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Does Jazz History Weigh Too Heavily on Today’s Practitioners?
It is no outlandish claim to say that jazz is obsessed with its past--just look at the number of tribute albums, songs and concerts inspired by the music's forbearers, or at the never-ending stream of historical reissues. For many jazz musicians, navigating jazz means honoring the music's “ancestors" and playing “in the tradition." Jazz education programs generally look to the past to instruct their students. Reviewers of albums by contemporary jazz musicians, almost without exception, make ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Your Favorite Jazz Trombonists
Member votes were tabulated and this list represents our favorite jazz trombonists. Fully transparent and easily verifiable, All About Jazz's favorite trombonists poll was conducted during the 2023-2024 calendar year and ran up through April 23, 2024. We want to thank every member who participated in creating this impressive list (100 total!) for the next generation of jazz enthusiasts to discover. 1J.J. Johnson2Bill Watrous3Curtis Fuller4Steve Turre5Bob Brookmeyer6Kai Winding7Slide Hampton8Trombone Shorty9Frank Rosolino10Tommy Dorsey11Grachan Moncur III12Ray Anderson13Julian Priester14Roswell Rudd15Robin Eubanks16Jimmy ......
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What Is Your Favorite Jazz Interpretation Of The Beatles?
When The Beatles landed at John F. Kennedy Airport on February 7, 1964, they were greeted by around three thousand fans. Two days later, when The Fab Four performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, the television audience topped 70 million. Popular music was never the same again. It was not long before jazz musicians followed the lead of countless pop acts in covering The Beatles' songs. The list is an incredibly long one and, some sixty years later, ......
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Destination JAZZ to present Grammy Award winner Joe Lovano Quartet and 'Rising Stars' quintet with Patrick Bartley & Georgia Heers – April 27 & 28, 2024
Destination JAZZ will be held Saturday and Sunday, April 27 and 28 at Waynesboro Area Senior High School auditorium, 550 E. 2nd St., Waynesboro, PA. Presented by the Arts Alliance of Greater Waynesboro/Destination ARTS!, this new event will feature world renowned jazz musicians including Joe Lovano, Patrick Bartley, Georgia Heers, and Alex Claffy as well as local student jazz bands from Waynesboro and Chambersburg. GET TICKETS Headlining this inaugural festival on Saturday, April 27, at 7 pm is Grammy Award ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Michael Cuscuna: 1948-2024
Michael Cuscuna, a titan in the world of jazz, passed away on April 20, 2024, leaving behind a legacy that will resonate for generations. Michael is survived by his wife Lisa, his children, Max and his wife Jackie, and Lauren, and two grandchildren, Nicolas and Penelope Cuscuna. His passing leaves a void in the hearts of all who knew him. May he rest in peace, and forever be remembered as he will be deeply missed. Throughout his career, Michael possessed ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Hiromi's Sonicwonder At SFJAZZ
Hiromi's SonicwonderSFJAZZ, Miner AuditoriumSan Francisco, CAApril 14, 2024 Hiromi and her merry band of simpatico sonic warriors concluded their jny: San Francisco run at SFJAZZ's Miner Auditorium with an exhilarating jolt of electricity as they dove into their latest release, Sonicwonderland (Concord Records, 2023). The uniquely coiffed pianist wore a bright yellow dress over black tights and cute sneakers and was in perpetual motion throughout the show. “Sonic" is code for plugged in. ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
The Mosaic Records Story
In memory of Mosaic Records co-founder Michael Cuscuna (1948-2024). Although Mosaic Records' first release came out in July of 1983, the seeds for the business were planted in 1970. As a journalist, radio show host and record producer, I began coming into contact with many musicians who had been major players in Blue Note's repertory company. Since Blue Note had always been my favorite label for its consistent quality, conversations would ultimately drift to those great days of ......
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Duke Ellington: Isfahan
Part of Duke Ellington's Far East Suite (1967), “Isfahan" took its inspiration from a visit to the city of Isfahan, Iran, in 1963. Of the ancient city Ellington wrote: “everything is poetry," a sentiment transferred beautifully to this most moving of Strayhorn/Ellington compositions. Curious too, to see Ellington holding the sheet music for soloist Johnny Hodges. The same tour also took the Duke Ellington Orchestra to Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, among other stops. Will such an itinerary ever ......
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Dickey Betts: Another Man Done Gone
Although Forrest Richard 'Dickey' Betts did not share the surname of the Allman Brothers Band to which he contributed so significantly, in terms of success both creatively and commercially, he was arguably as responsible for the seminal blues rockers' legacy as the two namesakes of the group, Duane and Gregg. And it does not take a sorrowful perspective on the man's passing to contemplate how, in a very real sense, Dickey Betts' significant participation in the Allmans came ......
