Home » Search Center » Results: Profiles
Results for "Profiles"
Billy Jenkins Turns Sixty
by Roger Farbey
On 5 July 2016 guitarist, composer, vocalist and philosopher Billy Jenkins hits the Big Six-O. It only seems five minutes ago that Jenkins played at the Purcell Room during 2010's London Jazz Festival, accompanied by the BBC Big Band to a suitably enraptured audience. He's been gigging and recording less in the past five years. His ...
Fahir Atakoglu: Istanbul Blues
by Duncan Heining
The history of jazz has been one of fusion. Its musicians and composers have continually drawn upon a huge range of different musics to create the rich and diverse tapestry that is world jazz today. Jazz is an evolving tradition of music-making. And how often, in the life stories of individual jazz musicians, do we see ...
Roberto Bonati: Macbeth and the Whale
by Duncan Heining
Italian bassist-composer Robert Bonati is one of the most ambitious and literate composers in contemporary jazz. Between 2000-2006, he released four ground-breaking extended works with the ParmaFrontiere Orchestra. While they attracted notice in Italy, they seemed to pass by the wider jazz audience in Europe, North America and the Far East. If at one level, the ...
Jimmy Greene: Beautiful Life
by John Wesley Reed Jr.
“Love Wins," says Jimmy Greene, Saxophonist, Newtown, Connecticut. Inspired by his daughter, Ana, Beautiful Life is emotionally fulfilling towards remembrance of all things for the love of Ana. The children's choir made up of Ana's and her brother, Isaiah's friends from when the family lived in Canada, exemplifies the spirit of joy ...
Barry Guy: Back to the Drawing-Board (Part 3)
by Duncan Heining
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 One of the things which may strike the listener on hearing the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra for the first time is just how much volume Guy is able to draw from just seventeen to twenty players. Some other big bands sound almost insipid in comparison. There ...
Barry Guy: A Prophet is Not without Honour (Part 2)
by Duncan Heining
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Barry Guy has been the artistic director and main composer of the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra throughout its now forty-five year history. Recordings and performances since Ode in 1972 have been sporadic but those forty-five years have resulted in eleven albums (including one with Anthony Braxton) ...
Barry Guy: Ploughs into Swordshares, Part 1-3
by Duncan Heining
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Edgar Varèse's defiant statement in the face of public and critical indifference -"The present day composer refuses to die"—could so easily apply to composer-bassist Barry Guy. He has earned over the years a deep and lasting respect from certain fans and critics, though more so in ...
Raymond MacDonald: Man with Two Brains
by Duncan Heining
By way of introduction... Saxophonist Raymond MacDonald is a busy man. He balances the life of a gigging, recording musician with a high-flying academic career and, in both respects, his reputation has grown far beyond his Glasgow home. As a musician, he is perhaps best known for his work with the George Burt/Raymond MacDonald ...
Why the World Should Remember Wardell Gray
by Victor L. Schermer
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 [This article is a commentary to accompany All About Jazz interviews about Wardell Gray with filmmaker Abraham Ravett and biographer Richard Carter, all of which are intended to bring readers' attention to this outstanding but under-recognized tenor saxophonist whose brief career spanned the transition from swing ...
Dr. Dre: Straight Outta Compton
by Solomon J. LeFlore
I read a headline today in Daily Variety (motion picture industry magazine) that said: “Straight Outta Compton chronicles the origins and history of N.W.A. ("Niggaz With Attitude"), arguably the most influential hip hop group in the history of American music. The title is taken from the title of their 1988 debut studio album, and it is ...
