tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84694266781802879932012-01-24T04:23:23.094-05:00Important news from the web's leading jazz music destination.AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.comBlogger1891100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-28452372750769422902011-11-10T06:58:00.003-05:002011-11-10T06:58:57.481-05:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/mikewestbrook620x355.jpg width=500><p>Close your eyes for a moment. Imagine a jazz composer who began with Ellington and then moved on through Mingus. He soon encompassed rock music, Kurt Weill, Rossini, the traditions of English church music and the pastoralism of Vaughan Williams and Holst, but still found a place in his music for The Beatles, European political cabaret and The Great American Songbook.<p>And what if his inspirations ranged from painters like Paul Nash, Caspar Wolf and J.M.W. Turner to Lorca, William Blake, Shakespeare, D.H. Lawrence, Siegfried Sassoon and Bertolt Brecht, and his subject matter took in war, life and death, the decline and fall of European culture, the Ballet Russes choreographer Bronislava Nijinska, man's fall from grace, the '69 moon landing, the Greek muses and the irresponsible song of the little Sedge Warbler. Now add that he's performed everywhere from street corners, political demonstrations, factory canteens and geriatric hospital wards to circus tents with acrobats and fire-eaters to West End theatres and some of Europe's finest concert halls.<p>Doesn't really sound like one guy, does it? Actually, it's two cats but that's two other stories we'll come back to later. But answer me—how does that sound to you? A bit difficult, a bit too much trouble? You need to try harder. Then maybe you're saying to yourself, "That's cool—heavy but cool," and "Who is this guy?" and you don't mind the jazz police coming around taking names. Well, I'm talking about Mike Westbrook and I'm talking about Kate Westbrook, his musical partner of nearly forty years.<p>It was fifty years ago today that Sergeant Westbrook taught the band to play—not quite, but not far off either. It was down in Plymouth, in glorious Devon in the early sixties that Westy started his first band. Westbrook turned 75 this year and can look back over a career that began in that miraculous era of British music that saw the creation of some of the finest pop, rock, folk, jazz and contemporary music ever. And his music was right at the cutting edge of British jazz.<p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40693">Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2845237275076942290?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-71548305522358220832011-11-09T17:42:00.002-05:002011-11-09T17:42:14.771-05:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/ManfredEicher620x355.jpg width=500><p>It begins in silence, always silence. Since the 1990s, all ECM recordings begin with five seconds of silence, and so, too, do directors Norbert Wiedmer and Peter Guyer open their feature film on the heralded German record label and its enigmatic founder, <em> Sounds and Silence: Travels with Manfred Eicher</em>. As longtime ECM recording artist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7984">Keith Jarrett</a>'s performance of G.I. Gurdjieff's "Reading of Sacred Books," from the pianist's <em>Sacred Hymns</em> (1980), begins in the background, the film fades in on Eicher, sitting on a simple wooden chair beside an equally unadorned table, steeped in thought. Dissolving to the film's title, an impressionistic car ride suddenly leads to a view from an airplane window, one of many that Eicher experiences as producer of the majority of the label's 40-50 recordings each year. A generally introspective man who, nevertheless, shares plenty of warmth when engaged with the artists on the various sessions represented in the film, Eicher leads an itinerant lifestyle that would be a solitary one, were it not for the demands of the professional life he leads, where the music is all about interaction and engagement.</p><p>As a producer, Eicher is a rare entity, an endangered species, in fact, in a time of DIY recordings; he's also unique amongst the vast majority of producers, whose roles are more about ensuring that a recording comes off on-time and on-budget. Eicher makes sure these things happen as well, but his involvement in the music goes beyond mere practical facilitation; he's an <em>active</em> producer, who becomes directly involved in the very creation of the music, from arrangements to track sequencing...even providing the occasional uncredited musical contribution. Originally a double bassist, he rarely plays anymore—though he has been known to pick up a bass, play a little piano or strike a cymbal, every now and then, if it helps him to communicate. Being a musician may not be an absolute prerequisite, but there's little doubt it allows for a common vernacular that's all the more important when mother tongues are, as often as not, different, and when artists from around the world are regularly placed together in new, globe-spanning combinations.</p><p>Providing more than just an objective ear, Eicher tacitly but invariably increases the number of musicians in any given ensemble by one, so collaborative is the nature of his involvement. Eicher's strong interest in film leaks into the oftentimes cinematic nature of his productions, and he considers his role more akin to that of a film director. He has even said, to further that analogy, that he views the responsibilities of recording engineers like Jan Erik Kongshaug, James Farber and Gérard de Haro to be the audio equivalent of the director of photography, bringing technical knowledge and trained ears to bear in order to help the director and actors—Eicher and the musicians—more fully realize their vision.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40655">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-7154830552235822083?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-90496171672881708032011-11-04T07:47:00.001-04:002011-11-04T07:48:13.057-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/large/7/f/f/29bc1e31460c5166a751f5bac586b.jpg width=500 border=0><p>Brian Adler is truly both a drummer and a percussionist—in his world, the drum set coexists peacefully with a dizzying array of ethnic percussion instruments as equal partners in a myriad of musical possibilities. His work with vocalist Sunny Kim in the Prana Trio—which also includes a rotating cast of guest artists such as Frank Carlberg, Stomu Takeshi, Carmen Staaf, and Jeremy Udden—is a case in point. His nimble, sensitive approach to the drum set is matched only by his similarly accomplished work on cajon, tablas, and a host of other ethnic percussion instruments. Never getting lost in his own chops, always totally plugged in to his surroundings in the moment, Adler is the sort of player who always makes the musicians he's playing with sound better. As a composer, he exhibits many of the same characteristics—his writing is consistently intriguing but not overly elaborate. His music is not simple, but there's an economy and a sparseness to it that invites listeners in.<p>Brian's latest project is something of an anomaly in the jazz world. <i>The Helium Music Project</i> (Circavision Productions, 2011) is an ongoing, download-only compendium of music created with different musicians in different locations all over the globe. So far, just three tracks have been released, with two more to come in October, 2011. As with all of Brian's other projects, the music is soulful, incredibly diverse, and played with passion and virtuosity.<p><b>All About Jazz: </b>Tell us how you got interested in music, and how you decided to make it your profession.<p><b>Brian Adler: </b>I became interested in music at a young age through kirtans, and began taking drum lessons on an Indian drum called a mridung. As far as making it a profession, I am not sure if I had a moment when I decided; it has always been a big part of my life. And I have a very supportive mother who taught me to reach for the stars. When I was a sophomore in high school, my drum teacher asked me if I wanted to pursue music as a career, and I remember being surprised by the question. I guess I thought it was so obvious that I did.<p><b>AAJ: </b>Your early involvement in non-Western music is not a typical pathway to the drum kit—though it provides insight into your uncanny mastery of all sorts of hand percussion. So tell us about kirtans, the mridung, and how you came in contact with them as a youngster?<p><b>BA:</b> Kirtans are Indian devotional chants or mantras that are sung in a call-and-response fashion. They can be performed with several chanters or sometimes with several thousands of people chanting, and there is typically one or two drummers, a harmonium player, and a cymbal player accompanying them.<p>I grew up in and around a meditation retreat center where chants like these were performed regularly. It was not uncommon for the kids there to learn how to play the mridung or one of the other instruments.<p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40511">Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-9049617167288170803?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-79580713333691108442011-11-04T07:33:00.001-04:002011-11-04T07:36:21.997-04:00We made several <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=88981" target="_blank">refinements and additions</a> to the website in October and we are looking for your feedback and assistance moving forward. <p>Newsletter topics include:<p>1. Expansion Plans—We Need Your Help<br>2. Welcome Aboard!<br>3. CD Reviews Wanted<br>4. Books to Review<br>5. Contributor-related Improvements<br>6. Archiving Older Interviews and Columns<br>7. Feedback wanted: How are we doing?<p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40734">Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-7958071333369110844?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-14848154704285710682011-11-02T12:50:00.000-04:002011-11-02T12:50:05.448-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/medium/9/4/e/63e2103c7940461d708a13d502525.jpg width=500 border=1><p>CTI Masterworks' 40th anniversary reissue program has, until now, focused on producer Creed Taylor's primary label. Two multi-disc sets and 24 single discs have made available on CD cherished CTI LPs by artists such as trumpeters Chet Baker and Freddie Hubbard, saxophonists Paul Desmond and Stanley Turrentine, guitarists George Benson and Kenny Burrell, vibraphonist Milt Jackson and pianist Randy Weston (the little known 1972 masterpiece Blue Moses). Classy affairs all, on which, typically, Taylor blended strong material, top drawer (if, mostly, abbreviated) soloists, solid backbeats and lush orchestral backings.<p>The final batch of reissues—four discs originally released between 1971 and 1974—turns the spotlight instead on CTI's funkier imprint, Kudu. Here, while Taylor remained the producer (and Rudy Van Gelder the engineer), the aesthetic was more streetwise than CTI itself—even though Taylor and, on some albums, arranger Bob James, continued to stir in their trademark sweeteners. With Kudu, Taylor struck a fine balance between soul jazz and raw, jazz-inflected funk on the one hand, and sophisticated orchestral arrangements, often including string charts, on the other.<p>The 40th anniversary's four featured Kudu artists are organists Lonnie Smith (pictured above, more recently) and Johnny Hammond, alto saxophonist Hank Crawford and singer Esther Phillips. Four decades on, their discs still have legs. <p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40640&recommended=1>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-1484815470428571068?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-69558643502243037792011-11-02T12:46:00.000-04:002011-11-02T12:47:58.257-04:00<img src=http://www.hypebot.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e20154368ea8f0970c-200wi align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 border=1 width=200>The BBC invited The Who's Pete Townshend to give a lecture in honor of iconic UK broadcaster John Peel. During the wide ranging, smart and often amusing speech, Townsend professed his love of streaming music and called iTunes a vampire. But that was just the start...<p>Pete Townsend:<p> Firstly, I'm honored to have been asked to do this first lecture in the name of John Peel. John and I were never close friends, and I know he was not always an unconditional Who fan, but through his long-time producer John Walters—who was a great friend to me and to Who drummer Keith Moon—I followed John Peel's career with the sense of a family insider. I don't want to kick off this series of annual lectures with any po-faced intellectualism. Nor do I want to talk about pop music as art—hard for me because music as art is my favorite subject. Neither do I wish to try to make this lecture amusing, or light-hearted or even ironic in the tradition of the sixties and post sixties pop era Peely and I shared. I don't want to try to celebrate John Peel, nor make this into any kind of memorial. That's all been done. So what do I want to do?<p> I have limited time. Looking at what John Peel did with his show on radio for many years is worth looking at. But I must assume that most listeners will know what he did. Annie Nightingale once told me that John was one of the few deejays at Radio 1 who would take home everything left in the in-tray cubbyholes at the end of each week. More than that, he listened to it all. Sometimes he played some records that no one else would ever have played, and that would never be played on radio again. But he listened, and he played a selection of records in the course of each week that his listeners knew—partly because the selection was sometimes so insane—proved he was genuinely engaged in his work as an almost unconditional conduit between creative musicians to the radio audience.<p>So he listened. And he took chances with what he played.<p>And he is gone.<p>Why was John Peel's system important? Why is listening important? Why is being ready to give space to less polished music important? Will John Peelism survive the internet? Or is John Peelism thriving on the internet without many of us realizing it?<p>So we have John Peel. The BBC. And—for the purposes of this lecture—iTunes. All enormous icons in music.<p>Let me introduce you briefly to my inner artist, then I will put him back in his box.<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=89103&recommended=1>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-6955864350224303779?