Album Review » Michael Dease: Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill
Leaving a legacy in this life is a subject that holds different meanings for people. For some, it involves building a structure of permanence that will stand up to the test of time after one's entrance into eternity. For others, it is more fleeting, something that can be shaped and reshaped, and if desired, completely torn down. #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/found-in-space-the-music-of-gregg-hill-michael-dease-origin-records
Live Review » Duets: Chucho Valdes, Dianne Reeves, and Joe Lovano at 92Y
A supergroup can be as much a treat for the players as for its listeners. Saxophonist Joe Lovano, singer Dianne Reeves, and pianist Chucho Valdes seemed as jazzed—so to speak—about their summit meeting as were their noisy, enthusiastic audience at the wood-paneled Thomas L. Kaufmann Concert Hall at New York's 92nd Street Y. #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/duets-chucho-valdes-dianne-reeves-and-joe-lovano-at-92y
In Pictures » 2024 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival
There are 14 stages in constant use hosting #jazz, blues, gospel, rock, zydeco, soul, funk, R&B, Americana, Mardi Gras Indians, jam bands, add to that cultural pavilions, arts and crafts and the best food in the world it soon becomes apparent that the best-laid plans end when the gates open... The best plan is just go and have a good time, wherever you are will be music to your ears.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/2024-new-orleans-jazz-and-heritage-festival
Play This! » Lyle Mays: Ascent
In 1986, master keyboardist Lyle Mays—known for his role in the Pat Metheny Group—issued his first solo album, Lyle Mays. It's full of compositions and improvisations that merit close listening, but the most astonishing piece may be "Ascent." The song's extended guitar solo, from Bill Frisell, redefines the sonic territory that an electric guitar can claim. #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/lyle-mays-ascent-lyle-mays
Album Review » Christian McBride, Edgar Meyer: But Who's Gonna Play The Melody?
It is not known exactly how many duets of this nature (2 bassists) have fallen into the lackluster bin of audio history. But rest assured that But Who's Gonna Play The Melody? is as far from that incalculable number as the moon is from the sun. #jazz #bass
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/but-whos-gonna-play-the-melody-christian-mcbride-mack-avenue-records
Album Review
BlankFor.Ms - Jason Moran - Marcus Gilmore: Refract
Electroacoustic music gains a new modern perspective with the sonic marvel that is Refract, a collaborative effort between degraded tapes artist Tyler Gilmore, aka BlankFor.ms, pianist Jason Moran and Marcus Gilmore on drums. An experimental series of sketched shapes featuring hovering loops turned sound- blankets, drum-set turned beat-machine and piano... #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/refract-blankforms-jason-moran-marcus-gilmore-self-produced
Live Review
Snarky Puppy At The Ogden Theater
Originality seems to be a guiding force for Snarky Puppy. That applies not just to the type of music they play in general, but it goes all the way down to preparation of set lists. Saturday night at the Ogden Theater, band leader, bassist and spokesman for the group, Michael League went out of his way to review with the audience past gigs in Denver...
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/snarky-puppy-at-the-ogden-theater
Album Review
Tina Raymond: Divinations
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Drummer Tina Raymond possesses a buoyant momentum and contemporary polyrhythmic sense of swing which has a listener skidding along one moment and bopping down the next. She owns a rock 'n roll snap in her wrists which keeps the energy high-spirited all the way. #jazz #drums
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/divinations-tina-raymond-self-produced
Album Review
Mark Turner Quartet: Live At The Village Vanguard
Mark Turner's Live At The Village Vanguard follows a year after the saxophonist's critically acclaimed second quartet offering for the ECM label Return From The Stars (2022) and features the same group, containing live cuts of the entirety of that record. #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/live-at-the-village-vanguard-mark-turner-self-produced
Album Review: Mendoza - Hoff - Revels: Echolocation
Among today's leading guitarists fusing the power of rock and avant-garde jazz, ...Ava Mendoza may be the one with the strongest link to the punk tradition. All the evidence one needs is on Echolocation, a project by Revels, her close collaboration with bassist Devin Hoff, on which the pair are joined by saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and drummer Ches Smith.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/echolocation-mendoza-hoff-revels-aum-fidelity
Catching Up With: Veronica Swift: Breaking It Up, Making It New
Easily on track to become the "Streisand-in-the-mosh-pit" of her restless generation, singer and urban changeling Veronica Swift likes to shake things up and keep things moving. Especially her music. Especially on an album that bears her name. Veronica Swift, her latest. #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/veronica-swift=breaking-it-up-making-it-new
72 Jazz Thrillers
The Most Exciting Jazz Albums Since 1969: 1969-1983
As a teenager of 18 in 1970, I was heavily into rock music, The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead. I subscribed to Rolling Stone Magazine and really enjoyed the record reviews. One fateful day in May 1970, I read their review (by Langdon Winner) of Miles Davis's Bitches Brew.... So, I picked up the album and listened, and my life was never the same.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-most-exciting-jazz-albums-since-1969-1969-1983
Play This!
