Contributors' Corner - Feature Stories
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Henry Threadgill Shines At San Francisco Jazz Festival
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Henry Threadgill — clad in a long, caftan-style thin-red striped shirt which hangs down to his knees — brings his flute and alto sax to stage center at the Palace of San Francisco’s Fine Arts. To his rear, drummer Elliott Humberto Kavee sits in front of his drumkit. Acoustic guitarist Liberty Ellman, on acoustic guitar, is to Kavee’s right....
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Concert Review by Harry S. Pariser
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Dancing In The Moonlight
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It may have been April Fool’s Day but the real fools were the ones wandering around on the outskirts of Marcia Ball’s open air concert at Austin's Art After Dark (Austin Fine Arts Festival). Ball who was just nominated for Entertainer of the Year by the Blues Music Awards makes the energizer bunny look lazy. She never stopped bobbing...
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Concert Review by Joe Montague
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Jazz Moves Columbus
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The Columbus Jazz Orchestra has developed a comprehensive plan to “raise the bar” and become a premier arts organization with the Columbus, Ohio community, as well as a premier jazz orchestra on a national basis. As one of the few full-time jazz orchestras in the United States, the Columbus Jazz Orchestra tapped trumpeter Byron Stripling as artistic director to...
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Concert Review by Don Williamson
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Charlie Halloran Sextet Live at Webster University
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Last Wednesday night, the place to be in Saint Louis was Webster University's Music Annex. In this humble concert hall nestled in the trees behind a vast Tudor-style home, a capacity crowd was treated to an unforgettable set of hot jazz. Trombone-leader Charlie Halloran fronted his sextet to culminate his studies at the university, but this was no average...
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Concert Review by David Seymour
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The Baddest Little Old Band From Texas
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Texas has a proud tradition of blues guitar players, from T-Bone Walker and Lightnin' Hopkins through to Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Right in the middle of that tradition, hiding in plain sight, is Billy F. Gibbons of the 'rock' band ZZ Top. And not to denigrate rock and roll; fact is, they do rock, no question. But, then, so...
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Viewpoint by Edward Kane
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A Day/Night Doubleheader from Roy Hargrove
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Roy Hargrove is more than a fine trumpeter and bandleader, he's an ambitious and versatile one as well. In a day and age when artists sometimes go years between releases, Hargrove has separate discs with two different groups out simultaneously on Verve. One is a fairly straight-ahead set with the Roy Hargrove Quintet entitled Nothing Serious, while the other is Distractions, a...
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Viewpoint by Edward Kane
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Bossa Nova Thriving in Rio
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Since migrating from Brazil to America’s jazz scene in the 60s, bossa nova has been one of my favorite styles. I bought my first bossa LP in 1962, “Jazz Samba,” featuring tenor Stan Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd playing compositions by innovators such as Antonio Carlos Jobim (pictured above) and Joao Gilberto. “Desafinado” was the big hit and the...
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Viewpoint by Larry Taylor
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Keiko Matsui
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In smooth jazz, as with other genres of music, there are many extremely talented pianists and keyboardists. In this writer's opinion, NaradaJazz recording artist Keiko Matsui is among the top, let's see...THREE! Here’s an artist (and I mean that in every sense of the word) who really needs no intro, but I love knowing that I am introducing her...
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Concert Review by Ronald Jackson
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Donald Fagen in Los Angeles
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Donald Fagen released his first solo album The Nightfly a full twenty-five years ago in 1981, but it was not until this year and the release of Morph the Cat, his third disc sans Walter Becker and Steely Dan, that the once road-shy keyboardist and singer took to the road on his own for a full tour of the...
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Concert Review by Edward Kane
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Characterizing Eccentricity
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Helpful to my appreciation of the
ICP performance at UMass Amherst was my visual memory of the work of Pieter
Bruegel, a 16th century Flemish painter. Although the subject matter explored by
this late Renaissance master frequently took a religious or traditional turn,
the way in which Bruegel portrayed the figures in his paintings was remarkably
cariactural. Leap to...
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Concert Review by Lyn Horton
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Ned Rothenberg's Sync at Sangha in Maryland
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This was a very interesting evening for a number of reasons. First of all, it
was another example of a setting in which jazz and related genres of music can
be presented in a way that makes economic sense. The organizers, Transparent
Productions, to quote from their website,
(http://www.geocities.com/eyelounge/DC/trans.html) "is a non-profit, volunteer
organization that produces creative improvised music...
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Concert Review by Peter Westbrook
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Herbie Mann Honored At Cape May Jazz Festival
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There is no doubt that the Cape May Jazz Festival is a success. Presented twice a year in the charming New Jersey seaside resort of Cape May, the event is entering its twelfth year. The secrets to its success? Great music and great organization; the festival seems to have struck an ideal balance between music and marketing.
Anyone attending...
