 Hot buttered soul-jazz, Batman, guitarist Pat Martino's Undeniable is the business! Recorded live at Washington's Blues Alley in June 2009, with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, organist Tony Monaco and drummer Jeff “Tain" Watts, it harks back to Martino's early to mid 1960s roots in ...
Stan Getz Quintette: Jazz At Storyville
by Chris May
Stan Getz QuintetteJazz At StoryvilleRoyal Roost1951 For his casual listeners, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz peaked during the bossa nova craze of the early to mid 1960s. And as Verve's five-disc, 2008 box set, The Bossa Nova Albums, reminded casual and committed listeners alike, Getz and bossa nova ...
Mary Halvorson: Saturn Sings
by Chris May
The arrival of a new star in the jazz guitar cosmos, and the chance it offers to wrest a little more of the instrument back from the smooth and fusion apes, is always something to celebrate. The emergence of Brooklyn-based Mary Halvorson, who debuted as a bandleader in 2008 with Dragon's Head (Firehouse 12 Records), has ...
Martin Taylor: Embodying the Spirit of Django
by Matthew Warnock
Guitarist Martin Taylor is about as multi-faceted as any player on the modern scene. Whereas many guitarists have reached similar heights within the jazz world, Taylor has developed simultaneous reputations for his solo jazz guitar playing, his Gypsy- inspired band, the Spirit of Django, his solo finger-style guitar work, as well as his small group jazz ...
Chuck Anderson: Guitar Reemergence
by Victor L. Schermer
Chuck Anderson's guitar artistry is a cut above the jazz standard. The quality of his execution is so fine that on first hearing, it is literally stunning. His recent CD, Freefall (Dreambox Media, 2010) consists of musical gems--all-original compositions, woven into a tapestry worthy of a master classical guitarist. Yet it is all straight-ahead mainstream jazz ...
For the Grand Prize: April Is . . . ?
by Jack Bowers
Did you know that April is Jazz Appreciation Month? Neither did I until I chanced upon a press release to that effect. According to the Smithsonian Institution's Smithsonian Jazz website, there are “celebrations in all 50 states and 40 countries." If I'm not mistaken, New Mexico is one of those 50 states, and no one here ...