Gretchen Parlato: Turning Into Blue
From her album In A Dream (ObliqSound, 2009), Gretchen Parlato's "Turning Into Blue" is a sublime and seductive feast for the ears. Featuring Aaron Parks, Kendrick Scott and Derrick Hodge. #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/gretchen-parlato-turning-into-blue
Multiple Reviews
Wolfgang Muthspiel / Benjamin Koppel / Scott Colley / Brian Blade: Complements Incarnate
The inveterate musiclover knows all too well how the attraction of certain musician names invariably invariably leads to the satisfaction of hearing them, live or on record, as leaders or accompanists. Bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade are two such musicians whose listing in the credits of any album or showbill invariably invites observation... #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/wolfgang-muthspiel-benjamin-koppel-scott-colley-brian-blade-complements-incarnate
Album Review
Greg Byers: Dear Zbigniew
Half a decade in the making, Dear Zbigniew is multi-string instrumentalist Greg Byers' musical letter to Zbigniew Seifert, the Polish violinist who made his name in Tomasz Stanko's quintet in the late '60s/early '70s. Byers' appreciation of Seifert—dubbed the John Coltrane of the violin...
#jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/dear-zbigniew-greg-byers-self-produced
The Reluctant Marketer
What Is The Purpose Of Your Website? Part 3
This series of articles on websites assumes that one reason you have a website is to grow your audience of fans. As I've written before, there are lots of good reasons to own a website. The purpose of the site might be to draw more people to your performances; sell more online music, books, or merchandise; or simply to promote yourself to other musicians, record labels, or the press. #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/what-is-the-purpose-of-your-website-part-3
Album Review: Charles Mingus: At Antibes 1960 Revisited
Charles Mingus' exhilarating blend of roots and the avant-garde only rarely seems as binary* (see below) as it does on this recording from the 1960 Antibes #Jazz Festival. Most often on a Mingus album, you do not hear the joins. This time, on one level, you do.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/at-antibes-1960-revisited-charles-mingus-ezz-thetics
Take Five With Benny Benack III
By age 32, Emmy-nominated trumpeter and vocalist Benny Benack III has already become a leading voice in jazz for his generation, while his trademark ebullience onstage assures his audiences he's got "A Lot of Livin' to Do" still to come! #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/take-five-with-benny-benack-iii
Album Review
Kent Engelhardt & Stephen Enos: Madd For Tadd
The masterworks on this second edition of Madd for Tadd are presented on two discs, one of which bears the name of one of composer/pianist Tadd Dameron's classic themes, "Our Delight." Oddly, the other is named for the only non-Dameronian item on the menu, "Central Avenue Swing," written by saxophonist and Dameron chronicler Kent Engelhardt...
#jazz #trumpet
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/madd-for-tadd-madd-for-tadd-self-produced
Album Review
Teri Parker: Shaping The Invisible
Here is how to take an artistic vision to the next level: Find a room with a lock on the door. Step inside. Engage the lock. Examine the work of those who came before you. Then begin the process of your own creativity.
This worked for pianist/composer Parker—so says her sophomore recording, Shaping The Invisible.
#toronto #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/shaping-the-invisible-teri-parker-self-produced
Album Review: Thermal: Ice In A Hot World
A group which played their first concert in a disused Brussels train station in the early 2000s shows it still knows how to unsettle on Ice In A Hot World. It is only the second album during this time from saxophonist John Butcher, analog synthesizer player Thomas Lehn and guitarist Andy Moor, who ply their trade under the banner Thermal.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/ice-in-a-hot-world-ice-in-a-hot-world-unsounds
History of Jazz
Shut Up, He Explained: On Talking Heads In Jazz Flicks
From #Jazz by Ken Burns and Geoffrey Ward to Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity, the recently-released documentary directed by Dorsay Alavi, one squirms on the sofa as a succession of talking heads—self-professed lovers of the art form and its practitioners—continually interrupt the music to talk.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/shut-up-he-explained-on-talking-heads-in-jazz-flicks-wayne-shorter
Album Review: Sara Serpa & André Matos: Night Birds
Night Birds, singer Sara Serpa and guitarist Andre Matos' third album together, offers an ethereal program of compositions written by the duo, separately and together. They are joined on various tracks by Brooklyn-based pianist-composer Dov Manski, South Korean avant-garde cellist Okkyung Lee, Swedish experimental singer Sofia Jernberg, Portuguese drummer João Pereira, and their young son Lourenço.
#jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/night-birds-sara-serpa-and-andre-matos-robalo-records
Album Review: Pete McCann: Without Question
Guitarist and composer Pete McCann pulls out all the stops on Without Question, his seventh album as leader, unveiling his singular talents on everything from burners ("Without Question," "Trifecta") to ballads ("I Can Remember," "January," "Lost City"), blues ("Blues for O.M."), burlesque ("Conspiracy Theory"), biting commentary ("Erase the Hate") and borrowed themes ("Lovely Thing"). #jazz #guitar
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/without-question-pete-mccann-self-produced
Live Review: Herbie Hancock At Chautauqua Auditorium
After Herbie Hancock and his quartet settled on the stage, a woman in the crowd yelled, "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo." It's a chant used in the practice of Nichiren Buddhism, which Hancock has said enhances his ability to improvise in his music. "That's the secret to a happy and fulfilling life," he responded. #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/herbie-hancock-at-chautauqua-auditorium
Live Review: John Zorn At 70 At Great American Music Hall
Last night, the intergalactic Starship John Zorn descended from New York into San Francisco for a five- night residency at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall to celebrate Zorn's 70th birthday.
Zorn, a legendary avant-garde composer and saxophonist whose Promethean and prolific output of performances and recordings involves endless configurations that span every imaginable musical idiom...
#jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/john-zorn-at-70-at-great-american-music-hall
Album Review: John Coltrane: Sun Ship
Coltrane's classic quartet of pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones would soon be broken apart as the saxophonist added new musicians in his attempt to venture further and further into free #jazz.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/sun-ship-vmp-classics
Play This!: Jeff Beck: People Get Ready
In the hands of Jeff Beck, a guitar could sing or cry as eloquently as a person, and an unexpected cover might become a fun rock-fusion chestnut with a new paint job. Curtis Mayfield's soul classic turns out to have all kinds of beautiful shades waiting to be drawn out by a solid and clever band (not that Beck played with any other kind). #jazz #guitar
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/jeff-beck-people-get-ready
Album Review: Veronica Swift: Veronica Swift
Leave it to the irascibly spirited and octane-charged Veronica Swift to release the party record of the year! From the pure joy scatting of the blast-off opener "I Am What I Am" (from Broadway's grand musical La Cage aux Folles) to the rabble rousing, mad-cap Joan Jett jam with The Ramones finale "Don't Rain On My Parade" (only available on the CD and digital versions)...
#jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/veronica-swift-veronica-swift-mack-avenue-records__28985
Album Review: Glass Triangle: Blue And Sun-Lights
The transatlantic trio of electric harpist Zeena Parkins, saxophonist Mette Rasmussen and drummer Ryan Sawyer, working under the moniker Glass Triangle, reunites for Blue And Sun-Lights. It is the second release as a group following an eponymous debut recorded in 2019. #jazz #harp
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/blue-and-sun-lights-glass-triangle-relative-pitch-records
Catching Up With Ralph Lalama: A Disciple, Not A Clone
Ralph Lalama has absorbed the great legacy of the masters while carving his own name on the #jazz tree. His distinguished career has seen him play with many jazz greats. The Pennsylvania-born, New York-based tenor saxophonist has found his own sound with an incisive style that reflects the spirit of our times.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/ralph-lalama-a-disciple-not-a-clone
Live Review: Brad Mehldau Live At The Falcon
Brad Mehldau thanked his Hudson Valley neighbors, turned, took the bench and let the dimming light of late August shade his summer reflection. The insistent motif of "John Boy" rang out first, a prelude of sorts to the more complex, impressionistic "The Falcon Will Rise Again" (both from 2010's ambitious undertaking Highway Rider (Nonesuch)). #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/brad-mehldau-live-at-the-falcon
Born Today: Sonny Rollins
Instrument: Saxophone
Born: September 7, 1930
Rollins has never been fond of the recording studio. Never mind that he’s recorded his full share of gems there—not only early, celebrated albums such as Saxophone Colossus and Way Out West... The man often embraced as the greatest living improviser requires too much creative freedom to start playing, as he puts it, “when the red light comes on.”
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/sonny-rollins
Album Review
Nick Green: Green On The Scene
Nick Green's latest release, Green On The Scene, is a captivating musical journey which combines masterful instrumentation, intricate compositions and a profound sense of improvisational exploration. Accompanied by trumpeter Joe Magnarelli, pianist Jeb Patton, bassist Mike Karn and the inestimable drummer Kenny Washington... #jazz
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/green-on-the-scene-nick-green-cellar-music-group
Catching Up With Fred Hersch: Alive... And Kicking
Few musicians have shaped jazz with such elegant, instinctive, and intimate variations as Fred Hersch. Constantly. Over four decades, life's ups and downs have not stopped him from coming back, time and again, to performing live.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/fred-hersch-alive-and-kicking
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Album Review: Pete McCann: Without Question Guitarist and composer Pete McCann pulls out all the stops on Without Question, his seventh album as leader, unveiling his singular talents on everything from burners ("Without Question," "Trifecta") to ballads ("I Can Remember," "January," "Lost City"), blues ("Blues for O.M."), burlesque ("Conspiracy Theory"), biting commentary ("Erase the Hate") and borrowed themes ("Lovely Thing"). #jazz #guitar https://www.allaboutjazz.com/without-question-pete-mccann-self-produced