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-46792878547329247352011-10-31T12:18:00.002-04:002011-10-31T12:19:25.242-04:00<img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/Continuous_Improvement_Icon.gif align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 border=0 width=200>We've made several improvements to All About Jazz over the last four weeks. Here are just a few:<br><br><strong>Scrollable archive on all landing pages</strong><br><br>We've made it easy to access the archives from our <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article_center.php">article</a>, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/review_center.php">CD reviews</a>, <a href="/php/news_center.php">news announcement</a>, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads.php">MP3 download</a>, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/calendar/calendar.php">calendar</a>, <a href="/php/album_center.php">upcoming album releases</a>, and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzguides.php?type=7">guides</a> pages. Just scroll to the bottom of any of our landing pages and look for the numbered scroll bar. You can scroll to page 731 on our CD review landing page in an instant!<br><br><strong>Hot CD Reviews</strong><br><br>We identify our top read <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/review_center.php">CD reviews</a> in the last seven days with a flame icon.<br><br><strong>New member profile page</strong><br><br>We improved the appearance and have plans for added features and functionality soon. <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/profile_edit.php">Please make sure your profile is complete</a>.<br><br><strong>Improved Private Message functionality (PM)</strong><br><br>We now include the reply message on the reply form.<br><br><strong>Improved MY AAJ page</strong><br><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/profile_edit.php">Update your member profile</a> with your zip code (and city), your favorite jazz genres, your favorite writers, your favorite article types and follow musicians from their profile pages. Setting your preferences will determine what appears on your <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/my.php">MY AAJ page</a>.<br><br><strong>Improved content readability and page performance</strong><br><br>You should notice that pages are loading faster and are more readable thanks the new template we are implementing.<p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=8898">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-4679287854732924735?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-4065562403624243212011-10-27T18:11:00.000-04:002011-10-31T12:16:10.150-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/alicecoltrane620x355.jpg width=500><p>The launch of Impulse! Records' 2-on-1 reissue series—which packages two original LPs on one CD—includes six key albums from the glorious first flowering of the astral jazz forged by pianist and harpist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5848">Alice Coltrane</a> and saxophonist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=4045">Pharoah Sanders</a> on Impulse! towards the end of the 1960s. </p><p> The style emerged following saxophonist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5851">John Coltrane</a>'s passing in 1967, when Alice Coltrane and Sanders—both members of John Coltrane's later groups—repositioned at center stage the African and Indian percussion instruments and song forms with which John Coltrane had colored his music during his final years. They married these with hummable melodies, trance music-informed ostinatos, ambient-rich improvisations and, on Alice's albums, harp. The Indian drone instrument, the tamboura, a stripped-down version of the sitar, was emblematic, as were chanted, often wordless, vocals. </p><p> Astral jazz continued in full bloom until the mid-1970s, when, in hands other than those of Coltrane and Sanders, it degenerated into cliché and, ultimately, into a blissed-out sub-genre of the fusion movement. </p><p> The 2-on-1 reissues are Coltrane's <em>Huntingdon Ashram Monastery</em> (1969), <em>Universal Consciousness</em> (1971), <em>World Galaxy</em> (1972) and <em>Lord Of Lords</em> (1972), and Sanders' <em>Wisdom Through Music</em> (1972) and <em>Village Of The Pharoahs</em> (1973). All these albums have previously been rereleased, but their availability has been patchy and often on relatively expensive, limited editions. </p><p> Unlike some of the tackily produced reissues which have been visited on the Impulse! catalogue by a succession of corporate owners since the 1970s, the 2-on-1 series has been put together with care. The LPs' original gatefold sleeves are not used, but they are reproduced in their entirety in the 12-page booklets included with the discs. You may need a magnifying glass to read the original, lengthy liner notes for the Coltrane discs, but read them you can (and it is worth the trouble). </p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40624">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-406556240362424321?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-84149542277808618832011-10-27T18:10:00.000-04:002011-10-27T18:13:43.499-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/alicecoltrane_divineferocity_jk.jpg width=500><p>Alice Coltrane's death in 2007 did not bring about the critical reassessment her work deserves. Nothing less than a trailblazer in free and spiritual jazz, the pianist and harpist was a deeply sensitive blues player and top-rate composer. Working in the shadow of her husband, saxophonist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5851">John Coltrane</a>, through his controversial, late-period work and her erratic recording career later in her own life have not helped her legacy but Alice Coltrane's work is Important with a capital "I." If you are making CDs from this two-hour playlist, tracks 1 and 3 make up disc one with the remainder on disc two. <p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40651">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8414954227780861883?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-58050790309564051882011-10-25T08:22:00.001-04:002011-10-25T08:22:26.645-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/juliushemphill_dogonad_tc.jpg" alt="Julius Hemphill: Dogon A.D." title="Julius Hemphill: Dogon A.D." align="right" border="1" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="200"><em>Dogon A.D.</em> has long been revered as a classic among jazz connoisseurs; Julius Hemphill's relatively obscure but highly influential debut is widely considered the missing link between the avant-garde and populist forms such as blues, funk and soul. The 1972 recording session for this historic masterpiece originally produced four unique compositions, but Hemphill only issued three on his Mbari Records imprint due to time constraints. Arista/Freedom Records eventually bought the master tapes, using the fourth cut, "The Hard Blues," as the lead-off track to the saxophonist's 1975 LP, <em>'Coon Bid'ness</em>, before reissuing the Mbari set two years later. Long out of print, this limited edition CD reunites the original four tracks for the very first time, packaged in a deluxe mini-replica of the Arista/Freedom jacket.</p><p></p><p>Hemphill, like many of his peers in the aftermath of the 1960s, attempted to reconcile the aesthetic differences between the innovations of the New Thing and the proverbial "music of the people." Critical success was often fleeting for most jazz musicians in this regard, especially those operating in the then nascent fusion scene. This spartan date bears the distinction of being one of the first records to capture an artist of Hemphill's caliber successfully transposing the emotional candor of popular African-American musical traditions—from the sacred to the secular—into the rarefied language of free jazz, without compromising the unique characteristics of either idiom.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40608">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-5805079030956405188?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-42008859526261507252011-10-24T10:14:00.001-04:002011-10-24T10:14:17.789-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/medium/d/5/6/4566c8ae62a9f764bc753f327244d.jpg" alt="Graham Collier" title="Graham Collier" width="500"><p>Composer, bassist and bandleader Graham Collier left town on Friday, September 9,, 2011. He was holidaying with his partner, John, in Crete, when a sudden heart failure took his final breath. It was quick, relatively painless but unexpected. We all felt sure Graham had too much sparkle, too much music in him to go so soon.<br><br>His career, indeed his life, was shaped by music. Collier grew up in Luton, Bedfordshire—reason enough to leave home at 16 to join the army and become a band boy. In his early twenties, he won a scholarship to Berklee School becoming its first British graduate in 1963. His fellow students at the time included Rhodesian-born trombonist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=22697">Mike Gibbs</a> and a precocious vibraphonist by the name of <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5485">Gary Burton</a>, while the school's <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=10353">Herb Pomeroy</a> was an important early influence.<br><br>Collier remained in the States post-graduation but suffered injury in a car crash whilst on tour in Wyoming with the <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=6369">Tommy Dorsey</a> ghost band. Returning to Britain in the mid-sixties, Collier formed his own band and by the early seventies had released a handful of records that remain amongst the finest examples of small group jazz. <em>Songs For My Father</em>, with <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=4385">Alan Skidmore</a> on tenor and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=12577">Phil Lee</a> on guitar, comes highly recommended, but <em>Mosaics</em> is even greater, revealing an approach to composition and performance that Graham would continue to develop and refine for the rest of his life.<br><br>Reissued recently by BGO records, these albums reveal a rare talent able to fuse a British pastoral compositional sensibility with something far more rambunctiously funky that stemmed from an admiration for <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=9429">Charles Mingus</a>. Even more importantly, BGO included amongst the reissues an alternative and very different recording of <em>Mosaics</em>, as well as a stereo version of <em>Deep Dark Blue Centre</em>. The first two BGO sets are indispensable, while the third is perhaps merely necessary.<p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=88675">Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-4200885952626150725?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-856932933467297002011-10-23T12:32:00.002-04:002011-10-23T12:34:16.120-04:00<a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6981" title="Download &quot;Choral&quot; free jazz mp3"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/andreasulvo_lightandloneliness_mr.jpg" alt="Download &quot;Choral&quot; free jazz mp3"height="80" width="80" align="left" vspace="2" hspace="12"></a><br>2011-10-21<br><strong> <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6981" title="Download &quot;Choral&quot; free jazz mp3">Choral</a></strong> (01:51)<br>Andreas Ulvo <br>From: <em>Light and Loneliness</em> (Atterklang) <p><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6975" title="Download &quot;Bovina&quot; free jazz mp3"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/jeremyudden_plainville_ifthepastseemssobright_tc.jpg" alt="Download &quot;Bovina&quot; free jazz mp3" height="80" width="80" align="left" vspace="2" hspace="12"></a><br> Featured: 2011-10-20 <br><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6975" title="Download &quot;Bovina&quot; free jazz mp3">Bovina</a></strong> (03:27)<br>Jeremy Udden<br>From: <em>If The Past Seems So Bright</em> (Sunnyside Records) <p><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads.php">Download more free MP3s</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-85693293346729700?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-64416084599442447102011-10-20T07:59:00.002-04:002011-10-20T07:59:42.520-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/large/d/d/a/0758c6c11771af19bf9d5784693cf.jpg width=500 border=0><p>Jeremy Udden is one of those outstanding working musicians on the scene in Brooklyn. A saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, he is—like so many musicians of his generation—influenced by a variety of things outside what is known as jazz, and his music reflects that. He's developed a band called Plainville that offers a different sound and feel. A different tapestry on which musicians can subtly embroider their improvisations. A different mosaic.</p><p>Out of the New England Conservatory, he cut his teeth in bands like the <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=6507">Either/Orchestra</a> and stayed in that organization for about seven years. He eventually landed himself in New York City, but he spent time in China and thought of staying there. This year, moving to Stockholm was on his mind. But all the while, he's pushing new projects and is excited about his distinctive band—sax, electric keyboards including organ, banjo, bass and drums—that produces music with an almost-folk quality.</p><p>"The band is called Plainville because that's the name of the small town that I grew up in, in Massachusetts," says Udden. The band's previous album was also titled <em>Plainville</em> (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2009). "It continues to be a reflection of getting in touch with that, which is definitely a quieter time in my life, a more peaceful time in my life. Also, it's a reflection of the different music I've been into over those years."</p><p><em>If the Past Seems So Bright</em> (Sunnyside Records, 2011) is Udden's third album as a leader. It shows his compositional skills as well as his abilities on saxophone. There are also things beneath the surface, like how he melds the instrumentation and allows his band mates to have a personal say.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40448">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-6441608459944244710?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-82020765611308916342011-10-20T07:50:00.002-04:002011-10-20T07:50:29.754-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/jacopastorius_60thanniversarycollection_jk.jpg" border="0" width="385" height="300"><p>Jaco Pastorius<br> <em>The 60th Anniversary Collection</em><br> <a href="http://wmg.jp" target="_blank">Warner Music Japan</a><br> 2011</p><p>It's hard to believe that it's been nearly a quarter century since Jaco Pastorius died at the outrageously young age of 35. At a time when other electric bassists like <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5737">Stanley Clarke</a> were redefining the role of the instrument—no longer playing only a supporting role, but becoming a front-line partner—Pastorius still managed to shake an already fusion-quaked world with the one-two-three punch of his debut as a leader, <em>Jaco</em> (Epic), his first appearances with fusion supergroup <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=11224">Weather Report</a> on <em>Black Market</em> (Columbia), and his stunningly lyrical work for singer/songwriter <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=9460">Joni Mitchell</a> on <em>Hejira</em> (Elektra/Asylum), all in 1976. Three views of a secret, indeed.