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Eli Newberger: Music Maker, Medicine Man
by Edward Bride
Such is the nature of jazz tuba that few prominent players are household names outside their genre. Can you name “the Art Tatum of the tuba" or a “the Clifford Brown of the tuba"? Many of these instrumental performers are part-timers. Only, don't tell Eli Newberger that jazz is his secondary field: it ranks solidly in ...
John Medeski: Mad Science
by Graham L. Flanagan
The sight of John Medeski performing on stage--his brow furrowed by intense concentration--can be intimidating. Armed with an arsenal of instruments both traditional and unconventional, he concocts sonic combinations most listeners would never have otherwise conceived. It's obvious that he's there to work--not play. Like a mad scientist who's been stuck in his lab for months, ...
Peter Bernstein
by Andrey Henkin
Last month, Peter Bernstein arrived at Smalls, armed with his guitar and a small amp, to play an intimate solo gig. The crowd was a good one for an early evening set on a Wednesday and was bolstered by the presence of legendary trombonist Roswell Rudd. As the Yankees were winning the World Series a borough ...
Ambrose Jackson
by Andrey Henkin
[Ed. Note: We are saddened to report that Mr. Jackson succumbed to a five-year battle with prostate cancer prior to publication of this article.] In the jazz world, an enormous amount of credence is given to the musician who appears on, to use the parlance, “countless sessions." Yet this ignores circumstances that can ...
Christian McBride: Here Comes McBride
by Russ Musto
"We're having a funky good time," bassist Christian McBride proudly announces with a characteristic broad smile--his voice joyous and resonant, as deep and dark as the sound of his instrument. Standing in his honored place, rear and center on the bandstand of the Village Vanguard, McBride has good reason for his unabashed expression of delight. He's ...
Andreas Tophøj: A Snapshot of Denmark
by Nicolas Large
To preserve a tradition in music, one must pique the interest of the up-and-comers out in the field. For folk music in Denmark this process would seem to be well under way; there is a steady stream of working musicians coming out of the conservatories there who have embraced their traditional folk music and adapted it ...
Claudio Roditi: A Brazilian in Iowa
by Victor Verney
Watching trumpeter Claudio Roditi lead some unfamiliar sidemen through an afternoon rehearsal prior to an evening performance provided a good look at something not readily apparent at concerts. While the audience at that night's show in Ottumwa, Iowa saw Roditi's talents as a player and improviser (and even singer) displayed, most concertgoers could only have a ...
Kurt Rosenwinkel
by Bill Milkowski
It's a pleasant Saturday afternoon at Brooklyn Recording in the charming, gentrified neighborhood of Carroll Gardens, the third day of sessions with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Eric Harland. They've been at it all day, flowing from take to take with wide-open abandon. It's a green light session--there are no mistakes, they just ...
Thelonious Monk: Pianists Riff on Monk
by George Kanzler
This month, over a dozen pianists will participate in a free concert, Thelonious Monk at 92, at the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan. Seven of them, and two other pianists with an abiding interest in Monk, answered questions about Monk's music and more specifically, his piano playing, as influence and inspiration. Jazz ...
Janis: Memphis Meltdown
by Bill King
I'd been hustling a meager living in the coffee houses and psychedelic joints of Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan when word spread of Janis Joplin's departure from Big Brother & the Holding Company. I can't say the announcement held the same aura as the Beatles imminent crack-up or Bob Dylan converting electric, but it did reverberate ...
