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Copenhagen JazzHouse: The Evolution of a Jazz Club
by Nick Catalano
On a recent visit to Denmark I was able to spend a couple of evenings at the Copenhagen JazzHouse and digest some of the cutting edge ideas of the club's artistic director composer/ bassist Lennart Ginman. Years ago I had initially encountered the Danish jazz scene at Cafe Monmartre and found it thriving as Thad Jones ...
Torrie Zito: A Retrospective
by Nick Catalano
The extraordinary career of composer/arranger/pianist Torrie Zito provides an opportunity to reconsider the criteria by which we evaluate musical achievement. Because Zito attained his heights primarily as an orchestra writer, scholars need to examine his achievements alongside those of Ravel, Debussy and Faure who received plaudits for their work as classical composers. And although Zito created ...
The London Jazz Festival
by Nick Catalano
A fitting climax to my stay here in London was the jazz festival which has become something of a major classic. Most Americans don't realize it, but someone figured out that there are about 800 jazz fests annually in Europe and, if that is true, then the London festival should rank near the top in quality ...
The Revival of Gypsy Jazz
by Nick Catalano
I took note of the revival of “Gypsy jazz" sounds when I reviewed CDs by the Hot Clubs of Detroit and San Francisco in this column last year. I have often attended the Django Reinhardt festivals at Birdland and monitored the “invasion" of large numbers of French musicians at concerts in New Orleans and other cities. ...
The London Scene
by Nick Catalano
Traveling around Europe these days researching my next book has brought me to London town once again. The jazz scene is thriving here with a plethora of clubs and concerts and an impressive lineup for the upcoming London Jazz Festival. Of course, the clubs put forth legions of U.K. musicians, but I'm detecting an interesting migration ...
Ladies From Afar
by Nick Catalano
This month we celebrate the ever-increasing expansion of jazz overseas, particularly two foreign women who, for different reasons, have captured the jazz spirit: Roberta Gambarini from Torino, Italy and Amina Figarova from Baku, Aserbaijan. Gambarini arrived in New York not long ago and immediately jumped into the Gotham jazz scene, sharing the stage with ...
Icons Among Us: An Epic Jazz Documentary, Part 2
by Nick Catalano
Part 1 | Part 2 This seminal documentary continues on the second CD with a scene straight out of a typical Gotham jazz collaboration: singer Gretchen Parlato and pianist Aaron Parks are together in a NYC apartment working out a vocal arrangement. Gretchen is heard commenting on the vagaries of jazz singing and the ...
Moonlight on the Ganges
by Nick Catalano
A critical hue and cry has recently arisen over the release of CDs featuring Indian-jazz fusions. Expressions such as “astonishing," “spellbinding" and “swings like mad" have been used to describe alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa's interesting album Kinsmen on the Pi label. Grammy nominations and five-star reviews have poured in for Miles From India, Bob Belden's retrospective ...
Indie Label Beat
by Nick Catalano
I have a European colleague who writes about jazz and possesses a knowledge of labels and their history that is astounding. When we talk about past artists and their various contributions during different periods of their lives, I'm always surprised how often these discussions include considerable time spent on the labels involved. It is amazing how ...
Queens: Home of Jazz and Flushing Town Hall
by Greg Thomas
When most people think of jazz in New York City, Manhattan readily comes to mind. The “East Coast" stride piano style was developed in Harlem, where venues such as the Savoy Ballroom, Small's Paradise, the Cotton Club and Minton's Playhouse presented the big bands and small groups of jazz lore. 52nd Street became known for its ...
