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Celebrating Monnette Sudler, Jaimie Branch, Joey DeFrancesco & Creed Taylor
by David Brown
A difficult week for the music. Celebrating guitarist Monnette Sudler, producer Creed Taylor, trumpeter Jaimie Branch, and organist Joey DeFrancesco all of whom we lost this week. Plus, birthday tributes to Lester Young, Sonny Sharrock, Alice Coltrane and more. h3>Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the It Club-Complete (Columbia) 00:30 Lester Young ...
Horace Silver: His Only Mistake Was To Smile
by Chris May
In his sleeve note for the audio restored Horace Silver album Live New York Revisited (ezz-thetics, 2022), British writer Brian Morton cut to the chase. “[Silver]'s only mistake," he wrote, “was to smile while he was playing... a challenge to the notion that jazz should be deadly serious and played with a pained rictus."
Chris Humphrey: The Voice of Clark Terry
by Nicholas F. Mondello
With the possible exception of Louis Armstrong, Clark Terry was probably the most unique trumpet “stylist" in jazz history. Hearing one note you would bet the farm that it was CT. Chris Humphrey's The Voice of Clark Terry, Vol. 1 is a marvelously unique salute. This recording presents a dozen Terry-composed originals. They ...
Jazz Musician of the Day: Lester Young
All About Jazz is celebrating Lester Young's birthday today! Lester “Prez" Young was one of the giants of the tenor saxophone. He was the greatest improviser between Coleman Hawkins and Louis Armstrong of the 1920s and Charlie Parker in the 1940s. From the beginning, he set out to be different: He had his own lingo; In ...
Michael A. Levy: From Piano to iPad
by Jakob Baekgaard
It is a common perception that artists do their most innovative work when they are young and then gradually lose the spark of innovation in favor of a refinement of an already established artistic expression. There are, however, many artists who remain curious all their life and never stop being interested in the interplay between emerging ...
Ricky Ford: From Across the Sea
by R.J. DeLuke
Ricky Ford is a badass tenor saxophonist. Many will recall his fierce and strong playing on his Muse releases in the '80s. Others may be aware that he was a stalwart member of big bands like the Duke Ellington Orchestra under the leadership of Mercer Ellington and with Charles Mingus and later the Mingus Dynasty band. ...
Cheryl Richards: Another Spring, Another Song
by Jakob Baekgaard
It can be hard to find new things to say in old songs, but after many years of singing the standards, some singers are still able to discover the secret of a song. Cheryl Richards is a shining example of a singer who has been able to prove the relevance of the standards for a modern ...
Stephane Mercier: New Saxophone Talent
by AAJ Staff
This article was originally published at All About Jazz in December 2001. Belgian alto saxophonist Stephane Mercier tolerates no boundaries. “I listened to some cheesy things when I was young--I don't mind. If I like something, I just put it," he proclaims about his approach to music. A new talent in the jazz world, ...
Ugly Beauty: Jazz in The 21st Century
by Philip Freeman
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 1, “JD Allen: Just Keep Going" from Philip Freeman's Ugly Beauty: Jazz in The 21st Century (ZerO Books, 2022). Queens, New York seems purposely designed to confuse travelers. It's January 2, 2020, a brisk but sunny day, and I'm to meet saxophonist JD Allen at Samurai ...
I Hear a Rhapsody
by David Caudill
We put out a call to visitors to AAJ to tell us their stories about how jazz has impacted, indeed shaped their lives. David Caudill heard the call. David has lived in Cincinnati for three decades and spent a long career writing, both in journalism and for a short while in corporate communications. He ...