</p><p>Sixty years after his birth in Norristown, Pennsylvania—though his parents ultimately relocated to Florida shortly after his birth, a move that would color his music from a very early age—Warner Music Japan has put together the sumptuous <em> The 60th Anniversary Collection</em>, a six-CD box that, if collected together with his 1976 debut, represents the best music Pastorius made as a leader during his relatively brief time on the planet. He may have lept to fame and relative fortune for his seven-year stint with Weather Report—tracks like the knotty "Teen Town," from the group's bestselling <em>Heavy Weather</em> (Columbia, 1977) remaining required 'shedding grist for aspiring electric bassists—and there's no doubt that group's string of Columbia albums, beginning with <em>Black Market</em>, where Pastorius appeared on just two transitional but nevertheless earth-shattering tracks, through to WR's self-titled 1982 swan song, remain vastly influential. But the <em>60th Anniversary</em>'s six albums, starting with 1981's completely unexpected <em>Word of Mouth</em>, not only confirmed Pastorius' inestimable innovations as a performer on fretless electric bass, but clarified his position in the jazz canon, as a composer of considerable weight if not prolificacy—and an arranger whose ear for large ensemble work was, in many ways, a big surprise for those only familiar with his first album and the Weather Report discography.</p><p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40566>Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8202076561130891634?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-71397074757459167532011-10-18T21:04:00.001-04:002011-10-18T21:04:24.400-04:00<img src="http://www.krannertcenter.com/images/img.ashx?width=235&amp;img=/images/cm/2011511153925496128174106178/frisell.jpg" align="right" vspace="2" hspace="12" width="170"><strong>THE GREAT FLOOD<br><br>BILL FRISELL + BILL MORRISON COLLABORATE ON MULTIMEDIA WORK INSPIRED BY THE 1927 MISSISSIPPI RIVER FLOODS</strong><br><br>The Great Flood Comes to Select Markets Throughout the U.S.<br><br>Grammy Award-winning guitarist and composer Bill Frisell and Obie-winning experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison recently premiered “The Great Flood,"—an electrifying, soulful, and thought provoking 75-minute multimedia work of original music and film inspired by the 1927 Mississippi River floods. Now, Frisell and Morrison take The Great Flood on the road, stopping at select University and public venues across the country. The complete list of dates is listed below.<br><br>The Great Flood premiered last month at ELLNORA | The Guitar Festival at the University of Illinois' Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and received a standing ovation for its stirring, contemporary perspective on this natural disaster and the ensuing transformation of American society and music. In the spring of 1927, the Mississippi River broke out of its banks in 145 places and inundated 27,000 square miles to a depth of up to 30 feet. Part of its enduring legacy was the mass exodus of displaced sharecroppers. Musically, the Great Migration of rural southern blacks to Northern cities saw the Delta Blues electrified and reinterpreted as the Chicago blues, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll.<br><br>Members of the Illinois Emerging Digital Research and Education in Arts Media Institute (eDream) and the Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) collaborated with Morrison on the film, creating data-driven visualizations of the Mississippi River Valley showing the extent of the destructive floodwaters. “This was a novel collaboration between an inspired artist and data-visualization experts," said Donna Cox, director of eDream and AVL.<br><br><strong>The Great Flood is currently confirmed to stop in the following places:</strong><br><br>2011<br><br>Thursday, November 3—Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH <br>Friday, November 4—Zankel Hall, New York, NY <br>Saturday, November 5—Duke University, Durham, NC<br><br>2012<br><br>Saturday, March 31—Wexner Center, Columbus, OH <br>Thursday, April 19—UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA <br>Saturday, April 21—SF Jazz, San Francisco, CA<br><br>Additional dates to be announced.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-7139707475745916753?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-24556997177966622582011-10-18T21:02:00.002-04:002011-10-18T21:02:59.379-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/large/0/0/5/8b219d2e2b470a24915dfc5fea6fb.jpg" align="right" vspace="2" hspace="12" width="170">The Jazz Arts Group of Columbus (JAG) has released findings from a 21-month research project focused on current and potential jazz ticket buyers across the U.S. and in Central Ohio. Funded in part by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) with a $200,000 grant, the Jazz Audiences Initiative (JAI), is a first-of-its-kind study designed to explore how and why people engage with jazz. The main goal was to learn new ways for engaging audiences, and infusing the art form with new energy.<br><br><strong>Jazz Audience Initiative Key Findings:</strong> </p><p></p><blockquote><ol><li>Tastes in music are socially transmitted.</li><li>Across western-based art forms, jazz still draws a relatively diverse audience.</li><li>Consumption of jazz is artist-driven.</li><li>Music preferences are shaped by local programming.</li><li>Younger buyers have categorically more eclectic tastes in music.</li><li>There are many musical pathways into jazz.</li><li>Jazz buyers strongly prefer informal settings.</li></ol></blockquote> <p> “This research provides deep insights into the ways contemporary audiences are choosing to participate in and engage with the arts, and specifically creative forms of music, such as jazz," expressed Robert Breithaupt, Executive Director of the Jazz Arts Group. “From the beginning, we worked collaboratively with our national research partners to share information and new ideas. We're now turning our attention to putting this research into practice and considering the implications of this important data for our organization. We hope other organizations will join us in this work to strengthen the field."<p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=88383">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2455699717796662258?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-23488908279310582612011-10-18T21:00:00.003-04:002011-10-18T21:00:47.511-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/large/6/5/4/448537352ff81cee0a43324af7f3d.jpg width=500 border=0><p>It's no accident that forty years of jazz at Harvard coincides with forty years of Tom Everett at the esteemed university. Everett founded Harvard University's first student jazz band, taught its first jazz history course and welcomed the campus' first visiting jazz artist. He now leads two jazz bands at the prestigious university, continues to teach jazz history courses and welcomes a different visiting jazz artist each year, working with and commissioning works from Anthony Braxton, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, J.J. Johnson, Steve Lacy and many others. In April 2011, Harvard celebrated "Forty Years of Jazz at Harvard" with an exhibition of manuscripts and memorabilia, a discussion about the history of jazz at Harvard, moderated by Everett and Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music Ingrid Monson, and a star-studded concert at Harvard's Sanders Theater.<p>Yet Everett's accomplishments at Harvard are just one part of a long career as a performer, educator and musical advocate. Everett has played with established big bands and premiered over thirty works for bass trombone in the world of classical music. Through it all, he's combined the resourcefulness and imagination of an improviser with the tireless devotion of a teacher.<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40494>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2348890827931058261?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-2146076479708100232011-10-14T06:37:00.001-04:002011-10-14T06:38:38.938-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/michaelkaeshammer_kaeshammer_cmb.jpg align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 border=1 width=200 height=200>It doesn't take a Charles Darwin to realize that the true evolutionary inheritors of <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=4364">Frank Sinatra</a>'s and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=8659">Peggy Lee</a>'s brand of "popular" music were <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=17745">Elton John</a> and Billy Joel, and not <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5876">Harry Connick, Jr.</a> or <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=11909">Michael Buble</a>, the latter being more keepers of the flame than the former innovators. Had popular music not dissembled into the current confused concoction of country, rock and hip-hop, where might it have ended up? At the door of German/Canadian Michael Kaeshammer, that's where. </p><p> Kaeshammer debuted with <em>Blue Keys</em> (Alma Records) in 1996. Since that time, he has released six more recordings, including this eponymous release. The staggering reality of <em>Kaeshammer</em> is the fact that so much talent—composing, singing, instrumental chops, and arranging—comes so densely packed in a single person. It seems inconceivable that with such a discography, including <em>Kaeshammer</em> in particular, the singer is not more widely known. Because this is music more infectious than the flu. </p><p> Kaeshammer's stylistic range is as deep as it is wide, ranging from the stride piano of the 1930s <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=4460">Willie "The Lion" Smith</a> ("Tightrope") to the Fender Rhodes of the Faces' Ian McLagan ("Kisses in Zanzibar") and singing from 1920's show tunes (an inspired and revamped "Love Me or Leave Me") to the Christopher Cross-meets-Bruce Hornsby style on "Remedy." <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5648">Ray Charles</a>, Leon Russell, Lindsey Buckingham, Elton John, Don Henley, and so on are all here in a sound that can only be called Kaeshammer's own. </p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40516">Continue...</a></p><p><br><b>Download a Free MP3</b><p><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/michaelkaeshammer_kaeshammer_cmb.jpg align=left vspace=2 hspace=12 border=1 width=60 height=60><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6904">Love Me Or Leave Me</a></strong><br>Michael Kaeshammer<br><em>Kaeshammer</em><br>02:51<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-214607647970810023?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-62153212322040271992011-10-13T09:29:00.001-04:002011-10-13T09:29:13.686-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/BlueNoteTeam620x355.jpg width=500><p><p>Music Matters has been reissuing classic Blue Note jazz records since 2007. It has dug deep into the catalog, remastering lesser known, infrequently heard titles, and done so with passionate attention to presenting the highest possible sound quality. Offering an analog solution in a digital age, this exceptional series is available on 45rpm vinyl records only. It is an extraordinary collection of music.</p><p>With some of the Blue Note recordings now pushing 60 years old, it's wholly appropriate to release a first-rate reissue series, but to do it right requires people who are fanatics about these titles and who bleed enthusiasm for the music. It also helps to have folks with the attention to detail necessary to worry about the weight of the vinyl and the type of ink used in the jackets. It requires folks who are a little crazy about making the best possible pressings, and are willing to go to any length to make it happen. Ron Rambach (far left above), owner of Music Matters, and his friend and co-conspirator, Joe Harley (second left, with Steve Hoffman, second right, Kevin Gray, far right), have personally overseen every element of the reissue series since its inception. They're both a little nuts about classic Blue Note records, and they've channeled their madness into an exceptional collection.</p><p>Rambach and Harley are music fans first and foremost, and they approached reissuing the Blue Note catalog as an extension of their dedication to the label. Original 33rpm Blue Note albums are scarce and outrageously expensive. Many collectors have at least one original Blue Note that they just had to buy, even though the vinyl had clearly been used for target practice. The label has so much cache that some folks will pay a premium for a scratchy, damaged Blue Note record just to have it, even when a CD of the same performance may be readily available. Rambach, a long time dealer in collectible vinyl, was concerned that people would only ever hear poor quality copies, and that they'd overlook lesser known titles: "I didn't know how the next generation was going to hear this music. It's the music that needs to be discovered. It's about bringing these guys back." Both men had a deep knowledge of the label's catalog through their own collections and felt strongly that, handled properly, a reissue could offer something new to enthusiasts.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40477">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-6215321232204027199?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-79112979918802177792011-10-11T06:54:00.001-04:002011-10-11T06:54:30.257-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/TierneySutton620x355.jpg width=500><p>Bands come in all shapes, sizes and dynamics. Some thrive on the tensions, while others fall apart too soon due to creative differences or inflated egos. None of these challenges seem to present themselves to the group of musicians that takes its name from the vocalist Tierney Sutton. With nine albums under its collective belt, complemented by three Grammy nominations, the Tierney Sutton Band is about to tour again in support of its American Road release (BMF Jazz, 2011).<p>Since Sutton formed the group in 1994, she has exerted what appears to be a healthy and positive influence over the band's structure and modus operandi, based on her religion. Her adoption of the Baha'i faith, at the age of 18, has led her to incorporate its fundamental principle of collective evolution in the creation and nurturing of the Tierney Sutton Band. Along with Sutton, the band comprises up to four additional members: Christian Jacob (piano), Trey Henry and/or Kevin Axt (bass) and Ray Brinker (drums). The decisions the band makes are holistic, and are focused on providing an effective conduit between the music and the audience—stretching the talents and improvisational skills of each band member, yet seeking to engage and resonate with the listener.