A frequent lament about the contemporary jazz scene is that the working jazz group seems to be something of an endangered species, that a group that one might hear on a particular date is just as likely to consist of an ad-hoc collection of talented musicians as it is a practicing ensemble. The L.A-based Shapes, however, is very much a group, their debut album The Last Farewell the product of nearly two years of the same musicians collaborating. Consisting of original music written by the …

Kenny Burrell has been an inescapable force in the world of jazz and popular music for the last half-century, having released close to a hundred albums under his own name and played on countless sessions with everyone from Ray Brown to James Brown. Mr. Burrell has also distinguished himself in the realm of academia. For the past twenty-five years he has been affiliated with UCLA, teaching the guitar and a course of his own devising called Ellingtonia, the first university course on Duke Elli …

Chick Corea easily rates as one of the greatest and most prolific artists in jazz history, whether the measuring stick is applied to the number and quality of his recordings or to the number of styles with which he has experimented and mastered during his long career. In his fifth decade at the pinnacle of jazz, Chick Corea’s recent CDs and performances show that age has done nothing to slow him down or dull his creative abilities and impulses. Chick’s forthcoming album on Chick’s own Stretch Re …

Marian McPartland is a true jazz legend. Since emigrating from England in 1946 with her American husband, the late cornetist Jimmy McPartland, Marian has accomplished more than we have space to even touch on. The nimble 82 year old pianist is not one to rest on past achievements, however, and has just released Live at Shanghai Jazz, on Concord Records, as well as four CDs taken from her popular National Public Radio series, Piano Jazz. Live at Shanghai Jazz is a trio date recor …

It would be hard to overstate the importance of Roscoe Mitchell’s contributions to jazz and improvised music over the last forty years. One of the first and most potent voices to emerge on saxophone in the wake of the free jazz innovations of Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler and the rest of the movement, Mitchell helped found Chicago’s legendary Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians in 1964. Best known as a charter member of the well-loved Art Ensemble of Chicago, Roscoe’s mo …