Custom
Printed Clothing
Hats, shirts, and other items imprinted with
custom logos, lettering and more!
The
Latest Jazz News, Articles, Interviews...
This page changes almost daily, so check
back soon for the latest jazz music news and headlines
as well as jazz articles and interviews of terrific jazz
artists..
"Amazing trap set playing!" a€'Sonny Rollins
"Could be the ultimate crossover...of all time." a€'Victor Lewis, drummer/composer (Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw, Stan Getz, etc.)
"Richi is one of the baddest drummers on the planet, He throws down with pocket, swing and edge. listen to his NOWtet Plays Zep, a masterpiece. Richi got groove!" a€'Chris Calloway, singer/actress...
All About Jazz is celebrating Fats Waller's birthday today!
Jazz music\'s first organist and one of the giants of piano jazz Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller was born on May 21, 1904 in Harlem into a musical family. His grandfather was an accomplished violinist and his mother was the church organist. His family had moved to New York City from Virginia in the late 1880s and his father was the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem... Read more...
Gil Evans was a slow arranger. He tended to agonize over charts—at times missing deadlines as he pushed to make bigger impressionistic statements, set off more romantic contrasts or simply wound up entangled in revisions. In some cases, his focus on the music overshadowed the need to keep an eye on the clock. Hal McKusick's and Creed Taylor's separate experiences with Evans are cases in point...
The city of Alton, Illinois has announced plans to build a statue honoring jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who was born there in 1926. Alton mayor Tom Hoechst made the announcement at yesterday's Miles Davis Jazz Festival, held at Lewis and Clark Community College in nearby Godfrey, IL.
The life-sized statue of Davis would be placed on Third Street in downtown Alton. Organizations involved in the project include the Alton Museum of History and Art and the Miles Davis Jazz Committee, co-producers of the annual festival honoring Davis; Pride Inc., a local, non-profit organization dedicated to community beautification; and the Alton Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau...
Peter Jones, who played drums for Crowded House, died on Friday at the age of 45. Australia's Herald Sun newspaper reports that he had been suffering from brain cancer.
The band left a statement on its website confirming Jones' passing:
"We are in mourning today for the death of Peter Jones. We remember him as a warm hearted, funny and talented man, who was a valuable member of Crowded House. He played with style and spirit. We salute him and send our love and best thoughts to his family and friends...
On June 8, 2012 at 9:00 p.m., the pianist/composer m: Michele Rosewoman leads her trio, featuring bassist m: Andy McKee and drummer m: Billy Hart, with special guest trombonist m: Julian Priester, in a concert at the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, performing a selection of original works by Rosewoman and by Priester...
Robin Gibb, one-third of the Bee Gees, died Sunday after a long battle with cancer, his spokesperson has confirmed via a statement. Gibb was 62 years old.
"The family of Robin Gibb, of the Bee Gees, announce with great sadness that Robin passed away today following his long battle with cancer and intestinal surgery," reads the statement. "The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time...
"I should go away more often," Bonnie Raitt told the hooting-and-hollering crowd at the Chicago Theater on Saturday evening before unspooling a multi-song encore highlighted by the heart-wrenching 1991 ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me."
Raitt, of course, was referring to the two years she had spent away from the road a€' a break that ended earlier this month when she kicked off an 80-plus-show tour in Oklahoma. Judging by her admitted amazement at the Saturday crowda€(TM)s overwhelmingly positive reception, and the size and classiness of the venue, Raitt seems quite pleased to be back. "I'll never forget this," Raitt said...
Rolfe Kent, composer of the scores for "Sideways," "Up in the Air" and the theme for TV's "Dexter," received BMI's Richard Kirk Award for career achievement Wednesday night at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
Kent joins John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and John Barry, past recipients of the performing-rights society's top honor. BMI president and CEO Del Bryant and VP, film/TV relations Doreen Ringer Ross made the presentation...
Donna Summer, the multimillion-selling singer and songwriter whose hits captured both the giddy hedonism of the 1970s disco era and the feisty female solidarity of the early 1980s, died on Thursday at her home in Naples, Fla. She was 63.
With her doe eyes, cascade of hair and sinuous dance moves, Ms. Summer became the queen of disco a€' the musica€(TM)s glamorous public face a€' as well as an idol with a substantial gay following. Her voice, airy and ethereal or brightly assertive, sailed over dance floors and leapt from radios from the mid-a€(TM)70s well into the a€(TM)80s...