<p><b>All About Jazz: </b>What were your earliest musical influences?<p><b>Tierney Sutton:</b> Early on, I had no conscious exposure to jazz, whatsoever. I grew up in Milwaukee, a Midwest town. My parents didn't have many records and didn't listen to music much at home. My mother had a nice voice and some musical tendencies, but they didn't take me to concerts or have records. I showed an interest in music early on and, like many singers I know, could sing before I could talk.<p><b>AAJ: </b>Ah, something you share with Johnny Mercer— his aunt told him he was humming music when he was six months old. As a child, were you encouraged to take up an instrument?<p><b>TS: </b>I took piano lessons and sang in children's choirs. When I was only five years old, I had the lead in a school musical of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. But I didn't really feel passionate about it and want to do it for a living until at college, when I became exposed to jazz for the first time.<p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40427">Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-7911297991880217779?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-8954012456626083702011-10-11T06:44:00.000-04:002011-10-11T06:56:21.394-04:00Download this free MP3 from composer/trumpeter Anthony Branker... <p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6837"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/anthonybranker_dialogic_dss.jpg" align="left" border="1" height="90" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="90"></a><font color="#999999">Featured: 2011-10-10</font><br><b><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com//php/jazzdownload.php?id=6837">Download Ancestral Tales</a></b> (5:35)<br>Anthony Branker<br>From: <i>Dialogic</i><br>Origin Records<p><br><b>About Anthony Branker</b><p>Dr. Anthony D.J. Branker holds the endowed chair of the <em>Anthony H.P Lee ’79 Senior Lecturer in Jazz Studies</em>, is Founder and Director of the Program in Jazz Studies, and serves as Associate Director of the Program in Musical Performance at Princeton University, where he directs an extensive list of ensembles and teaches courses in jazz theory through improvisation &amp; composition, jazz performance practice in historical and cultural context, jazz composition, and the evolution of jazz styles. He has served as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar and visiting professor at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn, Estonia and has also been a member of the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts, Hunter College of the City University of New York, Ursinus College, and the New Jersey Summer Arts Institute. Professor Branker was visiting composer at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, Germany and for the Socrates/Erasmus Intensive Programme in cooperation with the European Union, the Association of Baltic Academies of Music, and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. He has been honored by the United States Department of Education with a Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award, the Institute for Arts and Humanities Education Distinguished Teaching Award, the International Association of Jazz Educators Award for Outstanding Service to Jazz Education, and was the recipient of the 2004 Alumni Award presented by the Association of Black Princeton Alumni. Recently, the New Jersey Association for Jazz Education honored Dr. Branker at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark by presenting him with the 2009 Jazz Education Achievement Award for “Outstanding Accomplishment in the Field of Jazz Studies and Continued Dedication to the New Jersey Jazz Education Community.” </p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=18217">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-895401245662608370?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-47599466421262852622011-10-10T11:55:00.002-04:002011-10-10T11:55:44.083-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/medium/5/6/e/0d257bd10bde5fd97545bab755b6e.jpg width=500><p>At the dawn of the second decade of his career, saxophonist Miguel Zenón has established himself as one of the most sophisticated and stylish players of the new millennium. In a very short time, Zenón has made his mark as a composer, band leader, educator, and jazz advocate. He has performed and recorded with scores of the scene's most prominent musicians as leader, side man and member of the groundbreaking <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=13975">SFJAZZ Collective</a>, where he is the sole founding member remaining with the group.</p><p>Zenón has taken jazz awareness and education to new levels through his work as a Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassador to West Africa, a guest lecturer and teacher at Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory of Music and elsewhere, as well as with his founding of Caravana Cultural, a quarterly series of concerts and talks aimed at bringing jazz music "to the people" in his native Puerto Rico.</p><p>Zenón's work as an educator extends to his creative endeavors as well. His latest release, <em>Alma Adentro</em> (Marsalis Music, 2011), is his third so far to examine and interpret a musical form from his homeland, in this case songs from the Puerto Rican popular songbook of the mid-20th century.</p><p>All of this work—and much more—earned Zenón a prestigious MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 2008. With its $500,000 prize allocated over five annual installments, the award not only recognizes Zenón's growing impact in the world of music but has afforded him the resources to continue to pursue his passions with vigor.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40414">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-4759946642126285262?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-83023130301562961162011-10-07T06:53:00.002-04:002011-10-07T06:53:35.555-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/medium/4/f/c/29b47c66900744ee1ebdde58723af.jpg width=500><p>On a moon of this past June, appropriately enough, Leonardo Pavkovic, owner of the progressive jazz label MoonJune Records, gave All About Jazz an interview at the label's office in Union Square, New York City. The name MoonJune Records, which Pavkovic started back in 2001, is taken from the title of a song, "Moon In June," that appeared on the Canterbury jazz-rock group, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=15399">Soft Machine</a>'s 1970 album, <em>Third</em> (CBS). MoonJune Records aims to provide jazz and progressive rock musicians from different continents and different cultural backgrounds with a very personal, hands-on relationship with a label.</p><p>At the time of the interview, MoonJune Records had just hit its 10-year mark. Pavkovic was optimistic about the label's future, and provided details on how he works with musicians and remains responsive to his customers.</p><p>The MoonJune office is a working shrine to some of the best jazz and progressive rock artists, past to present—from Pavkovic's own CDs waiting to be mailed out, to extensive video and book libraries and stacks of trade publications and music magazines. One wall is covered with posters and stickers going back to the late 1960s and English bands such as <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5845">Colosseum</a>, and up to the recent past with Indonesian groups such as <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=29197">Tohpati Ethnomission</a>.</p><p>There is no shortage of interest for a visitor to feast eyes on in this office—and from the way Pavkovic jubilantly blasts music out of his sound system, it is obvious he is a man who loves what he does.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40136">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8302313030156296116?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-85427982544890705942011-10-07T06:50:00.003-04:002011-10-07T06:50:36.224-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/grandunionorchestra_ifparadise_cm.jpg" align="left" border="1" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="200">Grand Union Orchestra <br><em>If Paradise</em> <br><a href="http://www.grandunion.org.uk" target="_blank">Red Gold</a> <br>2011</p><p><em>If Paradise</em>, the biggest jewel in British composer, keyboardist and trombonist Tony Haynes' recording career to date, joins a handful of orchestral albums which have not so much crossed genre and cultural boundaries as rendered them meaningless. Off-piste singularities may exclude these discs from mainstream jazz history, but their exalted singularity make them artifacts to be treasured. Other high-carat items are pianist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=8504">Joachim Kühn</a> and arranger <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7024">Michael Gibbs</a>'s <em>Europeana</em> (ACT, 1995) and pianist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=11286">Randy Weston</a>'s <em>Blue Moses</em> (CTI, 1972).</p><p>With "If Paradise," a raga-based suite in eight sections, Haynes and his 19-piece <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=18169">Grand Union Orchestra</a>—formed in 1982 as a vehicle for jazz-based, cross-cultural experiment—blend the music and instruments of Bangladesh and India with the jazz tradition to extraordinary effect. Haynes' genius here, as elsewhere in his corpus of work, has been not merely to bolt colorful ethnic exoticisms onto the exterior bodywork of the jazz tradition; instead, he creates a truly syncretic blend in which, much of the time, it is impossible to say where one culture stops and another starts. Listening to it is like looking through a kaleidoscope with a headful of the finest charas.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40473">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8542798254489070594?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-34497205758824342902011-10-05T08:03:00.000-04:002011-10-05T08:11:33.996-04:00Download this free MP3 from pianist Antonio Adolfo...<p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6911"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/antonioadolfo_chorabaiao_eb.jpg" align="left" border="1" height="90" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="100"></a><font color="#999999">Featured: 2011-10-05</font><br><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6911">Download Chora Baiao</a></strong> (5:11)<br>Antonio Adolfo<br>From: <i>Chora Baiao</i><br>AAM Music<p><br><b>About Antonio Adolfo</b><p>Antonio Adolfo is an important composer, having writtensongs recorded by Nara Leao, Marisa Gata Mansa,Angela Ro Ro, Wilson Simonal, Ivete Sangalo, LeciBrandao, Emilio Santiago, Beth Carvalho, SergioMendes & Brasil '66, Stevie Wonder and Herb Alpertamong others. Adolfo also had a noted role in theprocess of making important music available throughindependent production, through the creation of thepioneer independent label Artezanal. His recordings ofimportant and almost-forgotten composers of the belleepoque, like Chiquinha Gonzaga, Ernesto Nazareth andJoao Pernambuco, are noted cultural initiatives. As anarranger, he worked for Leci Brandao, Angela Ro Ro,Elizeth Cardoso, Emilio Santiago, Fatima Guedes,Marcos Valle, Mongol, Nara Leao, O Grupo, Ruy Maurity(his brother), Sueli Costa, Vinicius Cantuaria, Rita Lee,Zeze Motta, and others.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=3277">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-3449720575882434290?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-86370506217611643642011-10-04T06:37:00.002-04:002011-10-04T06:37:47.397-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/mrpc620x355.jpg" alt="October 2011" title="October 2011" width="500"><p><em>Dear Mr. P.C.:<p>On my steady gig, I'll be trying really hard to play well. You know, being in the moment, trying to come up with ideas I've never played before, treating jazz with total respect. Right in the middle of all that I'll hear the drums start to sound like something is wrong. When I look over, the drummer is making kissy faces at some cute woman in the audience and showing off for her with all these fancy but totally inappropriate fills. It totally destroys my concentration. What should I do? <p align=right>-- Drummer Ruins My Sanity</em><p><br />Dear DRMS: I understand why you're so upset. Instead of singling out and objectifying a "cute" woman, he could perform a real service by flattering a less attractive woman, particularly a geriatric or grossly misshapen one. Or he could deliver an even bigger blow to chauvinism by "making kissy faces" at the men in the audience, especially the more macho guys--the ones pounding beers and looking hatefully toward the bandstand. But think about it, DRMS: At least he's accompanying you, taking part in your journey. During his solos, you don't even play! Instead, you disengage from the music, silently counting "one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four..." while worrying about what you'll eat during the next break. I can only imagine what you'd be doing if you had his arsenal of gadgets at your disposal: Swiveling around on the drum throne (Look how tall I am! Now look how short I am!), twirling the sticks (Take cover--I'm a nunchuck Master!), and wearing the ride cymbal on your head (Quick, someone find me a rice paddy--it's a coolie hat!). Your drummer may have his faults, DRMS, but you have to give him credit for engaging the audience. And I've got some great news: You can take his approach to a whole new level, combining audience outreach with social activism! Best of all, you can do it during his solos, when you're normally nothing but dead weight on the bandstand! Here's how: When he starts to solo, turn to the people in the audience and leer at them suggestively. But--this is the key--leer only at those who are least accustomed to it, and would therefore most welcome it: The disadvantaged, the disenfranchised, and the disfigured.<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40492>Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8637050621761164364?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-25557115068618400892011-10-03T07:59:00.002-04:002011-10-03T07:59:16.220-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/bunkygreen620x355.jpg width=500 border=1><p>Saxophonist Bunky Green bristles at the idea of playing by the rules. On more than one occasion, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin native was on his way to jazz stardom, but each time his principles guided him elsewhere. This is a significant reason why the highly influential musician has mostly remained unsung and out of the spotlight for decades, instead focusing his energies on his role as a leading jazz educator. For the past two decades, Green has served as the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of North Florida at Jacksonville.