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Results for "The Independent Ear by Willard Jenkins"
Tri-C JazzFest 2011 Lineup
TRI-C JAZZFEST JUMP STARTS SPRING WITH A LEGENDARY LINEUP 32 Annual Festival Showcases the Best in Jazz from April 28-May 8 CLEVELAND, OH—The 32nd annual Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland jump starts spring with a stellar line-up of jazz, blues and R&B artists from around the corner and across the globe. Iconic R&B singer and songwriter Smokey Robinson, ...
Sean Jones on "No Need for Words"... Soon Come
Trumpeter Sean Jones, who at 29 has become one of the busiest players of his generation is on the cusp of releasing a bracing new disc on Mack Avenue that deals with love in a more spiritual dimension. In addition to his recording and performing career Sean is a professor in the jazz studies program at ...
Marcus Shelby: Musician/Composer/Bandleader on a Mission
Bassist-composer Marcus Shelby is most definitely a man on a mission, and a man more intent on engaging serious subjects in his music than dazzling his audience with aimless instrumental technique. For his previous release his orchestra navigated his original score in tribute to the great emancipator Harriet Tubman. His latest effort is Soul of the ...
Sista's Place (Part 2)
Our conversation with Viola Plummer, Roger Wareham, and Ahmed Abdullah of Sista's Place, Brooklyn's vibrant Saturday night jazz series, continues... The last time I visited Sista's Place, to hear a rough & ready band featuring Hamiet Bluiett, D.D. Jackson, Andrew Cyrille, Billy Bang, Bob Stewart, and Sista's artistic director Ahmed Abdullah, I was struck by the ...
Jimmy Heath: "I Walked with Giants"
Last month as part of the 2nd annual Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival, the great NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath was on hand to perform with the Whit Williams Quintet. His performance once again showed how there's nothing quite like veteran mastery. Jimmy's relaxed brand of swinging brought a fire to that bandstand no matter what the tempo. ...
A Jazz/Cultural Beachhead in Brooklyn: Sista's Place (Part One)
Some weeks back an invigorating, spirited Saturday evening was spent at Sista's Place, a cooperative black enterprise at 456 Nostrand Avenue (corner of Jefferson Avenue; by subway take A or C train to Nostrand Ave. stop) in Brooklyn. The occasion was an all-star band including trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah, baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, violinist Billy Bang, pianist ...
T.K. Blue Goes Latin Bird Hunting on His Latest
Saxophonist-flutist-educator-bandleader T.K Blue, longtime music director for Randy Weston's African Rhythms ensembles, will soon release Latin Bird, his Latin treatments of the music of the immortal Charlie Parker. T.K. is of Caribbean descent and has extensive experience in island grooves, Latin music, and a thorough immersion in African rhythms—not only from his two decades plus traveling ...
John Santos: Breaking Down Barriers in the Latin Music Continuum
Bay Area based percussionist-bandleader-educator John Santos is one of the most authoritative musicians I know when it comes to multiple facets of the Afro-Cuban and Latino-Hispanic music continuum. Equally versed in the Latin-jazz vein, salsa and the historic implications of music from the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, Santos' latest recording is the exciting folkloric La Esperanza. We sought ...
Dianne Reeves: Consummate Vocal Artist
Last evening at the sumptuous Strathmore Music Center in suburban DC a robust audience was treated to an intimate and surpassing performance from Dianne Reeves, one of the consummate vocal artists of our time. Years from now I have little doubt that Dianne Reeves will be judged in the royal pantheon of vocal stylists in the ...
Artist's Point of View: JD Allen
One artist and band whose evolution has been palpable and consistently spiraling upward is saxophonist JD Allen and his trio. The Detroit-born Allen wields a brawny, constantly questing tenor saxophone and in the company of bassist Gregg August and drummer Rudy Royston he is forging new vistas for the saxophone trio. Their stream-of-consciousness set, with barely ...
