Home » Search Center » Results: Yusef Lateef
Results for "Yusef Lateef"
Kenny Burrell: Every Note Swings
by Chris M. Slawecki
Kenny Burrell has appeared on so many essential jazz recordings that jazz history and his story seem irretrievably intertwined. Billie Holiday's valedictory rumination Lady Sings the Blues (Verve, 1956)? Jimmy Smith's epochal funk throwdown Back at the Chicken Shack (Blue Note, 1960)? Tony Bennett's Carnegie Hall debut? Kenny Burrell played guitar for them all. Even Jimi ...
Bunky Green: Urgency and Continuity
by Anil Prasad
Saxophonist Bunky Green bristles at the idea of playing by the rules. On more than one occasion, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin native was on his way to jazz stardom, but each time his principles guided him elsewhere. This is a significant reason why the highly influential musician has mostly remained unsung and out of the spotlight for ...
Wadada Leo Smith's Organic: Heart's Reflections
by Raul d'Gama Rose
To assess Wadada Leo Smith's contribution to the literature of his chosen instrument--the trumpet--as his sole claim to fame would be touching just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of his importance in the scheme of contemporary music. Firstly, there is a bottomless depth to him that rivals that of musicians such as Yusef Lateef and ...
Yusef Lateef: Eastern Sounds Turns 50
by Alan Bryson
Think back fifty years to the days portrayed on the TV series Mad Men. In 1961, John Kennedy and Billboard's Easy Listening Chart were inaugurated, a freedom riders bus was fire-bombed in Alabama, Rock Hudson was on the big screen, and Doris Day was selling albums. As teenagers and their swinging parents were ...
Leo Ferguson Releases New Ensemble Album
Leo Ferguson's new self-titled album explores the intersection of modern composition and jazz, deep in the tradition of The New Thing, The Birth of The Cool and the most exciting moments of experimentation in our music. It features Stacy Dillard on tenor sax, a musician that Ben Ratliff of the New York Times called, “A young ...
Aram Bajakian's Kef: New Sounds from the Armenian Diaspora
by Chris May
Aram BajakianAram Bajakian's KefTzadik2011 Itself born out of traditional music, jazz has over the last hundred years often enriched itself with folk infusions. In the 1930s, the Gypsy jazz of guitarist Django Reinhardt enlivened the European scene. Contemporaneously, the country swing of bands such as Bob Willis ...
University of Massachusetts' Amherst campus celebrates "Jazz in July" from July 11-22
If jazz were to have a birthday, it might as well be in July. But official birth date or not, the University of Massachusetts' Amherst campus is once again offering their annual celebration “Jazz in July," a two-week program that brings students together with notable jazz musicians and educators for lectures, one-on-one sessions, group clinics, improvisation ...
Avery Sharpe: Running Man
by Bruce Lindsay
Avery Sharpe has an extensive history as a bandleader, a composer and a first-call bassist with musicians such as Yusef Lateef, and Pat Metheny. He was also McCoy Tyner's bassist for almost 20 years. No surprise, then, that Running Man is a rhythmically strong album of straight-ahead jazz tunes. The bassist's compositions move ...
2010: The Year in Jazz
by Ken Franckling
The jazz scene in 2010 was marked by a bit of cultural thaw between the U.S. and Cuba, royal honors for Marian McPartland that led honors galore for living jazz musicians, and significant acknowledgments for late jazz greats across North America. Efforts continued to expand jazz into new realms--or to hold on during the aftershocks of ...
