Results for "Terence Blanchard"

Terence Blanchard

The crucible of catastrophe impels creative expression. Since the turn of the century, this has taken shape in manifold ways, from artistic responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the war in Iraq to the pummeling of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It is this latter calamity that informs Crescent City native son Terence Blanchard's impassioned song cycle, A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina), a 13-track emotional tour de force of anger, rage, compassion, melancholy and beauty. A Tale of God's Will, which features Blanchard's quintet—pianist Aaron Parks, saxophonist Brice Winston, bassist Derrick Hodge, drummer Kendrick Scott—as well as a 40-member string orchestra, is his third album for Blue Note Records

Ralph Peterson & the Messenger Legacy: Onward & Upward

By PAUL RAUCH

Generally speaking, legacy bands are created to preserve the music of an artist. They feature innovative interpretations of an artist's compositions or past performances to share with future generations of listeners. In the case of drummer Ralph Peterson, his ambitious efforts to honor the continuum of his mentor Art Blakey are forward thinking, about a collective ...

20 Seattle Jazz Musicians You Should Know: Johnaye Kendrick

By PAUL RAUCH

The city of Seattle has a jazz history that dates back to the very beginnings of the form. It was home to the first integrated club scene in America on Jackson St in the 1920's and 30's. It saw a young Ray Charles arrive as a teenager to escape the nightmare of Jim Crow in the ...

Lift Every Voice And Sing: Twenty #BlackLives Albums That Matter

By CHRIS MAY

Jazz has been inextricably linked with social and political protest since at least the late 1930s, when Billie Holiday made famous the leftist songwriter and poet Abel Meeropol's “Strange Fruit." The song, which has a power to move that is undiminished by familiarity, likens the bodies of lynched African Americans to fruit hanging in trees.

Joshua Crumbly: Rise

By GENO THACKARA

Joshua Crumbly and his bass have logged a good few miles learning from a respectable number of fellow players (Victor Bailey, Terence Blanchard, Kamasi Washington and more) in his fairly young career, and it shows—his debut may not be as wildly eclectic as it could have been with such a colorful history to build on, but ...

Fire Music: When Jazz Speaks Out - Part 2

By LUDOVICO GRANVASSU

In the second part of this special dedicated to jazz and civil rights [for the first part click here] we look into music inspired by the bloody events that marked the advancement of the civil rights movement, the names of the victims of ongoing brutality. The playlist included tunes which incorporate the words or the cadence ...

Fire Music: When Jazz Speaks Out - Part 1

By LUDOVICO GRANVASSU

Music often distills the truth in ways that make it hard to ignore. The history of jazz is intertwined with the struggle for the advancement of the African-American society that birthed it. Many of its masterpieces were inspired by events that marked the civil rights movement, which, in turn, drew inspiration from them. Let's look back ...

Walter Smith III: In Common 2

By PAUL RAUCH

The musical paths of saxophonist/composer Walter Smith III and guitarist/composer Matthew Stevens have crossed on many occasions over the years, touring and recording together in their respective bands and those of Esperanza Spalding, Ambrose Akinmusire, Terence Blanchard, Dave Douglas and Terri Lynne Carrington. They first recorded together in 2017, convening a stellar band to ...

Massimo Biolcati: Positive Polymath, Cooperative Catalyst

By DAN BILAWSKY

With a viewpoint colored by vast experiences--formative classical and jazz encounters while growing up in Sweden and Italy, immersive education at Boston's Berklee College of Music, finishing work under the masters at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, and real-deal maneuvering in New York and beyond--bassist Massimo Biolcati plays and writes with a globalist's perspective. While ...

Kendrick Scott: Making Walls into Bridges

By ROB GARRATT

Kendrick Scott authored one of the most compelling jazz releases of last year with A Wall Becomes a Bridge (Blue Note, 2019), a nuanced meditation on identity, history and prejudice, shepherded under the direction of producer and former band mate Derrick Hodge. Pairing gorgeous, searching improvisatory canvases with break beat interludes and samples from guest DJ ...