Home » Search Center » Results: Mel Lewis
Results for "Mel Lewis"
John Patitucci: Celebrating Jazz Heroes
by R.J. DeLuke
As sayings go, “One man's trash is another man's treasure" is pretty straightforward, especially for those enamored with garage sales. For lovers of jazz music, it may hold a bit more significance, for it played a fateful role in the life of one of today's superlative artists in the genre. John Patitucci is one ...
John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble: Eternal Interlude
by Troy Collins
In addition to leading the unclassifiable Claudia Quintet and performing numerous sideman duties, composer and percussionist John Hollenbeck is renowned for his inimitable multi-layered writing. Hollenbeck studied under composer Bob Brookmeyer before charting a unique path in creative improvised music, incorporating elements of minimalism, post-rock and indigenous folk music into his eclectic compositions. As leader of ...
Large Ensembles: Is There a Place in This Large Music World?
by R.J. DeLuke
The big band in jazz has a long and glorious history. It was a prevalent form in jazz music in the '20s and '30s, comprising a substantial part of America's popular music heard on radio, spun on gramophones and record players, and enjoyed in dance halls. It gave rise to iconic band leaders like Fletcher Henderson, ...
Peter Sommer: Crossroads
by Hrayr Attarian
It takes self-confidence and talent for a new musician to lock horns with a more experienced practitioner of the same instrument, and tenor saxophonist Peter Sommer has plenty of both. His only other recording was a collaborative effort with pianist Art Lande, and this second recording is his first as a leader. On ...
Jazz Orchestras
by Nick Catalano
This excerpt appears in New York Nights: Performing, Producing and Writing in Gotham (IUniverse, 2008). In addition to the productions of the dance band shows, being a Performing Arts producer meant that I had the opportunity to present artists from every genre imaginable. I steadfastly tried to adhere to some sense of objectivity listening ...
Toshiko Akiyoshi - Lew Tabackin Big Band: Mosaic Select
by Samuel Chell
Jazz was never more schizophrenic than in the 1970s. On the one hand, musicians equally savvy about mixing genres and running mixing boards were selling out arenas and producing lucrative, widely played albums, with bass-heavy danceable beats or soothing instrumental sounds tailor-made for air play on FM radio. At the other extreme, many of the jazz ...
"A Swingin' Affair" Outshines Its Name
by Jack Bowers
With an appreciative bow and genial tip of the hat to the late Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, the Los Angeles Jazz Institute named its semi-annual big-band soiree May 21-24 at the Sheraton LAX Four Points Hotel “A Swingin' Affair." Was the event able to live up to its name? In the immortal words of ...
Snooky Young
by Rex Butters
When they called Eugene Edward Young up to the podium to receive his 2009 NEA Jazz Master's award, he was called by his professional name, Snooky. “I don't know how I got it," he said. “It started when I was a real little kid. I don't know where it came from. It used to be Snookum ...
Darcy James Argue's Secret Society: Infernal Machines
by Troy Collins
The reverb-drenched cajon rhythm, subtle electric guitar washes and lush horn refrains that open Infernal Machines, the studio debut of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, introduce the sound of a big band like no other--proving that the critical acclaim lavished upon this eighteen-piece ensemble since their first gig in 2005 has been entirely justified. ...
Brian Blade: Songs From His Heart
by R.J. DeLuke
Known in the jazz world for his slick and superlative drumming skills, Brian Blade is engaged in making other musical statements these days. Statements that are outside the jazz genre, but are an essential part of this enlightened man and serious musician whose musical tastes run “between Bela Bartok and Wayne Shorter to Al Green," who, ...
