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Charles Lloyd: Defiant Warrior Still On Song
As fool's errands go, few compare with selecting a Top Ten Albums collection from Charles Lloyd's extensive top-drawer output. But here goes. Lloyd newbies could consider the list a launch pad, and seasoned fans can compare the choices with their own... Anyone going to jazz festivals in summer 1966, and lucky enough to catch the Charles Lloyd Quartet, will likely have one tune in particular imprinted on their memory. Not because Lloyd had already twice recorded Forest ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
A Conversation with Brad Mehldau
This article was first published at All About Jazz in 2002. All About Jazz: Do you recall your first jazz record? Brad Mehldau: I think the first real jazz record I listened to was an Oscar Peterson and Joe Pass duo album, one of those Pablo things. A friend of my father's bought it for me when I was eleven years old. Oscar was really the first guy I really listened to. That was the one. ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Discover The Magic Of The New Chicago Jazz Piano Festival
Rhapsody in Blue, The Great American Songbook & The Music of McCoy Tyner Launch A Year-Long Celebration of the Rich History and Vibrant Future of Jazz Piano in Chicago March 29 & 30 at PianoForte Studios in Chicago. In the world of jazz piano, all roads lead to Chicago beginning on March 29th, as the Chicago Jazz Piano Festival begins its inaugural spring season at Pianoforte Studios with the centennial performance of the classic 1924 George Gershwin groundbreaking work, “Rhapsody ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Talking The Groove: Jazz Words From The Morning Star
Talking The Groove: Jazz Words From The Morning Star Chris Searle 394 Pages ISBN: 978-1-9163206-7-3 Jazz In Britain 2024 Although Marxist-Leninist theory itself has proved to be, at best, a blind alley--and, at worst, in practice the enemy of the freedoms it claims to champion--writers from the Left have contributed much to the study of jazz, an art form which has ideas of freedom, both artistic and societal, at its core. The ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Pianist-composer Yelena Eckemoff Takes An Intriguing New Direction With 'Romance Of The Moon,' To Be Released May 10 By L&H Production
Pianist-composer-conceptualist Yelena Eckemoff tries something a little bit different—but no less cerebral and audacious—with Romance of the Moon, set for a May 10 release on her own L&H Production label. Always a multimedia thinker, Eckemoff has previously made albums that incorporate her visual art as well as stories, poems, and concepts from her own imagination. This time, she presents a suite of compositions inspired by the great Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, as interpreted by the formidable Italian ensemble that ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Tierney Sutton and Tamir Hendelman at the Jazz Forum
Tierney Sutton and Tamir Hendelman Jazz Forum Tarrytown, NY March 15, 2024 Tierney Sutton and Tamir Hendelman brought an expressive evening of voice and piano to the Jazz Forum in Tarrytown NY, March 15th, 2024. The overarching theme of the performance was songs about Spring." There's a variety of reasons that every recording Sutton has made in the last decade has been nominated for a Best Jazz Vocal Album" Grammy. Among these are ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Lightnin' Hopkins: Glory Be
Texas blues singer/guitarist Sam Lightnin Hopkins could lay claim to the authentic blues, having worked in the cotton fields for years. He turned electric with the blues boom and folk revival of the 1960s, influencing everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughan. But it is with the acoustic blues, soulful and heartfelt, that he forged his way in the 1940s, recording singles for a large number of labels. Glory Be" is a great example of both his instantly recognizable ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Meet Drummer Danny Gottlieb
This article was first published at All About Jazz in January 2001. If you don't know drummer Danny Gottlieb or you know him from only the earliest incarnations of the Pat Metheny Group, there's a lot you don't know about this talented, multi-faceted musician. Not complacent to rest on past laurels of any kind, Gottleib currently juggles percussion duties with more groups and ensembles than many work with in a lifetime, seeing it all optimistically, as a welcomed ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Kim Parker: Reminiscing in Jazz
Kim Parker is a marvelously talented jazz vocalist and the step-daughter of both Charlie Parker and Phil Woods. A sensitive, tasteful, and endearing jazz voice, Kim has recorded numerous albums as leader and others as an accompanying artist. She has a marvelously rich history in jazz both as a result of her famous families, as well as those legendary musicians she's encountered in her incredible life. Here, Kim shares memories and reflections in a fascinatingly honest and insightful manner. ...
