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Song of the Day

Weezy

August 19, 2023

Album: The Red Door
By Orrin Evans
Label: Smoke Sessions Records
Released: 2023
Duration: 07:11

Article: Album Review

Late Night Basie: great idea. Three tracks by the Basie Orchestra and four by other assorted groups: not-so-great idea. Enlisting Jazzmeia Horn to scat on the Basie classic “One O'Clock Jump": rather pointless. Compressing seven numbers (eight, actually) into a meager twenty-four--or perhaps more like twenty-eight--minutes (including a “bonus" track): head-scratching. Mind you, the other ensembles ...

Article: Album Review

Vicente Archer: Short Stories

Read "Short Stories" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
July 3, 2023

Bassist Vicente Archer may be a Grammy winner with a long grand vintage (Nicholas Payton, John Scofield, Kenny Garrett, Norah Jones) but he has not revealed his own particular harvest as he does on the amicable and resilient Short Stories. Accompanied on what is technically his debut, fellow Scofield and Payton alum, drummer Bill Stewart and ...

Article: Album Review

Orrin Evans: The Red Door

Read "The Red Door" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
June 13, 2023

A most generous craftsman, composer and bandleader, pianist Orrin Evans never fails to bring out the best of whoever he chooses to create with. The Red Door is gratefully, and gracefully, no exception to that rule. Whatever musical setting Evans chooses to practice his sinewy, r'n'b inflected post-bop in--sideman, big band, trio, quartet, duo, ...

Article: Album Review

Orrin Evans: The Red Door

Read "The Red Door" reviewed by Dave Linn

by Dave Linn
June 10, 2023

Orrin Evans released his debut album for quintet, “Justin Time," in 1996, at the age of 21. Over the next 25 years, Evans released over 20 albums in all shapes and sizes. From trio to standard ensembles to large bands and big bands, Evans' history included a ten-year stint as a member of the Mingus Big ...

Article: Live Review

Soweto Kinch's 'White Juju Deconstructed' at SFJAZZ Center

by Harry S. Pariser
June 7, 2023

Soweto Kinch SFJAZZ Center, San Francisco, CA White Juju Deconstructed May 19, 2023 “It fascinates me how we're all acquainted with an unspoken architectural and symbolic language of power.' How do these monuments or myths affect how we see ourselves as a nation? Naming the piece “White Juju" deliberately inverted ideas ...

Article: Live Review

2023 American Pianists Awards

by Mark Sullivan
May 8, 2023

2023 American Pianists Awards Indianapolis, Indiana April 20-22, 2023 The mission of the American Pianists Association is “to discover, promote and advance the careers of young, American, world-class jazz and classical pianists." One of the major activities in that mission is the bi-annual competitions run by the Association, alternating classical and jazz ...

Article: Liner Notes

Anthony Wonsey: The Thang

by C. Andrew Hovan
April 10, 2023

Wisdom, it is often said, comes with age and experience. This axiom has special relevance for those who pursue excellence in the arts. Whether painters, dancers, or composers, the true creators have found that it takes time and patience to develop a singular voice. Youth seems to bring with it a desire to put technique at ...

Article: Liner Notes

Jimmy Greene: Gifts and Givers

by C. Andrew Hovan
March 12, 2023

The two-tenor battle is not a new idea, with iconic pairings from the jazz pantheon running the gamut from Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray to Eddie Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin. In more recent times, Eric Alexander and Grant Stewart have fueled the fire with their own incendiary adventures as heard on the current albums Wailin' ...

Article: Book Excerpts

A Life In Music

by Wulf Muller
March 10, 2023

The following is an excerpt from the Chapter “1996," from Wulf Müllers illustrated chronicle A Life In Music (Amazon Direct Publishing, 2022) Dee Dee Bridgewater performed three sold out nights at the glamorous and legendary Paris venue L'Olympia, with new signing to Verve France, singer Jeffery Smith, opening for her. Dee Dee's show ...