Jazz at Lincoln Center did something really self-assured last week. It presented two major large-ensemble pieces by members of its orchestra, neither very well known as composers, for a three-night run at the Rose Theater: a€oeGoda€(TM)s Trombones,a€ by the trombonist Chris Crenshaw, and a€oeInferno,a€ by the saxophonist Sherman Irby...
If you happened to be walking by Pro Drum Shop on Vine Wednesday night, or maybe glanced in the percussion room at Guitar Center, chances are the skins had gone quiet throughout the city as the second night of guitarist Anthony Wilson's month-long residency at the Blue Whale kicked off with a special guest in drum titan Jim Keltner. Attention among the faithful a€' even those who never sat down at the instrument a€' must be paid...
At first glance, a duet between a piano and saxophone could be considered a challenging assignment for some jazz listeners. Stripped of a rhythm section to anchor the ear, artists who tackle such a formation reduce their sound to its essence while allowing ample space to roam, leaving nowhere to hide if one player steps out too far beyond the other's lead...
i i i i i i Bono, U2's lead singer and rocker-in-chief, has a reason to break out in song today: his investment in Facebook could make him one of the richest musicians on the planet, potentially eclipsing Paul McCartney, depending on how the social network's stock performs after its first day of trading Friday...
Join Doug McIntyre at the Catalina Jazz Club, Friday May 25th to see the Tierney Sutton Band!
For a great night of music join me, Doug McIntyre at Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood for the Tierney Sutton Band! 4 time Grammy Nominee! Great food, laughs and brilliant music. One of my all time favorite performers...
All About Jazz is celebrating Bob Florence's birthday today!
For close to 50 years now the release of a new Bob Florence recording has been a major cause for celebration in the jazz world and with each album, going all the way back to 1958\'s "Name Band 59", it seems that he has reached an absolute pinnacle in the possibilities of contemporary big band writing. But he has continued to surprise us, year after year... Read more...
Like father, like son.
For Nico Thom, the love of music is rooted in his childhood travels with his dad, an amateur musician with a passion for live performance, playing the saxophone, clarinet, and flute, as well as singing, from clubs to car salesrooms. It awakened Thom to the creative possibilities of melody, how instruments can open the doors to artistic expression. When he received an electronic drum kit at the age of 13, Thoma€(TM)s imagination blossomed. However, it wasna€(TM)t until he discovered the six-string electric bass that Thoma€(TM)s world flipped over. The bass had the scorching impact of lightning on his thought process...
If the seminal punk bands Black Flag or the Dead Kennedys were to jam with members of Sun Ra's Arkestra, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and James Brown's JBs, the end result might sound a bit like the Dead Kenny Gs, who are coming to St. Louis next Saturday, May 26 to perform at 2720 Cherokee.
The music of percussionist/vocalist Mike Dillon, saxophonist/keyboardist Skerik, and bassist and saxophonist Brad Houser has been dubbed "punk jazz", since it combines the thrashing beats, heavy riffing, and angry and/or satirical lyrics associated with punk rock with an ever-shifting variety of other styles, from marches to funk to skronk to surprisingly lyrical passages dominated by Dillon's work on vibraphone...
(May 18, 2012 - Wimbledon, ND) World-renowned jazz legend Miss Peggy Lee is being memorialized by her childhood hometown of Wimbledon, North Dakota with a permanent installation of photos, music and memorabilia from her unparalleled career at the transportation depot where she lived a number of years as a child. The exhibition will be dedicated at a Grand Opening ceremony attended by Lee's grandchildren on Saturday, May 26, which would have been the singer's 92nd birthday...
RODRIGUEZ'S MYSTERY AND THE IMPACT OF HIS MUSIC ON SOUTH AFRICAN YOUTH DURING APARTHEID REVEALED IN DOCUMENTARY
Soundtrack available everywhere starting July 24, 2012
"The buzzworthy Sundance documentary" a€'Yahoo!
"An acclaimed new documentary goes hunting for the lost Dylan" a€'Grantland
LEGACY RECORDINGS LOGO Legacy Recordings logo. Division of SONY Music Entertainment...
A 21st Century jazz aficionado really shouldn't be surprised about where his/her jazz is coming from. That said, the whole concept of an Icelandic jazz scene may well bring a wry smile. Known primarily for innovative rockers BjA rk and Sigur RA^3s, and smooth jazzers m: Mezzoforte, the volcanic island nation has also borne innovative jazz artists such as guitarist Hilmar Jensson and bassist SkA li Sverrisson, both former musical associates of Berklee-educated saxophonist/composer JA^3el PA lsson who, unlike Jensson and Sverisson, returned to Reykjavik, where he's tapped into the fertile local scene to create some highly distinctive and very appealing modern jazz...