</p><p>During the early days of his career, Green took over for Jackie McLean in <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=9429">Charles Mingus</a>' band in 1960. The legendary bassist's adventurous spirit and willingness to push boundaries, often at the risk of commercial success, proved highly influential on Green's artistic psyche. In 1961, he relocated to Chicago, where he recorded and performed with luminaries including <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=4638">Sonny Stitt</a>, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=8602">Yusef Lateef</a> and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7627">Andrew Hill</a>, while also propelling his solo career forward with albums such as <em>Testifyin' Time</em> (Argos, 1965) and <em>Playin' for Keeps</em> (Cadet, 1966).</p><p>Unhappy with how he was treated by labels and the music industry in general, Green began transitioning into jazz education in the early '70s. He taught at Chicago State University from 1972 to 1989, while sporadically recording. During the late '70s, he released three albums for the Vanguard label: the commercially oriented <em>Transformations</em> (1977) and <em>Visions</em> (1978), as well as the uncompromising <em>Places We've Never Been</em> (1979). <em>Places We've Never Been</em> features six expansive post-bop pieces with an all-star band including <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5275">Randy Brecker</a>, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7095">Eddie Gomez</a> and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=11120">Freddie Waits</a>. It's particularly notable for its first track, "East and West," which finds Green exploring the cultural and aural influences of a trip to Algiers.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2555711506861840089?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-35867398879453412812011-10-03T07:57:00.000-04:002011-10-03T07:57:01.283-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/large/5/f/3/21063850f2481ca8546c54d56b345.jpg" width=220border=1 title="John Gennari--&copy; John Gennari" align=right vspace=2 hspace=12>When I began this <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article_center.php?in_type=178" target="_blank"><em>Race and Jazz</em> series</a> several months ago, I knew the topics I wanted to touch upon, and the general culture vs. race point-of-view I intended to pursue. With those chord changes (topics) and that melodic perspective (pro-culture, anti-race) in mind and at play, I figured I'd proceed with the rest by ear. As it turned out, the <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=39898" target="_blank">most recent column</a> featured an interview with premier jazz critic and book author Gary Giddins, in which he discussed disparities in the recognition and acclaim attained by certain black American jazz critics/journalists compared to some so-called "white" jazz critics/journalists over the past generation of jazz criticism.</p><p>Yet since jazz criticism has a history that can be tracked and traced right along with the growth and development of the music, there's no need to stay confined to the past 40 or so years. "How has race played into the way jazz has been covered over the past 100+ years of the existence of the art form?" is one question that has now arisen.</p><p>Fortunately, there's a scholar who has researched jazz letters and the history of jazz criticism and has written the thus far definitive work on the critical discourse of jazz from the 1930s to the turn of this century: John Gennari. His book is <em>Blowin' Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics</em> (University of Chicago, Press, 2006.) He's an Associate Professor of English and ALANA U.S. Ethnic Studies at the University of Vermont.</p><p>John Gennari and I first met in the late 1990s through the <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cjs/research/the-jazz-study-group.html" target="_blank">Jazz Study Group</a> (JSG) at Columbia University. I was a grad student in a doctoral program in American Studies at New York University at the time. The Jazz Study Group was founded by Robert G. O'Meally, an English and Comparative Literature professor at Columbia whose scholarship has included a focus on jazz since he earned his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1975. From 1995-2006, the Jazz Study Group held <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cjs/research/jazz-study-group-meetings.html" target="_blank">quarterly meetings</a>, mostly on the Columbia campus. Personally, I most enjoyed the occasions when the small group of about 30 of us would meet in the spacious yet cozy book- and CD/LP-lined apartment of Prof. O'Meally and his wife Jacqui Malone, a historian of American dance.</p><p>Very relevant to the conversation you are about to read is the following goal of the JSG: "to cultivate and strengthen the then-budding interdisciplinary field of jazz studies at a crucial point in its emergence as a discrete area of scholarship within the context of African American and American Studies."</p><p>Gennari's <em>Blowin' Hot and Cold</em> is a prime example of this interdisciplinary direction of jazz studies.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40463">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-3586739887945341281?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-33274123235651243582011-10-01T06:46:00.001-04:002011-10-01T06:56:24.837-04:00<center><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/large/c/d/b/d2e5c91a09df0963323ee18b0214d.jpg" width=500 border=1 title="Wilco"></center><p>Wilco<br> Rumsey Playground, Central Park<br> New York, NY<br> September 22, 2011</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=2885">Nels Cline</a> can conjure wind. He did so mid-way through the third song of Wilco's performance in New York City on September 22. There were several thousand witnesses.</p><p>Cline, Wilco's guitarist-cum-audio mad scientist, was at the crest of an intense solo passage in "Ashes of American Flags" when a strong, crisp breeze blew in from the East, lifting the blanket of early evening humidity that was laid over the crowd gathered in Central Park's Rumsey Playground. Wilco is a live band of such extraordinary powers that a supernatural act of meteorological manipulation seems well within their grasp. Cline's was greeted with an appreciative roar from the devoted crowd.</p><p>In 2000, when Wilco was still playing clubs behind their then-current record, <em>Summerteeth</em>, the band's sound was an easy-to-digest gumbo of all that came before: the ramshackle power pop song writing of Big Star; the psychedelic country of the Byrds; the arena rock of mid-period Who. Those strains are still evident, but in the intervening decade-plus they have been joined by hints of Sonic Youth, Kraftwerk and other electronic noise elements. Incredibly, Wilco has never veered too far into experimental territory. They've pushed the boundaries of pop, but there are no throwaway records. Perhaps using the model of <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=16500">The Beatles</a>, Wilco leader and songsmith Jeff Tweedy has managed to keep Wilco about the songs, using technology and noise as spicy embellishments, not the main dish. The result is a book of songs equally at home channeled through a seven-piece electric band as through an acoustic guitar on Tweedy's not- infrequent solo jaunts.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40432">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-3327412323565124358?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-66401198159520142842011-09-30T08:38:00.002-04:002011-09-30T08:39:18.480-04:00Gary Burton Quartet <br>Blue Note <br>New York, NY <br>September, 21, 2011</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7376">Lionel Hampton</a> carved out a place for the vibraphone in a swing setting, and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7936">Milt Jackson</a> brought the instrument into bop, but <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5485">Gary Burton</a> remains the guru and guiding light in virtually every other aspect for vibraphonists and fans the world over. As a visionary educator, he helped to make Berklee <em>the</em> place to go for aspiring jazzers, and as a performer, he's redefined the very way the vibraphone is played. His four-mallet grip and stunning technique pointed the way to a more pianistic approach for vibraphonists everywhere, and his influence looms large over every aspiring vibes player who came into being in the past four or five decades. While countless other vibraphonists active today—from elder statesmen like <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7844">Bobby Hutcherson</a>, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5651">Teddy Charles</a> and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=8994">Mike Mainieri</a> to younger trendsetters like <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7460">Stefon Harris</a> and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=16365">Jason Adasiewicz</a>—have left a lasting impact in different ways, Burton is in a class all his own.</p><p>During this visit to New York's Blue Note, where this quartet first came together nearly a year earlier, Burton brought forth a set of music that churned, swirled and glowed with clarity and energy. The first set on the opening night of a four-evening run featured nods to vibraphone forefathers, with a <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=10830">Cal Tjader</a>-associated "Afro Blue" opening the set and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7936">Milt Jackson</a>'s signature "Bags' Groove" serving as the show-ending encore, but original works from the quartet's <em>Common Ground</em> (Mack Avenue, 2011) proved to be the main attraction. Bassist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=14531">Scott Colley</a>'s "Never The Same Way" began with interlacing rhythms that seemed random at first, but quickly connected in logical fashion. Guitarist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=16139">Julian Lage</a> delivered nimble, single note lines as he moved all over the neck and, on this song and elsewhere throughout the set, he showed a strong kinship with drummer <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=15301">Antonio Sanchez</a>. Sanchez continually supported him, while simultaneously egging him on with his polyrhythmic drumming spree.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40450">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-6640119815952014284?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-57616919847726891102011-09-30T08:31:00.002-04:002011-09-30T08:32:42.628-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/ornettecoleman_freejazz_cmb.jpg" align="LEFT" border="1" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="200"> Ornette Coleman <br><em>Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation by the Ornette Coleman Double Quartet</em> <br><a href="http://atlanticrecords.com/" target="_BLANK">Atlantic</a> <br>1961</p><p>Alto saxophonist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5818">Ornette Coleman</a>'s masterpiece, <em>Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation by the Ornette Coleman Double Quartet</em>, is one of the hinges of jazz evolution. As a musical hinge, <em>Free Jazz</em>, heard from this side of its development, is a bit of an anticlimax compared with the two-label, five album prelude to this point: <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=39975" target="_BLANK"> <em>Something Else!!!!</em></a> (Contemporary, 1958), <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40028" target="_BLANK"><em>Tomorrow is the Question!</em></a> (Contemporary, 1959), <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40090" target="_BLANK"> <em>The Shape of Jazz to Come</em></a> (Atlantic, 1959), <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40142" target="_BLANK"><em>Change of the Century</em></a> (Atlantic, 1959) and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40190" target="_BLANK"><em>This is Our Music</em></a> (Atlantic, 1959). Had Coleman done nothing else but release these first five recordings, his legacy as one of the pioneers of free jazz would still be assured. But on <em>Free Jazz</em> Coleman took that final step into the chaos of untethered group improvisation and in doing so took the "free" in free jazz as far as it would go. Tenor saxophonist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5851">John Coltrane</a>, taking his own route, would do the same five years later with <em>Ascension</em> (Impulse!, 1966).</p><p>If following the cause-and-effect explanation for the development of free jazz, Coleman's music was an evolved response to the highly structured be bop of the late 1940s and early 1950s and swing-era big band jazz before that. Unlike Coltrane, free jazz's other high priest, Coleman did not have a slew of recordings before he began disassembling the genre. Coleman emerged anxious and impatient with the music when he started to record in 1958. Coleman's creative evolution in free jazz lasted a mere three years and was dense and rapid.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40430">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-5761691984772689110?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-39145256211444432952011-09-29T10:52:00.000-04:002011-09-29T10:54:04.053-04:00<a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6876"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/joncrowley_attheedge_dss.jpg" align="left" border="1" height="90" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="90"></a><br><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6876">At the Edge</a></strong> (5:36)<br>Jon Crowley<br>From: <i>At The Edge</i><br>Lonely Crow Records<p><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6875"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2009/joncrowley_bl.jpg" align="left" border="1" height="90" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="90"></a><br><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6875">Icarus</a></strong> (4:39)<br>Jon Crowley<br>From: <i>Connections</i><br>Self Published<p><br><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads.php>Lots more free MP3s here</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-3914525621144443295?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-11867495960739622012011-09-29T10:34:00.000-04:002011-09-29T10:34:22.932-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/sad-face.jpg width=400><p>We apologize for the interruption in service for most of the day yesterday. If you had difficulty downloading our free MP3s, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads.php>please try now</a>. You can get caught up on news <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news_center.php>here</a>.Thanks for you patience.Your friends at All About Jazz<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-1186749596073962201?