Results for "Keyon Harrold"

Keyon Harrold

Keyon Harrold was born and raised in Ferguson, MO, the St. Louis suburb that tore into America’s national consciousness in 2014 with the police shooting of Michael Brown and the bitter protests and riots that followed. While Ferguson looms large in Harrold’s album The Mugician, it examines our troubled times through a far wider lens than any one tragedy. Sweeping and cinematic, the music draws on elements of jazz, classicval, rock, blues, and hip hop to create something uniquely modern, unmistakably American. Guests including Pharoahe Monch, Gary Clark, Jr., Big K.R.I.T., Guy Torry, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Robert Glasper add to the record’s eclectic nature, but it ultimately triumphs as a unified, cohesive whole both because of Harrold’s virtuosic skill as a trumpeter and songwriter and because of his relentlessly optimistic belief in brighter days to come. Harrold grew up one of 16 children in a family that prioritized music and community across generations

Fire Music: When Jazz Speaks Out - Part 4

By LUDOVICO GRANVASSU

As our series dedicated to the amazing music that has come out of the struggle for the advancement of African-Americans, we span from tunes inspired by the march on Selma, or dedicated to the many victims of racially motivated brutality. Listen to deep set featuring old masters like Grant Green, Blue Mitchell, current giants like Dr. ...

Sylwester Ostrowski: Building Cultural Connections Globally with Jazz

By CHEPTOO KOSITANY

Sylwester Ostrowski is an accomplished tenor saxophonist, composer, producer, and bandleader of the Jazz Brigade. He is experiencing major success in his music career, built around collaboration with other artists, and partnering with jazz institutions through his organization Szczecin Jazz. Ostrowski's global connections span four continents from Europe, North America, Africa, to Asia. Ostrowski ...

Keyon Harrold: Capturing the Vibe

By AARON PASCHAL

Keyon Harrold performed at The Blue Llama in Ann Arbor, MI this March and we had an opportunity to chat about his musical background, Miles Davis, music activism, and future projects. Beginnings All About Jazz: To say that you come from a musical family would be a bit of an understatement. Can you tell ...

2020 Winter JazzFest Marathons: A Survival Guide

By LUDOVICO GRANVASSU

Believe it or not, it is that time of the year again! The holidaze are barely over and a new edition of Winter JazzFest is upon us. Knowing a jazz marathon is the perfect antidote to the holiday shopping and social marathons, producer Brice Rosenbloom and his cohorts have put together a program of gargantuan proportions. ...

2019 Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival

By C. ANDREW HOVAN

2019 Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Pittsburgh, PA June 20-23, 2019 Now in its ninth year, the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival continues to grow and prosper as one of the country's best jazz festivals. Tied to the efforts of the city's August Wilson African American Cultural Center, the festival continues to prosper under ...

Gwen & Tiana: African Time

By ROGER FARBEY

It's not immediately clear that African Time is a jazz album at all. However, perusing the CD digipak's details, there are obvious clues that if not exactly jazz, it is certainly jazz-related. The first indication is the revelation that sharing the composing duties along with singers Gwen Thomas and Tiana Ewane is co-composer and guitarist Femi ...

2019 Winter JazzFest's Weekend Marathon: A Survival Guide

By LUDOVICO GRANVASSU

With each passing year, Winter JazzFest—New York's premiere jazz festival—has expanded the number of venues presenting an increasingly diverse array of musicians. There are several ways to approach a programme as dense and exciting as the 2019 edition of the two-day Marathon spanning January 11th and 12th. Thanks to an embarrassment of riches, festival goers face ...

Charlie Parker Festival 2018

By RUDOLPH LU

Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park's Summer Stage was the site of two separate concerts that were part of New York City's Charlie Parker Festival 2018. This 26th edition truly celebrated the diversity and styles of jazz. August 24th opened with noted vocalist Brianna Thomas performing jazz standards with her talented swinging band. Charles Tolliver led ...

Eric Wyatt: Look To The Sky

By DAN BILAWSKY

Look To The Sky is a story of family, navigating the world of jazz, and extolling those who helped light the way. To call it a tribute record would be to frame it inaccurately, but it's most certainly built around the personalized song of praise. Saxophonist Eric Wyatt, a brawny Brooklynite with a ...