Results for "Todd S. Jenkins"
The Vocal Music of Charles Mingus, Part 2

by Ellen Johnson
Part 1 | Part 2 Early Years: 1945 to 1953 Charles Mingus demonstrated his prowess as a songwriter even in the early stages of his career. Surprisingly, he started writing songs as early as 1945, a fact that often goes unnoticed. This collection of early vocal compositions includes titles such as The Texas Hop" ...
10 Most Read Articles: 2017

by Michael Ricci
All About Jazz tracks how often an article is read, and the articles listed below represent our top ten published in 2017. Interview John McLaughlin's American Farewell Tour with Jimmy Herring by Alan Bryson Published: September 5, 2017 Building a Jazz Library Forget Old Europe: 15 ...
Arthur Blythe, 1940-2017: A Remembrance

by Todd S. Jenkins
The emotive power of Arthur Blythe's bracing alto saxophone tone and flighty phrasing set him apart from many of his generation. A poet, a muezzin, an angry activist, a lamenting lover: Blythe conjured a broad array of sonic images through his nonpareil approach to music. The beloved altoist, who had battled Parkinson's disease for the past ...
Fusion

by Todd S. Jenkins
This article was originally published in 2003. Since the early 1970s, fusion music has served as an appreciable back door for people seeking an entry into the complexities of jazz. The term fusion" refers to the blending together of jazz, rock, world music, classical, or other influences into a concrete whole. Most often it's ...
Larry Coryell: Less Rock, More Jazz

by Todd S. Jenkins
This interview was originally published at All About Jazz in June 2001. A true jazz pioneer, guitarist Larry Coryell was one of the earliest musicians to experiment with the fusion of jazz and rock styles. Originally from Galveston, Texas, Coryell moved to New York in 1965, at a time when the city's music scene ...
Willie McBlind: Bad Thing

by Todd S. Jenkins
Many elements comprise the spirit of the authentic blues, from the weary, lonesome and forlorn lyrics and voices to the bent, plaintive notes coaxed from weather-beaten, jury-rigged instruments. It's that off-kilter, almost microtonal aspect of true blues tonality that is too often overlooked by cover artists and wanna-bes who reduce the music to three chords and ...
Jazz Lives: Till We Shall Meet and Never Part

by Todd S. Jenkins
Jazz Lives: Till We Shall Meet and Never Part Jaap van de Klomp and Scott Yanow Hardcover; 223 pages ISBN: 9789022993538 VIP Books 2008 Now and then a book comes along that defies all expectations. Jazz Lives, a collaboration between Dutch photographer Jaap van ...
Michael Jefry Stevens Quartet: For the Children

by Todd S. Jenkins
This release in the Cadence Jazz Historical Series (recorded in February 1995) is full of surprises, none greater than the successful intertwining of a former Jazz Messenger with one of the premier free-jazz rhythm teams. Saxophonist David Schnitter isn't the best-known of the Messengers tenormen, having joined the outfit during the comparative down-time of the 1970s. ...
Michael Wolff: The Art of Communication

by Todd S. Jenkins
The idea of music as communication is as old as music itself, and has become just about as clichéd as some of its referents. Igor Stravinsky once opined that music was powerless to communicate anything. And, truth be told, the number of active instrumentalists who can successfully communicate thoughts, feelings, concepts and dogmas without words is ...
Michael Wolff: Impure Thoughts On Hold

by Todd S. Jenkins
Pianist Michael Wolff has some of the most expansive vision of anyone working in jazz today. Born in the California High Desert, raised in New Orleans and now making his home in Manhattan, the well-traveled, big-eared Wolff is never short on surprises for his listeners. With his dazzling Impure Thoughts ensemble on hiatus, Wolff's two current ...