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-19481857386957460142011-09-27T11:05:00.001-04:002011-09-27T11:05:37.104-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/francescoturrisi_620x355.jpg width=500 border=0><p>It has often been said that composer/harpsichordist/violinist Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was the first jazz musician. His contrapuntal techniques and ideas on harmony, rhythm and form have influenced countless jazz musicians. Numerous are the jazz musicians who have also studied classical music, usually prior to shifting to jazz. Few, however, are those who have taken a Master's degree in jazz and then opted to study early music, a term that refers to European classical music dating roughly from the Medieval era, through the Renaissance and until the end of the Baroque period, marked by the death of Bach.</p><p>Italian pianist Francesco Turrisi is one such rare case. His impressive debut as leader, <em>Si Dolce e il Tormento</em> (Diatribe Recordings, 2009) intertwined the threads of jazz improvisation, Italian folk melodies and baroque roots to stunning effect, and garnered highly positive reviews in the press, with the Irish Times describing it as "exquisite." It may be the first jazz recording to feature the theorbo—a long-necked lute more typical of the late 16th and 17th centuries—alongside clarinet and a jazz rhythm section. Not many would have imagined such juxtaposition, but for Turrisi, part of the joy of music is searching for interesting sounds that complement each other. That recording announced the arrival of an individual voice on the jazz scene, something which they've known in Ireland since Turrisi made Dublin his home in 2006.</p><p>The pianist/accordionist/harpsichordist/percussionist is what you might call an all- rounder, playing in at least half a dozen different contexts where he is able to explore his passion for jazz, early music, and the music of Africa, Brazil, the Balkans, southern Italy and the greater Mediterranean area, and of course, his adopted Ireland. Turrisi's second CD as a leader, <em>Fotografia</em> (Diatribe Recordings, 2011) is another distillation of the pianist's southern Italian roots, baroque rhythms and a jazz trio aesthetic. Gone is the theorbo, and in are more jagged, brooding, improvised pieces, with lyrical folk numbers strewn throughout, like pools of calm amongst the turbulence.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40298">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-1948185738695746014?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-7358340291977005902011-09-26T07:11:00.001-04:002011-09-26T07:11:21.716-04:00<img border="1" src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/johnscofield620x355.jpg" width="500" /><p>Sometimes a recording comes together easily, with a minimum of muss or fuss. Other times, life seems to conspire against it, but that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't get done, or that it suffers as a result. Sometimes, in fact, it can make the end result even better. For John Scofield—one-third of a power trifecta of guitarists, also including <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=9350">Pat Metheny</a> and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=6859">Bill Frisell</a>), who emerged in the mid-1970s to become some of their generation's most influential and highly regarded jazz artists—the road to his latest release, the aptly titled <i>A Moment's Peace</i> (EmArcy, 2011), was riddled with complications. But the end result is a set that stands out among the plethora of ballads albums flooding the market these days, with its unique combination of standards, less-traveled covers and Scofield originals delivered with more gentleness than is, perhaps, expected from a guitarist capable of searing paint off a wall.<p>Still, despite its largely relaxed nature and slower tempos, <i>A Moment's Peace</i> manages to come to a near boil at times—no surprise, given the powerful group that ultimately converged for a couple days in January, 2011, at Sear Sound in New York City: keyboardist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7082">Larry Goldings</a> (making <i>A Moment's Peace</i> a recording reunion of sorts, having last worked on Trio Beyond's <i>Saudades</i> [ECM, 2006], in 2004); ubiquitous and ever-adaptable bassist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=14531">Scott Colley</a>; and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5053">Brian Blade</a>, a drummer who, like Scofield, is perhaps better known for his unbridled power and sheer improvisational energy than the soft approach and subtle nuances he demonstrates here.<p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40431">Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-735834029197700590?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-66926588825169787482011-09-26T06:28:00.000-04:002011-09-26T10:49:01.913-04:00<a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6878"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/johnscofield_amomentspeace_jk.jpg" height="100" width="100" align=left vspace=2 hspace=12><br><strong>Simply Put</a></strong><br>John Scofield<br><em>A Moment's Peace</em><br>8:50<p><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6877"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/johnscofield_newmorning_parisconcert_jk.jpg" height="100" width="100" align=left vspace=2 hspace=12><br><strong>Slinky</a></strong><br>John Scofield<br> <em>New Morning: The Paris Concert</em><br> 13:55<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-6692658882516978748?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-42975368962079030482011-09-25T10:14:00.000-04:002011-09-25T10:14:29.523-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/tierneysuttonband_americanroad_cmb.jpg" align="LEFT" border="1" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="200"> The Tierney Sutton Band <br><em>American Road</em> <br><a href="http://www.bfmjazz.com/" target="_BLANK">BFM Jazz</a> <br>2011</p><p>Solidly innovative and a forward-thinker in jazz vocals arena over the past 15 years, Tierney Sutton has constantly looked backwards while forging a future path that has influenced the likes of <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=1437">Laurie Antonioli</a> and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=16961">Gretchen Parlato</a>, among many other noted contemporary jazz vocalists. A master of vocal pyrotechnics like <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=11033">Sarah Vaughan</a>, Sutton sings on a high-wire, taking stylistic chances that, more often than not, pay off handsomely. Sutton and her band have been perfecting their unique updating of the great American songbook on such well-received recordings as <a href="/php/article.php?id=32065" target="_BLANK"><em>Desire</em></a> (Telarc, 2009), <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=24592" target="_BLANK"><em>On The Other Side</em></a> (Telarc, 2007) and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19750" target="_BLANK"><em>I'm With The Band</em></a> (Telarc, 2005). And she provides a tour-de-force in <em>American Road</em>.</p><p>An important part of the band's unique sound derives from divining the organic earthiness from the standards it selects to perform. Where <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=11433">Cassandra Wilson</a> spent the better part of the 1990s stripping down standards and redressing them with more rustic instrumentation such as acoustic slide guitars, mandolins, violins and other artifacts of rural blues, effecting a more seminal, fecund sound, Sutton accomplishes the same with carefully conceived arrangements, created by the entire band as opposed to a single person. Additionally, she does this with her traditional jazz piano trio of 18 years. These arrangements are spare and wide open. Often jarring and dissonant, the clever settings reveal the pieces as dramatically different from traditional performances, revealing their anxious and unsettling elements.</p><p<a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40384">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-4297536896207903048?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-25212266309575479342011-09-23T07:30:00.001-04:002011-09-23T07:35:43.805-04:00We've had our mojo workin' since July as we continue to improve All About Jazz and roll out new features; we're also looking for two new editors to support our staff. Please read on for the latest...<p><br /><a name=1></a><strong>1. Help Wanted: Take Five/iTunes Playlist Editor</strong><p><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/helpwanted_barber.jpg align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 width=220 border=0 alt="Well... maybe some." title="Well... maybe some.">We're looking for someone to spend an hour a week preparing <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article_center.php?in_type=141>Take Five articles</a> and <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article_center.php?in_type=176>iTunes Playlist articles</a>. If you have time, have some familiarity with simple HTML tagging, and have a basic understanding of AAJ house style, <a href=mailto:mricci@visionx.com>please contact me</a> to discuss.<p><br /><a name=2></a><strong>2. Help Wanted: CD Review Editor</strong><p>We're looking for someone who can help <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=398>John Kelman</a> and <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=5101>Jeff Rzepiela</a> edit CD reviews. Same deal as above (an understanding of AAJ's house style). <em>When</em> you spend your time editing is strictly up to you--we're simply looking for a minimum of two reviews a day. And if you <em>read</em> AAJ, you know we have some very fine writers whose reviews will only take 10-15 minutes to prepare.<p><br /><a name=3></a><strong>3. Looking for CDs to Review?</strong><p>We updated the AAJ <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/jazz/contributor_start.php">Contributor Start Page</a> with a "REQUEST CDS TO REVIEW" link. If you're looking for CDs to review, please peruse our <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/review_consideration.php>active list</a>.<p><br /><a name=4></a><strong>4. Improvements: A Bunch</strong><p>We are on a roll! Since our last <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=39690>contributor announcement</a>, we relaunched <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=31847>mobile.allaboutjazz.com</a>, modified the <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=83816>login and private message section</a>, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=83612>improved the musician profile page</a>, topped 11,000 Twitter followers, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=84410>added Google +1 to our articles, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=85407>increased the speed</a> of our article pages by 60%, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=85813>added related audio</a> to our articles, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=86577>upgraded the photo gallery</a>, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=86846>topped 7 million MP3 downloads</a>, and now offer a <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=86987>wallpaper/skin advertising option</a>.<p>Up next: On demand audio, a new jazz website, improving the sign up/sign in/sign out process, and a few more surprises.</blockquote><p><br /><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/seafoodpaella.jpg align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 width=220 border=0 alt="James Nadal's Seafood Paella" title="James Nadal's Seafood Paella"><a name=5></a><strong>5. James Nadal: Wears Another Hat</strong><p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=1362>James Nadal</a>, the chef at Restaurant El Yugo in San Sebastian, PR has long been associated with All About Jazz as a musician profile editor--claiming nearly 1,300 profiles to his name. He replied to our <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=39690#7 target=_blank>help wanted post</a> back in June, graciously stepping up to assume the video of the day editor position. Thank you so much, James!<p><br /><a name=6></a><strong>6. Your iTunes Playlists: Submit Your Own Today!</strong><p>We'd like to regularly publish <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article_center.php?in_type=176 target=_blank>iTunes playlists</a> as articles and we want to start by publishing favorite playlists by our contributor community. If you use iTunes and create playlists, please <strong><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/convert_playlist_form.php>upload one of your faves here</a></strong>. It only takes a minute and we'd greatly appreciate your help.<p><br /><a name=7></a><strong>7. What Jazz Musicians Expect from Music Journalists</strong><p>Journalist Willard Jenkins recently polled a group of prominent jazz artists. His question: when you read music journalism/criticism what qualities are you looking for in the writer and the writing? Read bassist <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=1051>Ben Allison</a> and pianist <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=13572>Bill Anschell</a>'s answers <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=86992>here</a>.<p><br />Thank you for your continued support and creativity,<br /><br /><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=1>Michael Ricci</a><br />Founder/Publisher<p><br><iframe width="500" height="300" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YBFmFygqllc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2521226630957547934?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-22118091847331039532011-09-22T07:07:00.001-04:002011-09-22T07:07:28.647-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/jakehertzog620x355.jpg width=500><p><strong>Meet Jake Hertzog:</strong><br/> Jake Hertzog's accomplishments as a jazz musician mesh with his love for the rock idiom, creating almost an entirely new musical language. His new album, <em>Evolution</em>, co- produced by the great jazz bassist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=4751">Harvie S</a>, the original compositions (except for Jake's version of Bruce Springsteen's "Streets of Philadelphia") have been mastered toperfection--and is a recording destined to become a classic.<p>Past achievements include winning the <em>Grand Prize</em> in 2006 for the <em>Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition</em> in Switzerland. Jake holds title at 20 years old as the youngest ever prize winner in the competition's history. He was invited back in 2007 to showcase his original music at the Festival. Jake is an alum of the prestigious Berklee College of Music and recipient of several performance scholarships.