How to get a debut album noticed? It's not easy--big marketing campaigns, celebrity endorsement or major national television exposure are hard to achieve if, like most contemporary artists, the budget is somewhere between limited and non-existent. There's one key attribute that helps enormously though: great music. Welcome to an album full of great music: Dagda, the eponymous first release from this young UK-based quartet...
In spite of a more than three decades on the New York City front line, saxophonist Andrew Lamb remains something of an unknown quantity. Over that time he has amassed only eight leadership dates, the majority on small independent labels. To that total can be added Rhapsody In Black, a live blowing session from 2008 which feels as if it could have been recorded any time since the late '70s. Indeed, Lamb imbues his sound with the spirituality of late period m: John Coltrane, smoldering with a slow burning passion, bordering on the ecstatic, recalling his early AACM mentor, reed man m: Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre...
Thread features two contrasting tracks by the Berlin-based threesome of guitarist Annette Krebs, cellist Anthea Caddy and pianist Magda Mayas. "Sands"--the shorter of the two at under ten minutes--was studio-recorded in Berlin in 2008, while the 26-minute "Shore" was recorded live in concert in Boston in 2009. Despite their differences, the two tracks are similar enough to fit together well, giving a clear and consistent picture of the trio's music. Before the three came together, Mayas and Caddy played together as a duo--as heard on the fine Schatten (Dromos, 2011)--and so, too, did Krebs and Caddy. Consequently, the three sound familiar and comfortable with each others' playing...
Glaring expressionism coupled with rip-roaring layers of acoustic-electric sound-sculpting maneuvers yield the bountiful fruit on this manifold studio date. When guitarist m: Nels Cline isn't tearing it up with the popular alt-rock band Wilco, he's knee-deep in progressive-jazz, free-form experimental and jazz-rock formats. He's catapulted to the upper echelon of modern guitarists, paralleling the colossal faculties of bassist m: William Parker and pianist m: Thollem McDonas...
President Theodore Roosevelt's famous quote, "Walk softly and carry a big stick," epitomizes Linda Oh, the soft-spoken bassist/composer who draws total respect with her intrepid musicianship. With her highly acclaimed self-released debut, Entry (2010), and increased visibility through recording dates and gigs like m: Dave Douglas' "Tea for 3" Tour, Oh is emerging as one of jazz's bright performers...
This album showcases the talents of two young, talented, Scandinavian jazzmen: Danish pianist Rasmus H. Thomsen and Swedish saxophonist David Ehrlin. It is flawed by lack of direction, occasional pretension, and the inclusion of strings on four numbers, but hints very strongly at greater things to come from both players...
CTI Records reissued trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's November 1970 date, Straight Life, in 2011. As with some of the other reissues in this series (see c: John Kelman's in-depth discussion of some of the more important of these), its availability on compact disc has been spotty. Straight Life is a good--if not great--record, and it's good to have it back in circulation...
Stop me if you've heard this one before. A free improvising trio walks into a club and begins a live performance by ripping the ears off its listeners. No joke here, just that flexing muscular music isn't for the faint-at-heart. And certainly the trio of saxophonist Dave Rempis, cellist m: Fred Lonberg-Holm and drummer m: Paal Nilssen-Love is an audacious one...
Since moving to New York in 2008, Israeli-born bassist Daniel Ori has labored hard to forge for himself a reputation as one of today's up-and-coming jazz musicians. While certainly an excellent bassist, this winner of the 2009 ASCAP Jazz Composers Award is slowly cementing a reputation as a dynamic composer. His debut as a leader, So It Goes (Art of Life Records, 2010), is a testament to his skills as a writer, which he also confirms in another bold statement, the sophomore effort Emuna. Like his debut, Emuna ("faith," in Hebrew) is a collection of modern jazz sounds, incorporating a blend of Middle Eastern influences with light elements of Latin and African rhythms...
There are few greater champions of the old and new in jazz than pianist/club owner/musical antiquarian Spike Wilner. His role in resuscitating and running one of the most important night spots for jazz in New York--Smalls Jazz Club--has made him a hero to those who frequent that bastion of musical integrity, but he's also revered as an ivory tickling keeper-of-the-flame for musical styles of yesteryear. Stride piano and ragtime are at the root of his playing, but he also mixes modern sensibilities into his work, demonstrating a one-foot-in-the-past and one-foot-in-the-present musical philosophy...
Legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans has been gone since 1980; nevertheless, his music continues to inspire new generations of young musicians and remains an integral part of jazz history. Live At Art D'Lugoff's Top of The Gate celebrates Evans' memory, capturing the great pianist and his trio performing in the upstairs room--and separate club, called The Top of The Gate--of The Village Gate night club in Greenwich Village, founded by Art D'Lugoff back in 1958. Never released until now, this piece of musical history was made possible because then-22 year-old engineer George Klabin was given permission to record the October 23, 1968 date by Evans' longtime manager, Helen Keane. The Village Gate closed its doors in 1993 and Klabin is now President and founder of the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation, of which the Los Angeles-based Resonance Records label is the centerpiece...
Prominent Norwegian improvisers Frode Gjerstad (alto saxophone, clarinets) and m: Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) toured North America in 2008 sans a bassist, and recorded this album at a studio in upstate New York, accentuating their synergy via a largely rough and tumble implementation. Gjerstad shows a fondness for the upper-register and produces a myriad of microtonal and edgy sound-sculpting statements atop Nilssen-Love's bustling polyrhythms, infused with perpetual motion and resonating counter-maneuvers...
Steeped in the spirituals and gospel of her native North Carolina, vocalist Imani Uzuri traveled the world on a fascinating journey, absorbing local culture and music to produce The Gypsy Diaries. The record stands as musical documentation of the distance an artist will go seeking mystical connections with other genres, all the while maintaining a firm grasp on her individual roots...
Bassist Daniel Ori's early upbringing has colored his work as a musician. Exposed first to classical music by his grandmother, he was later influenced by rock music. But these were just two posts on a journey that now finds Ori firmly established on the New York contemporary jazz scene. A winner of the 2009 ASCAP Jazz Composers Award, Ori has gone on to incorporate Middle Eastern, African and Latin influences in his compositions...
When Rune Grammofon first introduced m: In the Country with This Was the Pace of My Heartbeat, it touted the young Norwegian trio's 2005 debut as the label's first "jazz record." This is true, perhaps, using a broader definition that may rankle dogmatists more aligned with the American tradition; but over the course of the next seven years, In the Country distanced itself further, adopting a stronger predilection for song form. Rune's 2010 debut by the fledgling Espen Eriksen Trio, You Had Me At Goodbye was closer, though the trio led by pianist and primary composer Eriksen had more to do with Euro-centric piano trios like the tragically defunct e.s.t. and m: Michael Wollny's [em] than American institutions like m: Brad Mehldau...
Singer, pianist and songwriter Theo Jackson lives in Oxford, of university fame, and his debut album Jericho is named after an area of the city rather than the ancient town that suffered so much from an excessively loud horn section. There's no need to fear excessively loud horns here: Jackson and his quartet build drama with more subtlety than that and engineer m: Derek Nash ensures that recording quality is high...
Singer m: Nora McCarthy and saxophonist m: Jorge Sylvester constitute one of the most creative duos in today's jazz scene. Their group, A Small Dream in Red (named after painter Vassily Kandinsky's 1925 masterpiece), made a deep impression with its eponymous 2005 Sundown Jazz debut. McCarthy and Sylvester continue to mine their rich vein of creativity with In the Language of Dreams, offering a powerful cornucopia of musical vision and spiritual aspiration...
The three players who now call themselves Human Spirit--drummer m: Matt Jorgensen, trumpeter m: Thomas Marriott and alto saxophonist m: Mark Taylor--have a very successful track record of recording together. They teamed up on Jorgensen's magnificent Tattooed by Passion (2010) and Another Morning (2008), and on Marriott's strange and splendid Crazy: The Music of Willie Nelson (2008) and Flexicon (2009), all on Seattle's Origin Records. But the idea of the group's name came certainly from Marriott's Human Spirit (Origin Records), teaming the trio with organist m: Gary Versace for one of 2011's most dynamic and modern-sounding recordings...
Nashville-based fretless guitarist Ned Evett is classically trained, but he has also derived influence from the likes of guitarist m: Adrian Belew (King Crimson, m: Frank Zappa), who produced Treehouse at his recording studio in the Nashville area. Evett has moved around the U.S., recording several solo and group-centric albums. Shocking audiences with his extraordinary technique within the progressive-rock power trio format or going toe-to-toe with fretless guitar wonder m: Dave "Fuse" Fiuczynski, he's broadened his appeal by opening shows for perennial poll-winning rock guitar icon m: Joe Satriani...
The
Latest Jazz News, Articles, Interviews...