bebop spoken here (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
Nathanial Facey (alt), Lewis Wright (vbs), Tom Farmer (bs), Shaney Forbes(dms). The last time I heard Empirical they had Jay Phelps on trumpet which gave the frontline a nice fat sound. Last night – bonfire night – the fireworks were missing. Instead we had a measured quartet with Facey the man in the spotlight. The young man is a good player with an appealing sound and no shortage of inventive...
LondonJazz (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
One of the nice things about having moved the global/galactic headquarters of LondonJazz to N1 is what King's Place can do for the life of the mind. Last night I polled up for an interview with Steve Reich hosted by the London Sinfonietta - they're cranking up the fundraising for a new Reich commission in 2011. And what was the 73-year young Reich talking about, with a pace, enthusiasm and verve which...
JazzHQ (Free subscription) | 10/22/2009
Alicia Keys - Alicia Keys Smooth Jazz Tribute (CC Entertainment ) Aram Shelton - Two Cities (Delmark ) Art Blakey - Jazz Messengers (LP W/Tshirt) (Phantom ) Charlie Parker - Bird On 52ND Street (Original Jazz Classics ) Collage - Fifty-Four Minutes Twenty Seconds (Wool ) Crane River Jazz Band - Storming Session (United States Of Distribution LTD. ) Crane River Jazz Band - Storming Session: Germany...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/22/2009
Guitarist Joe Morris continues his 2002 experimentation with the double-bass. On Fine Objects, he leads a trio of saxophone, bass, and drums through two of his own compositions, a couple of trio improvisations, and other compositions by {{Ornette Coleman = 5818}}, {{Eric Dolphy = 6340}}, {{Larry Clinton = 5763}} and {{Petr Cancura = 17902...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/21/2009
Japanese Pianist Junko Onishi replaces Robert Glasper: Robert Glasper forced to cancel his JazzFest Berlin '09 concert on short notice Blue Note pianist Robert Glasper has been obliged to cancel his concert at JazzFest Berlin '09 on short notice. Substituting for him is pianist Junko Onishi (Blue Note Japan), who will perform with bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Gene Jackson on November 6th at 5:30...
Jazz & Blues Music Reviews (Free subscription) | 10/19/2009
As Nat Hentoff notes in the original liner notes to this album, pianist Cecil Taylor had scant few chances to record or even perform live during his formative years in the late 1950’s and early ’60’s. So he had quite an opportunity in the mid ’60’s to record a few albums for Blue Note Records, including this influential LP where he improvises with Jimmy Lyons on alto saxophone,...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/19/2009
Varmint is the sophomore follow up to Rolldown (482 Music, 2008), the self-titled debut of vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz's quintet. Inspired by the avant-garde innovations of such late 1960s Blue Note recording artists as {{Eric Dolphy = 6340}}, {{Andrew Hill = 7627}}, {{Bobby Hutcherson = 7844}}, {{Jackie McLean = 9283}}, and {{Grachan Moncur III = 12401}}, Adasiewicz continues to explore the tenuous...
Chicago Tribune (Free subscription) | 10/17/2009
You can always tell when guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel is in town: few spare seats on opening night.
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/12/2009
Pianist Paul Giallorenzo locates the jazz he makes with his quintet somewhere in the early 1960s, when post-bop was getting ready to explode into free jazz and its pioneers were rooted in swing, but thinking outward thoughts. {{Eric Dolphy = 6340}}'s Out To Lunch (Blue Note, 1964), {{Ornette Coleman = 5818}}'s Tomorrow Is The Question (Contemporary, 1959), and {{Andrew Hill = 7627}}'s Point Of Departure(Blue...
Blogcritics: Books (Free subscription) | 10/11/2009
Old school jazz label Prestige Records celebrates their 60th Anniversary with this coffee table sized book of LP covers. Sponsored Topics: LP album - Prestige Records - Music - Record label - Arts
The Independent (Free subscription) | 10/04/2009
Goatee-stroking, beatnik free-jazz from the rejigged Empirical, with
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/03/2009
Drummers have a reputation of being a little "different" than the rest of the players on the bandstand. There are jokes about drummers not being real musicians and how machines do their job better, often told by drummers themselves. No matter the genre, these musicians inarguably tend to march to the beat of their own making. So with this in mind it shouldn't be all that surprising that by...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/03/2009
Grachan Moncur III Evolution Blue Note 1963 John Coltrane / Archie Shepp New Thing At Newport Impulse 1965 Bobby Hutcherson Head On Blue Note 1971 {{Bobby Hutcherson = 7844}} is now comfortably ensconced in jazz history as one of the great vibraphonists of the post-Milt Jackson generation. He has amassed a large discography that demonstrates his melodic and compositional skills and flawless technique....
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 10/02/2009
Eric Dolphy Out To Lunch! Blue Note / Music Matters 2009 (1964) Few jazz fans still need an introduction to reed player Eric Dolphy's 1964 masterpiece, Out to Lunch!. It's an album people tend to come to fairly early on in their love affair with the music (assuming, that is, the affair started after the early 1960s), and serves as a meeting ground for a wide scope of fans, be they stalwarts of bop,...
The Liberal Curmudgeon (Free subscription) | 09/27/2009
John Coltrane's rendition of "My Favorite Things" completely transformed the Rodgers and Hammerstein show tune from "The Sound of Music." One could expect nothing less from "Trane," a volcanic force in modern jazz whose music reflected his constant quest for new sounds and his spiritual search. Playing in Germany in 1961, Coltrane, on soprano sax, is joined by Eric Dolphy,...
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