<p>Under the alias Hey Jazz Guy, Jake is a monthly contributor to <em>Guitar Player Magazine</em>'s "Lessons" section. He has been coined as the Jazz Ambassador to the non- jazz world. <em>Guitar Player</em> calls him ..."the blazing wunderkind"; <em>The Boston Phoenix</em> has declared him ..."the WOW! factor."<p>Award-winning jazz guitarist and composer, Jake's second studio album, <em>Patterns</em>, was chosen by <em>Guitar Player Magazine</em> as an Editor's Pick and quickly gained international regard.<p><strong>Instrument(s):</strong><br/>Electric Guitar.<p><strong>Teachers and/or influences?</strong><br/> <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7117">Mick Goodrick</a>, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=9350">Pat Metheny</a>, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=4609">Mike Stern</a>, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=9502">Ben Monder</a>.<p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40394">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2211809184733103953?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-7397751188941029482011-09-21T13:25:00.001-04:002011-09-21T13:25:57.123-04:00<a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/florenciaruiz_luzdelanoche_mt.jpg"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/florenciaruiz_luzdelanoche_mt.jpg" alt="Florencia Ruiz: Luz De La Noche" title="Florencia Ruiz: Luz De La Noche" align="right" border="1" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="200"></a>Since her debut in 2000, Argentina-based guitarist/vocalist Florencia Ruiz has merited high acclaim in South America, Europe, and Japan as an artist of vision and panache. With a renascent spirit, she embraces a wide range of stimuli—folk, pop, jazz, classical, electronica, and visual arts in works with large and large ensembles. Her U.S. debut of <em>Luz De La Noche</em> (Light of the Night) continues her diverse ideas and introduces her to a wider audience. </p><p> Ruiz's aura is at the center of a project which benefits from the superb arrangements of producer Carlos Villivicencio and guests that include Brazilian cellist Jaques Morelenbaum (Ryuchi Sachamoto) and pianist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=6652">Hugo Fattoruso</a> (<a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=12643">Milton Nascimento</a>, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5580">Ron Carter</a>). </p><p> "Alumbremos (We'll Enlighten)" is an apropos introduction. Dramatic and glamorous, it's colored with opulent strings, dashing flutes, flugelhorn calls, and Ruiz's innocent yet sultry voice. From the dreamlike "Por ahi (Maybe)," with its guitar and keyboard ostinato, and lovely yet dissonant piano solo in "Todo Dolor (All Pain)," to the alternative rock of "Hacia El Final (Towards The End)," the intricate dance between lyrics and music is creatively balanced. </p><p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40362>Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-739775118894102948?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-71451610798320884842011-09-21T09:09:00.000-04:002011-09-21T09:10:13.902-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/chickcorea_eddiegomez_paulmotian_furtherexplorations_jk.jpg" align="left" border="1" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="200">Chick Corea / Eddie Gomez / Paul Motian<br> <em>Further Explorations</em><br> <a href="http://www.universal-music.co.jp/" target="_blank">Universal Classics and Jazz Japan</a><br> 2011</p><p>Three still-living jazz icons team up on <em>Further Explorations</em>, an album inspired by another legend whose influence remains unequivocal, 30 years after passing away, age 51, in 1980. Gaining initial exposure as a member of <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=6592">Bill Evans</a>' first trio on <em>New Jazz Conceptions</em> (Riverside, 1956), drummer <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=9653">Paul Motian</a> left the group nearly four years before bassist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7095">Eddie Gomez</a> would commence an eleven-year run with the pianist on <em>At the Montreux Jazz Festival</em> (Verve, 1968).Though the connection is less direct, Evans was an early influence on perennial student Chick Corea, in particular on early recordings like the younger pianist's now-classic <em>Now He Sings, Now He Sobs</em> (Solid State, 1968); the two also sharing a common interest in classical music and bosses—trumpeter <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=6144">Miles Davis</a> and saxophonist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7013">Stan Getz</a>—albeit years apart.</p><p>With Corea, Gomez and Motian far too advanced as distinctive voices and personal stylists to do anything quite so overt as a tribute record, <em>Further Explorations</em> is better-described as a <em>tabula rasa</em>, built on a repertoire largely associated with Evans, along with a few well-chosen originals. That he actually presented the lead sheet for his gently balladic "Bill Evans" <em>to</em> Evans, at the Top of the Gate in the 1970s, only speaks to Corea's endless appreciation of a pianist who was, in fact, gracious enough to let him sit in with his trio around that time.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40391">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-7145161079832088484?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-82677655127509067972011-09-20T07:55:00.000-04:002011-09-20T07:55:10.734-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/timcollins620x355.jpg width=500 border=1><p>Tim Collins likes to mix it up. It starts at home; the vibraphonist is married to a successful concert violinist and is intimately connected to the world of classical music. Recording with pianist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=19154">Matthias Bublath</a>, Collins has also worked with guitarist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7830">Charlie Hunter</a>, who produced his second album, mixing rock, jazz, and string quartets. He seeks melodies and inspiration without regard to genre, covering songs by artists a disparate as <a href="/php/musician.php?id=20904">Tom Petty</a> and Björk on <em>Castles and Hilltops</em> (Nineteen-Eight Records, 2011), his most recent recording.</p><p>In the two short years since he's resettled in Munich from New York, after a short stay in Salzburg, Collins has learned German, landed teaching jobs at the Bavarian International School and the New Jazz School of Munich, released <em>Castles and Hilltops</em>, and taken his place alongside <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=19154">Matthias Bublath</a>, Martin Scales, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=33848">Ulrich Wangenheim</a>, Tom Reinbrecht, and Christoph Holzhauser as a driving force on the Munich jazz scene.</p><p>As seems to be the case with many vibraphonists, he started out on drums and piano before taking up marimba and vibes. Thanks in part to the physicality of the instrument, he's a dazzling soloist on stage with a fiery impassioned energy and a soulful inclination that would also work well in rock, soul, blues, and jam settings. At the same time, his considerable musical training and ample skills, in classical music and jazz, give him the ability to handle the intricacy and harmonics of very demanding music. This openness and solid musical foundation are also evident in his engaging compositions.</p><p><b>Living & Working in Europe</b></p><p><strong>All About Jazz: </strong> When people you meet in Europe hear you are from New York, they probably envision NYC. But in reality, you grew up near Lake Champlain on the border to Vermont, and relatively close to Montreal. Aside from language differences and cruising along the Autobahn at 110 mph, how would you characterize the adjustment of living in Bavaria or Salzburg?</p><p><strong>Tim Collins: </strong> Hmmm, well let me say that moving to Salzburg was definitely an adjustment, but then moving to Munich afterwards seemed like an adjustment back in the direction of what I was used to. Once you get past the language difference, to me Munich actually feels a lot like the U.S. Nowadays, it's easy to call overseas with Skype and stuff, and it's not too hard for me to bring my American habits with me—like watching Yankees games for example—the only problem is that they are on at 1:00am, German time. Ugh.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40268&recommended=1">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8267765512750906797?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-8841791769614400432011-09-20T07:00:00.000-04:002011-09-20T08:01:02.348-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/milesdavisquintetbootlegseries_dc.jpg" align="LEFT" border="1" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="200"> The Miles Davis Quintet <br><em> Live In Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1</em> <br><a href="http://www.legacyrecordings.com/" target="_BLANK">Legacy Recordings</a> <br>2011</p><p>With the compact disc in its waning stages of dominance as a medium for music, <em>The Miles Davis Quintet: Live In Europe 1967—The Bootleg Series Vol. 1</em> restates the case for the archiving as a means of historical as well as collecting purposes. The rare sources of these recordings, most from radio and television broadcasts, don't preclude bootlegging, but the collection in a single source speaks with an academic clarity the music deserves.</p><p>In the deluxe package (there is also a single disc of highlights available), there are seven complete concerts on CD and DVD by trumpeter Davis' second great quintet, featuring pianist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7381">Herbie Hancock</a>, bassist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5580">Ron Carter</a>, saxophonist/composer <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=4301">Wayne Shorter</a> and drummer <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=11412">Tony Williams</a>. Recorded on a package tour promoted by George Wein as "The Newport Jazz Festival in Europe," most of this content has been available over the years, but the Denmark show is one significant exception, as are two prominent set features of the Paris show (Shorter's "Footprints" and Davis' "Agitation"). The only existing video record of this group appears on the enclosed DVD, which was previously available only on <em>The Complete Miles Davis Collection</em> released by Legacy in 2009.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40356">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-884179176961440043?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-14730696052654757972011-09-19T08:12:00.001-04:002011-09-21T10:24:44.649-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/chriscombs_620x355.jpg border=0 width=500><p>On a Memorial Day in 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma, an encounter between a young black shoe shiner named Dick Rowland and a white elevator operator named Sarah Page—an incident that was reported with hazy details and shocking incompleteness—started one of the most brutal and tragic race riots in American history. Even more tragic, however, was how little the event was discussed by national or even Oklahoman sources. It was an event that <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=14326">Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey</a>'s Chris Combs, like many proud Oklahomans, felt needed to be told.</p><p>"It was something that people didn't like talking about. They still don't like talking about it," said the lap steel guitarist. "The race riot was ignored for so long that has become one of the strangest and darkest parts of our city's history."</p><p>Combs's vision of describing this work in great and impassioned musical detail has already come to fruition. On May 20th 2011, JFJO premiered the <em>Race Riot Suite</em> to a live audience at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. The suite, which will be released on the band's Kinnara Records on August 30, 2011, seeks to bring the events into literal and impressionistic light in the best way the quartet can. The suite's conception was borne out of the guitarist's inquisition into Tulsa's past.</p><p>"At the time I was just reading a lot about the Tulsa race riot," says Combs. Some great books have been published about the riot and you can learn so much if you dig a little. Initially I had a group of small musical ideas that were inspired by different historic pieces of the race riot. Separately, JFJO had been planning on doing a larger ensemble album. Gradually the two ideas converged and I began demoing all of the material late at night in our rehearsal space, playing all the parts by recording and overdubbing."</p><p>Before the inception of <em>Race Riot</em>, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey was embarking on a very different kind of big project: <em>Ludwig</em>, the band's re-imagining of Beethoven's third and sixth symphonies. The creation, described by pianist <a href="/php/musician.php?id=18218">Brian Haas</a> as "The <em>Far East Suite</em> meets the Flaming Lips," was typical of JFJO; the melding of many different styles is something the band excels in. However, the scope of the work and getting inside Beethoven's head was a watershed experience.</p><p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40266>Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-1473069605265475797?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-80529139657794651812011-09-17T04:58:00.001-04:002011-09-17T04:58:53.280-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/She%20Was%20Too%20Good%20To%20Me.jpg" align="LEFT" border="1" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="200"> Chet Baker <br><em>She Was Too Good To Me</em> <br><a href="http://www.columbiarecords.com/" target="_BLANK">CTI Records</a> <br>1974</p><p>The modern image of trumpeter/vocalist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=3578">Chet Baker</a> is a hopelessly fractious one. Baker is, at once, a brilliant musical autodidact with a superb ear while, at the same time, a musician with a nonexistent grounding in musical theory. Like cornetist <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=3746">Bix Beiderbecke</a> before him, Baker taught himself, thereby forging a personal sound identifiable across the space-time continuum. He left a 40-year aural testament, recorded during the most revolutionary period in jazz, that revealed a remarkable focus unshaken by those changes.</p><p>Baker's peccadilloes were also larger than life. Like Beiderbecke, Baker was hopelessly chemically-dependent, a life-long heroin addict whose addiction greatly contributed to his death as Beiderbecke's alcoholism did to his. Unlike Beiderbecke, Baker recorded copiously, particularity after his "comeback" in 1974, and then primarily to fund his addiction, so copiously that at least some of his recordings had to be good, if not exceptional, conforming to the adage that, "monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type the complete works of William Shakespeare."