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E. Taylor Atkins: Let's Call This... Our Jazz?
by Ian Patterson
African-American vernacular or universal language? Symbol of freedom and equality, or one of nationalist ideals and bourgeois elitism? Folk music or high art? Jazz, since its earliest days, has represented many things to many people. For Professor E. Taylor Atkins, such binary ways of thinking rather over-simplify the arguments. Whereas an either or way of thinking ...
Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia: “Comin’ Home” Concert at the Kimmel Center
by Victor L. Schermer
Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Verizon Hall Philadelphia, PA January 7, 2014 Fresh out of the starting gate, the highly touted Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia (JOP), Terell Stafford, Artistic Director, held its first gala concert at a major venue, the Kimmel ...
Saul Zaentz
The passing of Saul Zaentz yesterday at 92 brings to mind the crucial part he played in expanding Fantasy Records from a vital, colorful, but minor independent label into a pop hit-maker and a major repository of jazz recordings from the late 1940s on. He is being remembered in obituaries around the world as the producer ...
Pianist and Educator Jimmy Amadie Passes Away at Age 76 After Long Battle with Cancer
Jimmy Amadie, the celebrated Philadelphia pianist and educator known for his contributions in improvisational jazz theory, passed away on December 10, 2013 in Philadelphia, PA. He was 76. His death comes after being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007. Amadie was known not only for his supreme musicality, but also for his unrelenting fighting spirit. As ...
Woody, Kennedy and Me
Fifty years ago today, only one jazz recording session took place in the U.S. More than six hours after news broke that President Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas, Woody Herman decided there wasn't much point in worrying about what he couldn't control and moved forward with the second recording session for what would become Woody ...
Dave Bennett: Don't Be That Way
by Dan Bilawsky
Clarinetist Dave Bennett's Don't Be That Way is a throwback album, but it's not a carbon copy of what's come before. Bennett certainly finds inspiration in the work of past masters, driving down the highways and byways that have been paved by Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman and others, but he's willing to look at ...
Ron Aprea: Passion Supreme
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Ron Aprea is a saxophonist's saxophonist. After all, none less than the late, great Frank Foster called him friend, confidant, section mate and leader. And Foster wasn't alone in this regard. Aprea has been a mainstay and graced the sax section in the bands of Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman and many others. A multi-faceted musician with ...
DePaul University Jazz Ensemble: Salutes Woody Herman
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Anecdotes of all kinds about bandleader Woody Herman-- whose centennial is celebrated this year--circulate among musicians and fans to this day. From them, we deduce that “The Chopper" had a straight-razor tongue, wry humor, and less-than-zero patience for disingenuous fan-fawning over himself or his band's celebrity. Even as road-weary big bands faded from the scene and ...
Libor Smoldas: Intuition and Dreamtime
by Chris Mosey
Libor Smoldas is one of the best jazz guitarists the Czech Republic has produced in recent years. He plays extremely fluent, straight ahead music in the Jim Hall tradition, with overtones of Kenny Burrell. He is more relaxed, less intense than his contemporary, David Doruzka, best known of the current crop of Czech jazz guitarists. Smoldas ...
Larry McKenna: From All Sides
by Victor L. Schermer
Larry McKenna's tenor saxophone playing is addictive. It's like driving a Maserati: you're probably going to want to take it on the road again and again, because it is so elegant and finely engineered. A product of the late swing band era (he did a turn with Woody Herman), McKenna has kept rigorously on a course ...