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Lori Bell Quartet Pays Homage To Joe Henderson On Spirited Collection, 'recorda Me: Remembering Joe Henderson'
Accomplished arranger, virtuoso musician and esteemed educator, Lori Bell has released her 12th album as a leader, the spirited, Recorda Me: Remembering Joe Henderson, an extraordinary new collection paying homage to one of the all-time greats, hard bop, jazz icon, Joe Henderson. Portuguese for “Remember Me,” the 9-song, Recorda Me: Remembering Joe Henderson showcases Bell at her enchanting best, one that the LA Times has dubbed “briskly inventive…gorgeous playing” while Downbeat describes her as “an improvisational shapeshifter.” “Joe was an ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Clint Maedgen: Life Before & With Preservation Hall
My first memories of listening to music as a kid? I was probably listening to Fats Domino and rock 'n' roll on the radio. The power of AM radio at that time in the '70s was a huge foundational influence on me, as it has been for a lot of people in those days. And sittin' in the car with my father, as he played cassettes with Hank Williams and Bob Wills, among others, I remember filing all that away ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
George Coleman at the 25th anniversary of Smoke Jazz Club
George Coleman Smoke Jazz Club 25th Anniversary Concert New York, NY April 12, 2024 Jazz thrives in places that rarely endure for very long. Sure, there are the longtime jazz temples--the Village Vanguard in New York, Ronnie Scott's in jny: London, Preservation Hall in jny: New Orleans--but most premier clubs are lucky to last into adulthood, at least as jazz-only venues. The rent's too damn high, the music too commercially marginal. Smoke ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Guitar Masters Festival Presents World’s Leading Jazz Guitarists
The 2024 Guitar Masters Festival is proud to present many of the world’s most acclaimed jazz guitarists during a series of must-see performances from April 26-29, 2024. The guitar lineups at these shows represent a who’s who of jazz’s most innovative and influential six-string masters. The festivities kick off on Friday, April 26th at the historic Klavierhaus venue, hosting an incredible 7 guitarist lineup across three sets. At 6 pm, Israeli guitar virtuoso Ohad Niceberg takes the stage with his ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald Judith Tick 560 Pages ISBN: 978-0-393-24105-1 W.W. Norton & Company 2024 In his 859-page monograph The Swing Era (1989), composer and historian Gunther Schuller skipped past Ella Fitzgerald. In 2011, when Judith Tick asked him about the omission, he responded that “there wasn't room to cover two singers, and he had chosen Billie Holiday" (Becoming Ella Fitzgerald, p. 429). Tick's meticulously researched and insightful Becoming Ella Fitzgerald fills that hole ......
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Vocalist Karrin Allyson Revisits A Favorite Musical Destination With 'A Kiss For Brazil,' Releasing May 17 On Origin Records
Vocalist, pianist, and composer Karrin Allyson writes the long-awaited next chapter in her series of love letters to Brazil on the aptly titled A Kiss for Brazil, to be released May 17 by Origin Records. The sequel to 1999’s From Paris to Rio and 2008’s Imagina: Songs of Brasil adds a bold spice to the sauce: Brazilian singer, guitarist, and national treasure Rosa Passos appears on two songs alongside Allyson and all-star accompanists Vitor Gonçalves (piano, Rhodes, accordion), Yotam Silberstein ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
World-renowned Smoke Jazz Club Presents Album Release Concerts By Charles Mcpherson And Jane Monheit, A Benny Golson Salute, And More During The Month Of May
SMOKE Jazz Club continues its 25th anniversary season with another month of today’s leading artists in jazz. May kickstarts with a five-night (May 1-5) celebration of Reverence, a new SMOKE Sessions recording by the Charles McPherson Quintet. The Benny Golson sextet heard on the 2008 album New Time, New ‘Tetreunites (sans 95-year-old bandleader) for a special run (May 8-12) honoring one of the last surviving links to the Golden Age of modern jazz. Making her SMOKE debut is vocalist Jane ......
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Take Five with Tap Dancer Petra Haller
Meet Petra Haller Petra Haller, based in jny: London, UK, is a respected figure in the fields of tap dance and music. Honored as a Rising Jazz Artist by Jazzwise Magazine and mentioned as one of Reader's Digest's “10 Female Jazz Musicians You need to Know" Haller has swiftly risen in prominence in the UK and beyond. Haller's artistic niche includes jazz, free jazz, improvised music and multimedia performances. In 2018, she initially collaborated with pianist Richard Lewis ......
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Lorne Lofsky: Steward of the Canadian Guitar Tradition
Guitarist Lorne Lofsky rocketed to fame when It Could Happen To You (Pablo Records, 1981), his debut release as a leader, was produced by fellow Canadian Oscar Peterson. Lofsky has since toured and recorded with a wide range of musicians from all around the world, including Peterson, but his hometown of jny: Toronto has been his base for more than 40 years. In that time he has witnessed many changes in the scene of that dynamic, cosmopolitan city, and has ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Joel Frahm Trio At Scott's Jazz Club
Joel Frahm Trio Scott's Jazz Club jny:Belfast, N. Ireland April 12, 2024 Another sold-out gig. It is not an uncommon occurrence at Scott's Jazz Club. Yet this was no ordinary occasion for Ballyhackamore's award-winning venue. For starters, the Joel Frahm Trio was in the house. Scott's Jazz Club has attracted plenty of outstanding musicians since opening its doors in 2021, but this felt like a cat-got-the-cream event. And there was an extra ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Elio Villafranca And The Jass Syncopators Take A Musical Journey From Cuba To New York on Friday April 26, 2024
TRAVEL THE “CROSSROADS FROM CUBA TO NEW YORK” Elio Villafranca & The Jass Syncopators featuring Brianna Thomas head to City College Center for the Arts for a special concert on Friday, April 26 at 7 p.m. Elio Villafranca & The Jass Syncopators will take the stage at Aaron Davis Hall on Friday, April 26, for a magical musical journey “Crossroads from Cuba to New York.” The 7 p.m. concert, produced and presented by City College Center for the Arts (CCCA), ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz