Jazz Viewpoints (222)
America says Jazz is its gift to the world, the truth however is the other way round. If Jazz is the art of musical improvisation, then it has been around for far longer than the two hundred odd years since America was born out of captain Christopher Columbus' navigational error. Indian classical music for example, is all about improvised music and has a history of over two thousand years. Likewise, almost every country in the world has a tradition of improvised music in various forms. Credit …
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Anouar Brahem (b. 1957, Tunisia) is a virtuoso player of the oud (or ud, depending on you and/or where one asks), a North African/Middle Eastern stringed instrument of the lute/guitar family with a deep, amber sound. While well-versed in Arabic music, Brahem was and is decidedly influenced by jazz and improvised music, and he’s become a truly "internationalist" composer and improviser - fellow travelers Jan Garberek, John Surman, Richard Galliano and Dave Holland have recorded with him on his fi …
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Polskie Nagrania MUZA PNCD 620 April 2002 JAZZ BAND BALL ORCHESTRA 40 YEARS * BLUE LOU 1.Blue Lou (M Sampson - Mills), 2.St. Louis Blues (W.C. Handy), 3.Fascinating Rhythm (Gershwin), 4.I'm beginning to see the light (Ellington - Hodges - George), 5.Rockin Rhythm (Ellington - Carney - Mills), 6.Ballad Medley: You've changed (Cary Fisher), In a sentimental mood (Ellington - Mills - Kurtz), Tenderly (Lawrence - Gross ), 7.S' Wonderful (Gershwin), 8.A foggy day (In London town) (Gershwin), …
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In response to my article "On Soloing", I received a number of emails from players who loved the concepts and were trying hard to incorporate them into their performance but still felt like they were stuck in a rut of playing the same tired riffs over and over. "I feel like I'm playing in circles. What additional advice can you give me to help me break out of this pattern?", many of them asked.So it occurred to me that my original piece was oriented to more a advanced player and that it proba …
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Without a doubt, the piano trio provides an ideal format for jazz. Complex and yet ideally manageable, the grouping can speak with the authority of a big band or bring it down to a soft whisper. Furthermore, the bass and drums offer up enough variety in terms of sound and texture to keep it all interesting. Even after Bill Evans and others have had their say in terms of what the piano trio offers, the ensemble continues to be a viable one in the hands of some modern practitioners, as we shall se …
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It has been been six months since Sirius Satellite Radio put its Jazz Cafe smooth jazz programming on the Internet. After a Valentine's Day opening in four cities, Sirius became nationwide on July 1st. When I first heard the Jazz Cafe, I thought that this would be the way that smooth jazz should be presented and fully recommended it here on jazzreview.com. Since that time, Sirius programmers went away from their earlier efforts and have gone away from the way that smooth jazz should be pr …
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All Blues If you're looking for a sensual, poetic and harmonious song, then this is the one. Miles Davis plays the trumpet in a mellow and unified way and this is truly a gem. He and John Coltrane work really well on this song and I give it a rating of five glasses of Zinfandel. A Night in Tunisia I'm always reminded of Latin jazz when I hear this song. It has a mystic, subtle element and is danceable. Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker do a fantastic job with this tune …
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I remember the first time I attended Jazz Fest. I was in my freshman year in college and a group of teachers brought us. When I arrived there, it was amazing! There were thousands of people walking around with bottles of water, beer, Cokes and sno-balls. The tents featured various styles of music;gospel, jazz, blues, and world music. I loved the jazz tent the most. The beautiful sounds of the piano, trumpet and saxophone were breathtaking. I visited the food vendors and the amount of delicacies …
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WWOZ is truly a musical gumbo. It is a delicious mixture of spicy flavors that contribute to this city's beautiful and rich heritage. I've listened to this station for seven years and it is fantastic! To be satirical, I'll describe this station metaphorically. The main ingredient in this gumbo is a quart of jazz music. Every weekday afternoon dedicated and enthusiastic disc jockeys play the best in classic and modern jazz. You can hear great legends such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald,Bi …
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Antonio Carlos Jobim He is the grand marshal of bossa nova. His music reminds you of a sunny day at the beach and his smooth, baritone voice is romantic. In addition, the melodic piano tunes are breathtaking and relaxing. The background violin sounds make you feel like you're at a symphony. Some of my favorite tunes are Ela E Carioca, Passarim, The Girl From Ipanema and Aguas de Marco,which he sings with Elis Regina. Some of the CDs I recommend are Elis …
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When sax man Euge Groove swings into action for the opening Friday night of this year’s Long Beach Jazz Festival, it will mark the event’s 15th anniversary. And much like Euge’s nickname, the annual 3-day program has settled into a comfortable and profitable "groove" for festival founder, Al Williams. The musician-turned-entrepreneur’s innate sensitivity to the art of jazz and its presentation has resulted in the Southland’s most anticipated weekend of hot summer days and warm, sexy nights."W …
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While listening to a Branford Marsallis interview on NPR, he stated that jazz is not for young folks. However, I think there are many young people out there who actually enjoy jazz. Here's my story. It was an unusually hot March afternoon and I was flipping through the radio stations. Most of the urban disc jockeys played the same songs within five minutes of each other and and I wanted to hear something different. I was sixteen years old at the time. So I find this wonderful grassroots stati …
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On December 13,2002 (and that was Friday, the thirteenth) I heard a quartet of "championship" proportions at the Meetinghouse in Amherst, MA. The quartet abounded with Joe McPhee, saxophones and pocket trumpet, Roy Campbell, trumpet, flute and pocket trumpet, William Parker, string bass and wooden flutes, and Warren Smith, drums. Reviewing this concert almost seems superfluous in regards to how it truly affected me. The music was unparalleled. I sat in the first row, so close to the soun …
