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Steve Smith: Drummer For All Seasons
by R.J. DeLuke
Drummer Steve Smith has traced the history of jazz drumming--pretty much most of American music drumming--in his storied career that has seen him drive big bands, small jazz combos, and fiery fusion groups, including tenures with Jean Luc Ponty and the rock band Journey. Though sometimes--as in the case of jazz-rock fusion--he was thrown ...
Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival 2015
by R.J. DeLuke
Freihofer's Saratoga Jazz Festival 2015 Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saratoga Springs, NY June 27-28, 2015 While jazz is closely associated with horns (even though there are few instruments now employed at some point across the genre) it was a couple of guitar slingers that helped light up the skies at Freihofer's ...
Steve Gadd: Consummate Drummer
by R.J. DeLuke
It might be easier to list who drummer Steve Gadd hasn't played with since he got a pair of drum sticks at the age of three at his home near Rochester, NY, right up to the age of 70, where this year his tour of duty includes Eric Clapton, James Taylor and his own band. Gadd ...
Katie Thiroux: Walking a Classy and Swinging Line
by R.J. DeLuke
Katie Thiroux, a young musician out of Los Angeles, plays the bass and sings with equal conviction. Her musical experiences began with classical, but a career in jazz is what she eventually focused on and Thiroux--who received several accolades while climbing the tricky stairway of such a career--is making good strides. A sideman on ...
Thana Alexa: Singer And Instrument
by R.J. DeLuke
Music started tugging at the sleeve at the age of three for Thana Alexa, a New York based singer who began making music there as a violinist, moved to Croatia where she discovered jazz, and returned as a singer poised to sweep into a successful career. It started with the piano--kind of. Her tinkering ...
Eliane Elias: The Authenticity of the Groove
by R.J. DeLuke
"I was 22 years old and I told Toots Thielemans that I had some tunes I'd like him to listen to," says Eliane Elias, the Brazilian-born pianist, a child prodigy who rose to the upper echelons of music during her time in the United States. The discussion with the famed harmonica player came during a rehearsal ...
Chantale Gagné: Composer on the Rise
by R.J. DeLuke
Chantale Gagné has been locked in with some of the best musicians on the scene since the pianist/composer moved to New York City in 2008. She's an import from Quebec. Raised in a rural part of the province, she cut her teeth in jazz circles in Montreal before moving to the Big Apple. She's not only ...
A Remembrance of Percy Heath
by R.J. DeLuke
This article was originally published at All About Jazz in May 2005. Percy Heath could play the hell out of that big contrabass. Played it for more than half a century. With Bird and Miles and Diz and 'Trane and Brownie and the venerable Modern Jazz Quartet and on and on. And ...
Orrin Keepnews: Classic Producer of Classics
by R.J. DeLuke
This interview was originally published in August 2007. As a city boy who took a liking to jazz music and extended it into a budding career as a journalist, Orrin Keepnews may have inadvertently veered into the record-producing arena that generated classic albums from a wide range of unforgettable artists. Maybe it was a ...
Marshall Gilkes: Relishing Big Band Success
by R.J. DeLuke
Marshall Gilkes is a trombonist of monster chops and great taste whenever he puts the brass to his lips in any performance. He's seen sitting in the trombone section of the Maria Schneider Orchestra in recent years, and has associations with other big bands, either subbing in, or as a member of the WDR Big Band ...
