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Whiplash
by Tyran Grillo
Whiplash Directed by Damien Chazelle Sony Pictures Classics 2014 Whiplash is director Damien Chazelle's portrait of an aspiring jazz drummer who falls prey to an overbearing conservatory teacher. Although the film has attracted well-earned praise for its acting and editing, this review sets technical flourish aside and approaches Whiplash not as ...
Marty and Brent: The Napoleon Duo Affair
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Pianist Marty Napoleon, now a spry 93, is a walking history of 20th Century jazz. He's been a Louis Armstrong All-Star and has performed worldwide with all the greats of jazz. Recently, Marty's grandson, Brent Napoleon has brought to the jazz world a series of Marty Napoleon recordings collected as Try This!. The effort is anticipated ...
Bing Crosby documentary ‘Rediscovers’ enigmatic crooner
If Bing Crosby seems like a voice from a long-forgotten era, it’s because in many ways he is. As cabaret star Michael Feinstein laments, “No one dreamed he’d fade.” Except maybe the four sons from his first marriage, two of whom committed suicide and two who died of natural causes. Crosby’s stern parenting, which included corporal ...
Jazztopad 2014, Three World Premieres
by Ian Patterson
Jazztopad Wroclaw, Poland November 13-15, 2014 Jazztopad enters its second decade with confident stride. The festival has come a long way in the first ten years, evolving, experimenting and growing as any good festival should. In 2014, Jazztopad stands as an internationally renowned festival with a clearly defined ethos, one that combines ...
Complete Newport 1956 & 1958
by C. Andrew Hovan
It's interesting how time seems to serve an artist when offering a better perspective of a particular time period or body of work. Such is the case with Louis Armstrong. Critics often cite his earliest recordings as the be all and end all, as if he had never recorded another note past 1950. In fact, Armstrong ...
Danish Radio Big Band: Spirituals
by Chris Mosey
There is a curiously old fashioned feel to this, first album of a new era for the Danish Radio Big Band under its freshly appointed leader, Norwegian Birger Carlsen. The white folks sit on the veranda of “the big house" sipping their mint juleps as “their" blacks happily pick cotton and sing about ...
How Ken Burns Murdered Jazz
Ken Burn’s interminable documentary Jazz starts with a wrong premise and degenerates from there. Burns heralds jazz as the great American contribution to world music and sets it up as a kind of roadmap to racial relations across the 20th century. But surely that distinction belongs to the blues, the music born on the plantations of ...
Ricordiamo Gerald Wilson
by Angelo Leonardi
Era rimasto l'unico grande bandleader della Swing Era, Gerald Wilson, e la sua recente scomparsa (l'8 settembre scorso, a 96 anni) è stata ricordata dai principali media statunitensi con ampi necrologi. Purtroppo in Italia è rimasta quasi inosservata. Superato il picco di popolarità dei primi anni sessanta, con un orchestra che vinse prestigiosi referendum, Wilson ebbe ...
Interview: Trumpeter/Composer Michael Sarian
Q: What are your goals as an artist? A: Right now my goal is to keep busy: keep playing, keep composing, keep working. Working on new projects, teaching, working behind the scenes at a non-profit - everything affects the music, and the more I do, the more I’ll have to say musically. Long-term, my goal as ...
Danish Radio Big Band: A Good Time Was Had By All
by Chris Mosey
To paraphrase Shakespeare, there is something rockin' in the state of Denmark. It's the Danish Radio Big Band, best of its kind in Europe, indeed--depending on who is conducting and the mood of the players--on occasion best in the world. Against all the odds in these cash-strapped times, the DRBB, as it is universally known, is ...