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To put things candidly, the music industry has suffered through a year of conservatism and slim pickings at best, yet another victim of the post 9/11 state of affairs that has hampered business and the health of the economy in general. While the past few years have seen a decrease in the number of reissues to hit the market, the real surprise this year came in the modest amount of new releases and even among these it was a hit and miss affair in terms of real quality. Gone are the days when one …
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The immensely popular and beloved saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr. died December 17th, 1999 in New York. He had just finished taping a segment to be aired on CBS when he collapsed from an apparent heart attack. Washington, who was born in Buffalo, New York, began playing sax at an age 10. He was given a sax by his father who also played. As a teenager, he joined a band called The Four Clefs, gaining experience which would help him become a future band leader. Washington moved to Philadelph …
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Musicians have been struggling with the means to reach a broader audience and supplement incomes since the earliest recordings were made nearly a century ago. Given that roughly 75% of jazz recordings released each year qualify as independently released product, this obviously is the norm rather than the exception. Outside of Blue Note, CBS/Sony, Verve, RCA, WEA, Fantasy, Telarc, etc., just about every jazz player who records does so for a small regional or home-made label and is booking studio …
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For many avid jazz followers, producer Jordi Pujol’s Fresh Sound label served as a bastion for reissues of some of the most obscure catalog items. The independent Spanish company leased a number of classic sides from such labels as Jubilee, Hi-Fi Jazz, Roulette, Regina, and many others. A few years ago though, Pujol decided to get into the business of recording new music and now Fresh Sound New Talent can count itself among such other distinguished Indies as Criss Cross Jazz, SteepleChase, and R …
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Jazz is popular all over the world, more popular than baseball. Jazz is the sound of freedom the sound of America. It was personified by Louis Armstrong; the sound of his horn bares the sound of freedom, of America. Were it not for Armstrong, there would be no jazz. The very essence of jazz lies within the persona of Louis Armstrong; he perpetuated jazz, in that it would continue for over a 100 years; it continues on today, growing, and branching out to new musical horizons; forms of expression. …
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On Saturday nights I look forward to listening to NPR’s weekly program, Jazzset with Dee-Dee Bridgewater. She gives great interviews and goes beyond just announcing an artist’s name and song. She gives me the history behind them. I feel that this program preserves one of America’s most timeless music, jazz. And this is why I think Congress shouldn’t cut funding for programs such as NPR. NPR is really more than just a jazz station. It showcases other forms of music such as blues, country, classic …
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Pat Metheny fans will again change gears with the Warner Brothers release of Pat Metheny: One Quiet Night in late May. Just one year after the release of the Pat Metheny Group’s Grammy Award winning Speaking of Now, Metheny is coming out with a collection of quieter, moody solo tunes played on baritone guitar. The most striking note about this issue may be a more casual orientation towards the recording process. Metheny literally turned on a mic in his home studio and start …
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Since the ‘70s, producer Nils Winther has documented European and American jazz artists in a no-frills manner and released a plethora of albums on his own grass roots SteepleChase imprimatur. With an active release schedule, it seems that more albums get released over the course of a year that any one reviewer can possibly make time for and so with this in mind, this is the first of a two-part piece that will discuss in brief some of the label’s most recent activity. A mainstay of the label f …
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Four bars and seven beats ago, some hep cats brought forth on this stage a new music, conceived in Jazz and dedicated to the proposition that all songs must swing. Now we are engaged in a great downloading war, testing whether that music, or any music so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We have come to dedicate a portion of that stage as a swinging place for those here who gave their lives so that a music might live. It is altogether fitting and hip that we should do this. But …
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I’ve been listening to male vocalists lately and wondering if it’s a vanishing breed. Not that the male voice has ever been as prominent as its female counterpart over the past century or so. Consider the greats: Nat Cole, Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Arthur Prysock, Big Crosby, Tony Bennett, Little Jimmy Scott, Mel Torme, Johnny Hartman Then look at the list of the gals: Ella, Sarah, Billie, Carmen McRae, Shirley Horn, Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, Peggy Lee, Doris Day, Nancy Wilson, June Christy …
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In the spring of 2002, the cover story of Signal to Noise Magazine was DJ SPOOKY MEETS MATTHEW SHIPP. Matthew Shipp is a terrific musician, one of the outstanding piano improvisors and an acquaintance. My interest in him took me right to the article. The article illuminated the incredible intelligence of both musicians in the text of the conversation between them. The article also and, significantly, brought DJ Spooky to my attention. A couple of months ago, Thirsty Ear Records sent me a revi …
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There are a lot of jazz fans who refuse to listen to the blues because it’s perceived as "too rowdy," and just as many blues aficionados who are sure that jazz is "too crazy." Talk about some misinformed ears! There is a disc jockey on the public radio station in Detroit (Gene Elzy, WDET-FM) who plays what he terms "the jazzy side of blues and the bluesy side of jazz." The coexistence of the two has been inextricable forever. The intersection has always been a busy one, with frequent and glee …
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