Sometimes when two musicians meet, their personalities and musical communications meld in such a way that the friendship lasts a lifetime. John Abercrombie and Andy LaVerne met about 35 years ago as students at the Berklee College of Music. Both have gone on to find separate success, but the jazz guitar and piano duo always finds time to express their musical language together. Last Friday (Feb 9) as part of the Wooster School Jazz Society's monthly jazz nights, Abercrombie and LaVerne transform

T'is the most tender of magical moments that I am happy to witness, why I doth not know. And sometimes who too, as I mistook Elton Dean for Tony Levin at the Jazz Cafe. But smiles or not, I cannot write the whole experience of listening to Tippett, the man of classical hugs, with both his line ups. But tomorrow, I will get my daughterthing to read me my notes about her uncle Keith and company. Nothing more now, except to say that there is nothing more impressive than listening to the cream i

The Brad Mehldau Trio - Mehldau (piano), Larry Grenadier (bass), Jorge Rossy (drums) - has been heralded as the new breed of piano trio and acclaimed for its unique simpatico. A recent stop at Seattle's premier jazz club, Dimitrou's Jazz Alley, showed why the young group is so highly regarded but left room for growth. Mehldau has been regarded as the classic post-modern pianist - rough and ready and known for a combative edge and punk aloofness. There's more than a bit of the young Keith Jar

Opening the 12th season of the Magic Triangle Music Series at UMass/Amherst was the first performance outside of New York City of William Parker's Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra. This group was put together in 1994 in tribute to the "dreamers" of our world: those who mindfully and naturally create beautiful expressions of their souls. The program consisted of four numbers, all Parker's compositions/conceptions/inspirations. Each piece had a story behind it, which fact is so instinctual

Gaining momentum and now in it's second year, the brainchild of promoters Thompson, Parrish and Paddock (better known as The Oasis Group, LLC) took Chicago by storm bringing with it the hottest names in Smooth Jazz all under one beautiful roof. The Second Annual National Smooth Jazz Awards, presented to a sold out audience of better than 3,500 delivered an evening of more than nineteen hot hits performed by the original artists and well-deserved awards and honors to some of the genres greatest.