He goes for the heart - that’s for sure. Close your eyes and imagine a tear dripping from the bell of the horn. Or envision the keys blasting off the alto, straining under torrential sound. Judging from his acceleration in today’s musical marketplace, Dave Koz conjures up a range of feelings and always leaves a mark. You’ve heard the sound maybe on his 1993 album "Lucky Man" achieving gold status; where it ranked #1 on radio and records year end NAC airplay chart after holding the pole …

Jazz has been around long enough for us to see it's most respected practitioners become gray, paunchy, and venerable. The precocity of a Wynton Marsalis already famous by the age of twenty-three is startling. But during the swing era, youth was the norm and the advent of middle age a potential symptom of stagnation.Nearly all the prominent jazz musicians active in the 1930's (with the notable exception of Duke Ellington, born in 1899) were born in the twentieth century. Most had establis …

Art Blakey (Abdullah Ibn Buhaina) worked with Fletcher Henderson 1939; Billy Eckstine 1944-7, Buddy DeFranco Quartet 1951-3. He started working as a leader at Birdland in 1954. His group evolved into the Jazz Messengers, who came to prominence in 1955 and toured the US and Europe during the next five years. Despite changes in personnel, Blakey continued to dominate the particular area of jazz of which he had become a symbol (ie. hard bop), with a tremendous kinetic force for which the l …

The latest album from French composer and pianist Christophe DelValle is titled ‘Shared Moments’. It is an interesting collection with some compelling collaborations so when Christophe recently took time out to talk with JazzReview the first thing on the agenda was to discover the motivation that lay beneath the music.

Stanton Moore is one of the most innovative and influential drummers around. He is always pushing boundaries and has steered jazz towards more distinctive expressions. His latest release is titled Groove Alchemy. JAZZREVIEW: Tell us about your earliest experience as a musician and growing up in New Orleans. Who are or were your biggest musical influences? STANTON MOORE: My mom started bringing me to the Mardi Gras parade when I was eight months old. …