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Results for "Thelonious Monk"
George Dumitriu: Monk on Viola
by Karl Ackermann
In an NPR interview, avant-garde composer Volker Bertelmann--who wrote the soundtrack All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix, 2022)--talked about re-imagining music, saying: “You don't have to paint the river to express something about the river." That attitude applies to George Dumitriu's Monk on Viola, an unusually inventive reading of Thelonious Monk's work. The Romanian multi-instrumentalist ...
Bob Perkins: The Art of Listening
by Victor L. Schermer
This article was first published in November 2009. Bob is without a doubt an NEA Jazz Master. Please nominate him for an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship. “It's BP with the GM!" That's how the famed and venerable jazz disc jockey Bob Perkins signs on the air, with the code for “Bob Perkins with the ...
Getting to the Jazz Point: An Exposé
by AAJ Staff
Jazz... famous for complex harmonies, syncopated rhythms and an emphasis on improvisation. The music at its best is a form of personal expression, valuing non-conformity and freedom. It has birthed and is to an extent, defined by musicianly quirks, idiosyncrasies and singularities. There are also a great many non-musical threads that bind the tradition together and ...
Marvin Blague: Epistrophal Astronomy: The Hidden Code of Thelonious Monk
by Geno Thackara
If you've ever wondered what planet Thelonious Monk came from, you are not alone. According to Marvin Blague, you're not wrong to wonder either. Like most jazz listeners, he was not sure what to make of Monk's clunky-sounding playing style on first listen. But where many of us gradually come to enjoy how the pianist used ...
Jam Session: How Armenian Jazz Improvised Its Way Onto The World Stage
by Michael Sarian
Note: Originally published in the December 2021 issue of AGBU Magazine. At the turn of the 20th century, world events began to mark a major shift in the cultural and socio-political landscape that would reverberate across the globe for the next hundred years. During this period, as the drum beat of existential ...
Take Five with Guitarist Grant Gordy
by AAJ Staff
Meet Grant Gordy For many guitarists, landing a gig with bluegrass mandolinist David Grisman's groundbreaking bluegrass/jazz quintet would be the culmination of a career in music. But for Grant Gordy, it was more of a beginning, an apprenticeship in combining bluegrass and jazz that served as a launchpad for his own music. How far he has ...
Playing the Beatles (Again)
by Geno Thackara
How to present some of these oh-so-familiar songs yet again? With a catalogue as universally known as The Beatles,' the best guideline would seem to be the more reinvention, the better. Everyone involved in these tributes, fortunately, seems to agree. Rubber Soul Quartet Something Losen Records 2023 In ...
Isaiah J. Thompson: The Power of the Spirit
by Neil Duggan
Isaiah J. Thompson is one of the leading pianists of his generation. In 2023, 25-year-old has a background that is already hugely impressive. This includes his debut album as a leader, Isaiah J. Thompson Plays the Music of Buddy Montgomery (WJ3), in 2020. His accolades have included earning the 2018 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, second ...
Cecil Taylor, Ellington Seattle Concert, Aretha Franklin
by David Brown
This week on the Jazz Continuum, we celebrate the birthday of Aretha Franklin with her music and Franklin covers by Philly organist Jimmy McGriff. We'll continue with a musical tribute to Cecil Taylor, one of the most uncompromisingly gifted pianists in jazz history who was born on this day in 1929. We'll be spinning from Taylor's ...
Brilliant Corners 2023
by Ian Patterson
Brilliant Corners Black Box Belfast, N. Ireland 2-11 March, 2023 One of the highlights of Belfast's music calendar, Brilliant Corners' eleventh annual shindig served up thirteen concerts over nine days. As ever, the main venue was Black Box, where audiences were treated to the best of Irish, British, European and North ...