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Alfredo Dias Gomes Releases 'Tributo A Elvin Jones,' In Honor Of The Legendary Jazz Drummer
Accompanied by a respected team of musicians (Jessé Sadoc, trumpet and flugelhorn; David Feldman, piano; Jefferson Lescowich, acoustic bass), Rio de Janeiro drummer Alfredo Dias Gomes released Tributo a Elvin Jones. Recorded in his home studio with sound engineer Thiago Kropf, the album arrived on digital platforms (Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, Amazon and YouTube Music) on March 1st. “The fascination with Elvin Jones’ style is longstanding,” says Gomes. “The first time I saw him play was on a VHS video ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Late-Period Art Pepper Box Sets
In his essay, Endgame," which opens the liner notes to Art Pepper: The Complete Galaxy Recordings (Galaxy, 1989), music critic Gary Giddens said of Art Pepper's professional comeback: Pepper's sudden reappearance in 1975 was something of a second coming in musical circles. For the next seven years, his frequent recordings and tours, and the publication in 1979 of the autobiography he and his wife Laurie wrote, Straight Life, transformed him from a gifted altoist who had made ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Paul Albrecht: A Drumming Maverick's Journey From Stuttgart To The Beat Of The World
In the ever-evolving landscape of jazz, there emerges a rhythmic alchemist whose beats echo through the corridors of innovation. At just 28, German jazz fusion drummer and music director Paul Albrecht has become a phenomenon, seamlessly blending traditional jazz finesse with the contemporary cadence of hip-hop. But his story is more than just notes and rhythms; it's a tale of passion, accolades, and a relentless pursuit of pushing the boundaries. Germany’s Jazz Prodigy: Awards and Acclaim Picture a teenage Paul ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Mary Lou's Salon
This article was first published at All About Jazz in June 1999.The all-time greatest woman jazz musician." That typically was the kind of language used in describing Mary Lou Williams.Mary Lou Williams Mary Lou was a fabulous pianist, as well as a noted arranger, and composer. But she also had another role of distinction: she was a sort of mother spirit for innovative musicians. Her spacious Harlem apartment was a salon where, especially in the 1940's, ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Sinatra In The Studio
This article was first published at All About Jazz in December 1998. Back in 1947, I covered, for kicks, a Frank Sinatra Columbia record date, produced in New York at Liederkranz Hall. There was an acoustically superb studio large enough to handle the sumptuous, full-fiddle orchestra assembled by Axel Stordahl, the leader and arranger. In the band were many of the city's top studio musicians, a stimulating sight. Dominating the scene was Sinatra, the one-time ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Wanted: For Being Hip—Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe and the Birth of Salsa
It may require some effort to imagine that there were once no Latin Grammy awards. The albums reviewed here truly appeared in a different world. Until 1970, there was, with one brief exception, no systematic attempt to compute the size of the Latino population of the United States. The first effort did not go well. The Bureau of the Census ultimately invented the term Hispanic," to aggregate people of different nationalities and ethnicities, although calling, for example, someone from Ecuador ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Brazilian Classics Performed By Orquestra Jazz De Matosinhos—New Album Curated By Zuza Homem De Mello
Album will be released simultaneously in Portugal and Brazil Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos is about to release a new album, Músicas Brasileiras, Músicos Portugueses, curated by Zuza Homem de Mello and arranged by some of the most important contemporary Brazilian composers, with Kiko Freitas (drums), Gabi Guedes (percussion ), and with the Portuguese big band directed by Pedro Guedes. Músicas Brasileiras, Músicos Portugueses will be released on March 28th, in Portugal (CARA) and Brazil simultaneously, by the renowned label Biscoito ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Meet Bobby Watson
This article was first published at All About Jazz in October 1999. Background and early career... I started playing clarinet and piano in my grandfather's church. I played saxophone in junior high school: originally tenor and switched to alto when I got to high school. From there I got hip to jazz and tried to do as much as I could. I went to the University of Miami and got a degree in theory and composition. In 1976 ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Meet Brian Lynch
This article was first published at All About Jazz in March 2000.Though many of his peers have received far more attention from the public and press, the fact is that Brian Lynch is one of the most experienced and talented jazz trumpeters of his generation. Growing up in the Milwaukee area, Lynch took advantage of a healthy jazz scene there that found him playing professionally at the age of 16 and gaining valuable knowledge and seasoning through his ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz
Jazz Meets Classic And Cinema on Gerhard Daum's 'Jazz Ballads'
Jazz Ballads is the fourth album by Gerhard Daum that I’ve reviewed since 2017, and each album has been a surprise—from solo piano to guitar to ensemble and now to trumpet. Daum’s trumpet is the lead instrument on all of the tracks along with an ensemble that includes piano, flugelhorn, guitars and MIDI bass—all played by Daum—and drums/percussion performed by Adam Nussbaum. Daum composed and arranged all fourteen tracks and the album was recorded in Cologne and Berlin, Germany. Daum ......
SOURCE: All About Jazz