Results for "New Orleans"

2020: The Year in Jazz

by Ken Franckling
January 2, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic put the jazz world in a tailspin, just like the world at large, in 2020. And there is plenty of uncertainty going into the new year about what “new normal: might emerge from the darkness. International Jazz Day, like so many other things, became an online virtual event this time around. Pianist Keith ...

Meet The JazzTwins, Arnold and Donald Stanley

by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
December 9, 2020

For our first two-for-one Super Fans column, we present the JazzTwins, Arnold Stanley and Donald Stanley, who got started pretty young (just wait till you see who played at their high school concerts). All jazz Super Fans are VIPs, but these two take things to another level. From invitations to musicians' family dinners to being the ...

Take Five with George Kahn

by AAJ Staff
November 16, 2020

Meet George Kahn George Kahn majored in music at Brandeis University and moved to Los Angeles in 1976 to pursue a music career as a pianist and film composer. His jazz recording career now spans over 20 years. The George Kahn Trio album, released in 2018 reached #16 on the JazzWeek Charts. His new album, George ...

David Bode

Some are raised in New Orleans’ musical tradition. Others join it by force of will. David Bode, a New Orleans-born saxophonist and composer, felt the pull of his city’s timeless, creative spirit from childhood. But as the first musician in his family, connecting with it required desire and persistence. A graduate of the renowned Loyola University and University of New Orleans music programs, Bode, who first began performing professionally while in high school, has spent more than two decades performing, writing, and recording in New Orleans and beyond. He is a regular at his city’s famed music clubs, concert halls, and festivals performing with New Orleans High Society, the New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra, and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others, and is the leader of the David Bode Big Band. Good Hang, Bode’s first release as a leader, blends his eclectic musical sensibility into the classic sounds of big band jazz, resulting in an energetic debut.

New Orleans High Society

New Orleans High Society originally started with a weekly gig in the birthplace of jazz, New Orleans, LA. As the members of the band got to know each other better, a distinctive interpretation of the New Orleans Repertoire began to emerge with the sound of traditional jazz as its base but with sprinklings of Afro-Cuban, Gospel, and Modern Trip-Hop mixed in. After playing together regularly for over 18 months, the band decided to record an album, resulting in their self-titled debut. The album features Cleveland Donald on trumpet and lead vocals, David Bode on saxophones and clarinet, Peter Gustafson on Trombone, Yacine Sebti on piano and lead vocals, Steven Bohnstengel on bass, and Trenton O’Neal on drums and percussion

Meet Jonathan Glass

by Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper
October 5, 2020

New York, New York, we can't imagine our latest jazz Super Fan thriving anywhere else, inspired as he is by the sports teams, the museums, the art galleries, the theater, and the jazz clubs—-perhaps most of all, the jazz clubs. You might have spotted him, sketchbook in hand, capturing the spirit of the night's performance for ...

Billie Davies: Whadeva (Live at Dangerous Art Studios February 13, 2020)

by Geno Thackara
August 15, 2020

When you think of the music of New Orleans, chances are you're not imagining anything like Whadeva--semi-avant-garde improvisation with light electronics is hardly the first association that comes to anyone's mind. Nonetheless the Big Easy's personality is still clear through this freewheeling EP, which was knocked out in a Ninth Ward studio in one free-spirited day. ...

Don Vappie

Born: January 30, 1956

Don Vappie, musician/composer/educator, is the 2021 Steve Martin Banjo Prize Winner and the Banjo Hall of Fame inductee, in September 2022. In addition, he has received awards for his contributions to the preservation of New Orleans Creole Culture through music and film. He has produced 7 of his own albums, co-produced and starred in a PBS documentary, performed as a featured artist with orchestras on movie and television soundtracks, and at concerts and festivals worldwide. Vappie's highly regarded unique and original tenor banjo style is equal only to his love of his Creole heritage and tradition.

Kabir Sehgal: Spirited Warrior for Jazz

by Michael Ricci
April 22, 2020

Kabir Sehgal has a history of championing meaningful causes for jazz. His wildly impressive background includes five Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards as a producer. He is also the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of fourteen books including Jazzocracy: Jazz, Democracy, and the Creation of a New American Mythology (Better ...

Derrick Shezbie