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Concert Review by Peter Westbrook
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Keith Jarrett Solo In San Francisco
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I first saw Keith Jarrett perform with a quartet at the Jazz Workshop in Boston in the early 1970s. At that time, having been introduced a few years back to jazz through Bitches Brew, I was interested in seeing performers who had played with Miles, and Keith filled that bill. I remember, in particular, his playing a small wooden...
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Concert Review by Harry S. Pariser
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Cachao
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Five-time Grammy award winner, Israel “Cachao” Lopez recently played two nights at the Blue Note in New York City. Leading a ten-piece band, Cachao dazzled the audience with his rhythm and enthusiasm. He was introduced by his daughter and received a warm welcome. The music opened with Cachao’s bow on the bass. Consecutive solos from Kiwzo Fumero on trumpet,...
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Concert Review by Bryan Zoran
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Flutology at the Kennedy Center
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There are still those who hold that the flute does not belong in jazz, or that it is, at best, a marginal jazz instrument. There are, however, many artists working in the genre today who disprove that notion, and Flutology is at the top of the heap. This all-star sextet was formed at Birdland one night in 2002 when...
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Concert Review by Peter Westbrook
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The Return of Alice Coltrane
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You can call a live performance many things: a gig, date, show, or what you will. But Alice Coltrane's recent concert at UCLA's Royce Hall, her first U.S. public appearance in three decades? Now, that was than an event. Mrs. Coltrane, playing piano, organ, and synthesizer, led a stellar quartet featuring son Ravi on tenor and soprano saxophone, the legendary Reggie Workman...
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Concert Review by Edward Kane
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James Moody's Birthday Party Moves to Washington
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I hope James Moody enjoyed his 80th birthday party. He should have–it lasted all year! There was a whole series of events, including a week-long celebration at The Blue Note in New York, in March, featuring Moody's group with a slew of guests, an inaugural fund raising concert for the James Moody Jazz Scholarship Endowment at SUNY Purchase in...
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Concert Review by Peter Westbrook
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Never Mind the Cold, It's Berkman's Time Now
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This
David Berkman fellow – you’d better be on the lookout for him.
However, he might be too tasteful and unassuming for his own good – like piano
aces Cedar Walton and Larry Willis, he’s got tremendous technique but he uses it
to serve the music, not his ego, and like them, his style is so unfailingly
lyrical, imaginative...
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Concert Review by Mark Keresman
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Boppin', blowin' LA-la-land boys bring THEIR A-game
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The boppin’ and blowin’ boys from LA-la-land blew into Miller-town with their A-game, as a cool jazz band…
…wait, wait, that’s exactly what I wrote about a terrific one-nighter by another repertory jazz ensemble which came to Milwaukee two weeks before.
Then it was the New York City Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, led from the back (kind of like...
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Concert Review by Tim Cowling
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Boppin' blowin' Big Apple boys bring A-game
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The boppin’ and blowin’ boys from the Big Apple blew into Miller-town with their A-game, first as a cool jazz band and then as a brassed-up, opus-producing orchestra.
The New York City Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra stopped in at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts in Milwaukee for a one-nighter on a Thursday before right away coaching down to...
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Concert Review by Tim Cowling
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The James Carter Quartet at Founder's Hall
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Friends and I were able to catch the first set of a two-night stand by the James Carter Quartet. The jazz at Founder’s Hall is always top-notch, but the James Carter Quartet decided to add some new notches at the top of scale with what was a killer six-song, ninety minute set.
James Carter, dressed like he was headed for...
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Concert Review by Gerard W. O'Brien
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President's Day Weekend Jazz Party Big Success
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It seems like everyone–fans and musicians–become part of one big happy family at the twice-yearly jazz parties thrown by Joe Rothman and John McClure in Orange County. That’s the feeling we got at the 6th Annual Newport Beach Jazz Party this past President’s Day weekend. It was held, as usual, at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel. This year’s event,...
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Concert Review by Larry Taylor
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The S.P.A. Celebrates 39 Years of Excellence
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In 1958, Alvin Ailey, famed American dancer and choreographer founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which has since become one of the world’s most revered modern dance organizations. The premise behind Ailey’s conceptualized idea was to draw upon his “blood memories” of his native Texas, while conveying those ideas elaborately in a modern dance setting. He drew upon...
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Viewpoint by Sheldon T. Nunn
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Touring the World of Piano
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Three solo
piano concerts came fast and furiously one week after the other in February to
the Northampton, MA, Center for the Arts. Three distinct approaches to the piano
made the series both educational and memorable, but also pointed out a
characteristic which revealed clarity to the distinction among the three.
Uri Caine was the first of the
three soloists....
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Concert Review by Lyn Horton
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A Tribute To Dexter Gordon
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On a very chilly Wednesday evening at Manhattan Jazz, Manhattan Beach, California, jazz was in the air. On stage with me were three of the finest jazz musicians I have ever had the pleasure of working with: Tom Owens-piano, Richard Simon-bass, and Mike Whited-drums. This gig took place in December 1987. We played many charts that night so I...
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Viewpoint by Richard V. Duffy
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