Results for "Sun Ra"

Article: Album Review

Billy Bang: Lucky Man

Read "Lucky Man" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
April 27, 2021

When he performed in Germany, they called him the “black devil violinist," his frenetic playing wrapped in a gyrating, trance-like state. For Billy Bang, who believed he had schizophrenia, the epithet bore a resemblance to his inner turmoil. He was born William Walker in Mobile, Alabama but grew up in the South Bronx. He studied violin ...

Article: Interview

Makram Aboul Hosn: The Spirit Lives

by Ian Patterson
April 22, 2021

Music does not have the power to right the wrongs of the world, but when it works its magic, it can soothe troubled souls and uplift battered spirits like few other things. Lebanese bassist/composer Makram Aboul Hosn's second album, Transmigration (Self Produced, 2021) is proof of that. It is a fine album, steeped in ...

Article: Building a Jazz Library

Instrumental Duos

by Karl Ackermann
April 20, 2021

The early days of jazz were not always harmonious. Converted dance orchestras often sounded like unbalanced acoustic junkyards; a single violin, cornet, trombone, clarinet, tuba, drums, banjo, and piano, all fighting for attention. The piano was meant to be the glue holding the shrill and boisterous elements together. In 1921 a prodigy pianist named Zez Confrey ...

Article: Live Review

Rinascita a Chicago: le gemme dell’etichetta International Anthem

by Angelo Leonardi
April 9, 2021

Non è casuale che l'etichetta indipendente più innovativa nell'attuale panorama jazzistico (e non solo) sia nata e operi a Chicago. È noto infatti che la metropoli dell'Illinois è una delle capitali del jazz, avendo svolto un ruolo centrale in tutta la storia musicale afro-americana, talvolta paritetico con quello di New York. Nel 2014 ...

News: Music Industry

Tony Adamo Receives Permission To Rename And Write Lyrics To A Future Sun Ra Song

April 5, 2021

Tony Adamo wrote about and released music on Eddie Harris, B.B. King, Eddie Henderson, Art Blakey, James Brown, Mark Murphy, Eddie Gale, Jack Kerouac, and Sun Ra, the song entitled “Sun Ra Goes to Mars.” The Eddie Harris estate gave Adamo permission to write spoken word to his “Listen Here.” Adamo renamed it “Listen Here Listen ...

Article: Just For Fun

Sinatra In Vegas With Sun Ra Discovery

by Arthur R George
April 1, 2021

Atomic! Sun Ra and Frank Sinatra at The Sands, a previously unknown 1966 recording of the Intergalactic Navigator onstage with The Chairman of the Board, was released today in a joint venture by Blue Note and Mobile Fidelity. “We didn't know if it was real when we first found these recordings. Had we been had? Or ...

Article: Under the Radar

A Different Drummer, Part 2: Royal Hartigan

by Karl Ackermann
March 30, 2021

Drums of Life--Drums of DeathThe ruins of the Anasazi people stand undisturbed in the cliffs between the high mesas and the canyon floors of the southwest. Dating to 2500 B.C., the multi-story adobe pueblos and stone cities were the sites of the ancient indigenous peoples of North America. Archeologists have uncovered an assortment of percussion instruments ...

Article: Interview

Logan Richardson: To Boldly Go Where No Jazz Has Gone Before

by Chris May
March 8, 2021

In a 2016 interview, Kansas City-born alto saxophonist Logan Richardson said: “Jazz will constantly change because there's constantly a new us, new times. There will always be a fight from the conformists--but they don't represent where the tradition is coming from." Richardson was talking not long after the release of his adventurous Blue Note album, Shift, ...

Article: Hardly Strictly Jazz

Philadelphia, Mon Amour

by Skip Heller
March 7, 2021

I was born in 1965, in West Philly, so I met the world in 1980 or so. My city was then recovering from two terms of mayor Frank Rizzo, whose corruption was on a level not seen since the glory days of New York mayor Jimmy Walker. Rizzo hated anyone who was young or of color. ...

Article: Meet the Staff

Meet Jerome Wilson

by AAJ Staff
March 4, 2021

I currently live in: Fairfax, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC with my five cats, Chloe, Panther, Donovan, Felicia, and Gabriel. I joined All About Jazz in: 2016 Why did you decide to contribute to All About Jazz? I was a reader and fan of All About Jazz and I admired the ...