</p><p>Perhaps this sells Baker short; perhaps not. In the end, criticism of Baker's work must be cast in a post-modern isolation from the man himself and his story; but even that is not fair. Baker did not produce the music he did because of the confluence of his chaotic life, he did so <em>in spite of it</em>. There were glimmers of unimpaired sunshine in his discography and one of these occurred at the beginning of his "comeback" 1974, when he recorded <em>She Was Too Good To Me</em> for <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=12735">Creed Taylor</a>'s CTI Records.</p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40294">Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8052913965779465181?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-16605962867618945792011-09-17T04:45:00.000-04:002011-09-17T04:45:23.898-04:00<p>The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam was a stop for quite a few notable jazz musicians during the 1950s and '60s, and for the past few years the Dutch Jazz Archive has released a concert from their archive at the rate of one per year. Judging by what has been released, it seems that many of these musicians did their best work here. Many of them were at the peak of their careers, and European audiences were always eager and enthusiastic for American jazz. The Concertgebouw releases are a significant series of live recordings due to the quality of the musicianship and the excellent sound. </p><p> <img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/gerrymulligan_westernreunion_cm.jpg" align="LEFT" border="1" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="200">Gerry Mulligan <br><em>Western Reunion</em> <br><a href="http://www.muziekcentrumnederland.nl/index.php?id=1" target="_BLANK">MCN</a> <br>2008 (1956)</p><p> </p><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=9681">Gerry Mulligan</a> was one of the leaders of the 1950s' West Coast scene as both a player and arranger. Both are on display in this Concertgebouw outing from the fifties; the baritone saxophonist brought an all-star line-up from the States to show off the kind of coolly swinging jazz that only an eager bunch of Californians could offer. In 1956, when the concert was held, Mulligan and his colleagues were turning in terrific recording after terrific recording for the Contemporary and Pacific labels and thus were caught in their prime here.</p><p></p><p>Mulligan tended to favor either smaller quartets or big bands, so these sextet recordings are a fortunate discovery. The front line represents a scaled down version of a big band, in which each member represents an entire section: <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=4362">Zoot Sims</a> on tenor sax, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=6456">Jon Eardley</a> on trumpet, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5316">Bob Brookmeyer</a> on trombone and Mulligan on baritone saxophone. <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=12918">Bill Crow</a> on bass and <a href="/php/musician.php?id=3570">Dave Bailey</a> on drums round out the rhythm section; in typical Mulligan fashion, there is no piano to anchor the front line (except on the rare occasions when he tickles the ivories himself.) This gives the arrangements a lot of breathing room and the tightly interwoven front line on "Mud Bug" and "Demanton" provide such depth and richness that the keys aren't missed.</p><p></p><p>The music is loose, playful and energetic—between numbers the band engages in some light banter. A couple of numbers make the evening (and the recording) even more special—a quartet reading of "Line For Lyons" with Eardley taking the place of <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=3578">Chet Baker</a>, who played trumpet on the most famous version of the song, and "My Funny Valentine," which begins with just Mulligan and Brookmeyer before the other two horns join in.</p><p></p><p>The audience was enthusiastic throughout and deservedly so—this was an excellent show. The sound quality is pristine, the players are in top form and the end result is one of the best examples of live West Coast jazz available, proving that the warm climate of the Pacific wasn't an essential ingredient to what these fellows were cooking. </p><p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40353>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-1660596286761894579?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-26202127093926937012011-09-16T10:38:00.001-04:002011-09-16T10:40:44.904-04:00All About Jazz now offers a wallpaper/skin ad that appears exclusively on the home page for a full week. This new option is big, bold and the entire background is clickable while reaching approximately 150,000 readers a week. Think of it as a magazine cover ad.<p><center><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/wallpaper_example.jpg target=_blank><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/wallpaper_example_560.jpg width=500 border=0><p align=right>Click here to view actual size</a></p></center><p><strong><p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/index-wallpaper-demo.php">View live example here</a></strong><p>To read more about this new opportunity, <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=86987">click here</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2620212709392693701?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-30159335182668880902011-09-16T07:07:00.001-04:002011-09-16T07:09:21.066-04:00Free downloads to end the week...<p><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6839"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/joshnelson_discoveries_dss.jpg" align="left" border="1" height="90" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="90"></a><font color="#999999">Featured: 2011-09-15</font><br><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6839">Dirigibles</a></strong> (06:47)<br>Josh Nelson<br>From: <i>Discoveries</i><br>Steel Bird Music<br><br><br><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6835"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/mojomancini_st_dss.jpg" align="left" border="1" height="90" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="90"></a><font color="#999999">Featured: 2011-09-13</font><br><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6835">Carbulator</a></strong> (3:58)<br>Mojo Mancini<br>From: <i>Mojo Mancini</i><br>Self Produced<br><br><br><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6841"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/matthewshippduos_hh.jpg" align="left" border="1" height="90" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="90"></a><font color="#999999">Featured: 2011-09-12</font><br><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6841">Thesis</a></strong> (04:08)<br>Matthew Shipp<br>From: <i>Duos With Mat Maneri &amp; Joe Morris</i><br>Hatology<br><br><br><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6750"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/indigojamunit_roots_dss.jpg" align="left" border="1" height="90" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="90"></a><font color="#999999">Featured: 2011-09-10</font><br><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6750">Roots</a></strong> (06:25)<br>Indigo Jam Unit<br>From: <i>Roots</i><br>Basis Records<br><br><br><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6572"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/roseannavitro_themusicofrandynewman_db.jpg" align="left" border="1" height="90" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="90"></a><font color="#999999">Featured: 2011-09-01</font><br><strong><a href="/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6572">Sail Away</a></strong> (05:46)<br>Roseanna Vitro<br>From: <i>Roseanna Vitro and The Music of Randy Newman</i><br>Motema Music<p><br><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads.php">More free MP3 Downloads</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-3015933518266888090?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-88162137612440445582011-09-15T10:07:00.001-04:002011-09-15T10:07:32.207-04:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/mto_mtoplayssly_cm.jpg" align="left" border="1" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="200">Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra <br><em>MTO Plays Sly</em> <br><a href="http://www.royalpotatofamily.com" target="_blank">The Royal Potato Family</a> <br>2011</p><p>The Sly Stone songbook is a solid gold thing, and it is strange that it is so rarely revisited. Then again, repertory tributes are generally paid to artists who have passed. Stone is still with us, although, it sometimes seems, only just: over the last few decades, he has been ravaged by "personal problems" which would likely have finished off any mere mortal. The man who promised the late 1960s/early 1970s counterculture that he wanted to take it higher, and whose pre-Family Stone band was simply called The Stoners, has himself gotten higher than most—and the subsequent crash and burns have not been pretty.</p><p>Step forward downtown NYC trumpeter Steven Bernstein and his little big band, the Millennial Territory Orchestra. As a pre-teen growing up in Berkeley, California at the time of Stone's post-Woodstock ascent, Bernstein was aware of the Family Stone, but too young to be a card-carrying fan. He plugged in later. When, in 2009, he was asked to come up with a strand for NYC's River To River Festival, which was that year celebrating Woodstock's 40th anniversary, he suggested a Sly &amp; The Family Stone tribute.</p><p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40272>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8816213761244044558?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-28423874537727479602011-09-14T14:02:00.002-04:002011-09-14T14:04:39.672-04:00<table cellpadding="3" border="0" width="100%"><tr><td valign="top"><a href="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/products.asp?dept=227"><strong>MOSAIC RECORDS LIMITED EDITION BOX SETS</strong></a><br /><br /><table cellpadding="3" border="0"><tr><td valign="top" width="33%"><a href=http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=249-MD-CD><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/modernjazzquartet_thecompleteatlanticstudorecordings1956-64_jk.jpg width="144" height="144" border="0"><br/>The Complete Modern Jazz Quartet Atlantic Studio Recordings 1956-64</a><br/> (7 CDs)&#151$119.00</td><td valign="top" width="33%"><a href="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=250-MD-CD"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/jimmielunceford_completedeccasessions_jk.jpg" width="144" height="144" border="0"><br/>The Complete Jimmie Lunceford Decca Sessions</a><br/>(7 CDs)&#151$119.00</td><td valign="top" width="33%"><a href="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=246-MD-CD"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/ahmadjamalargosession200x200.jpg" width="144" height="144"><br/>The Complete Ahmad Jamal Trio Argo Sessions 1956-1962</a><br/> (9 CDs)&#151$149.00</td></tr><tr><td colspan=3 height=14></td></tr><tr><td valign="top" width="33%"><a href="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=242-MD-CD"><img src="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/images/242.jpg" width="144" height="144"><br/>The Complete Arista Recordings of Anthony Braxton</a><br/> (8 CDs)&#151$136.00</td><td valign="top" width="33%"><a href=http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=247-MD-CD><img src=http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/images/247.jpg width="144" height="144" border="0"><br/>Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air</a><br/> (8 CDs)&#151$136.00</td><td valign="top" width="33%"><a href="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=241-MD-CD"><img src="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/images/241.jpg" width="144" height="144" border="0"><br/>The Complete Clef/Mercury Rec. Of Oscar Peterson Trio</a><br/>(7 CDs)&#151$119.00</td></tr></table><br /><div style="border-top: 1px solid #D4D4D4;"></div><br /><strong>NEW MILES DAVIS BOX</strong><br /><br /><a href=http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=DAVIM01><img src=http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/images/miles1967bootleg.jpg height=130 width=130 border=1 align=left vspace=2 hspace=12>Miles Davis: Live In Europe 1967&#151The Bootleg Series Vol. 1</a><br/> (3 CDs & 1 DVD)&#151$49.98<p>In 1967, the Miles Davis Quintet with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams was at the peak of iys powers, reinventing itself and scaling new heights night after night. This box set features three concerts from October-November 1967 in excellent sound and complete form plus a DVD of the band at a German and a Swedish concert. 44 years later, jazz doesn't get any better or deeper than this.<br /><div style="border-top: 1px solid #D4D4D4;"></div><br /><strong>MORE CD BOX SETS</strong><br /><br /><table cellpadding="3" border="0"><tr><td valign="top" width="33%"><a href="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=COLTJ06"><img src="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/images/Coltranegrey.jpg" height="100" border="0"><br />John Coltrane<br/>Complete Prestige Recordings</a><br/> (16 CDs)&#151$179.98</td><td valign="top" width="33%"><a href="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=DAVIM10"><img src="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/images/Davisgrey.jpg" height="100" border="0"><br />Miles Davis<br/>Chronicles: Complete Prestige Recordings</a><br/> (8 CDs)&#151$89.98</td><td valign="top" width="33%"><a href="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MONKT12"><img src="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/images/Monkgrey.jpg" height="100" border="0"><br />Thelonious Monk<br/>Complete Riverside Recordings</a><br/>15 CDs&#151$169.98</td></tr><tr><td colspan=3 height=30></td></tr><tr><td valign="top" width="33%"><a href="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=TATUA06"><img src="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/images/TatumGroupgrey.jpg" height="100" border="0"><br />Art Tatum<br/>Complete Pablo Group Masterpieces</a><br/>(6 CDs)&#151$79.98</td><td valign="top" width="33%"><a href="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=TATUA07"><img src="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/images/Tatumsologrey.jpg" height="100" border="1"><br />Art Tatum<br/>Complete Pablo Solo Masterpieces</a><br/>(7 CDs)&#151$79.98</td><td valign="top" width="33%"><a href="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=VAR-05"><img src="http://shop.allaboutjazz.com/images/jazzhollywoodbowl.jpg" height="100" border="0"><br />Various Artists: Jazz At The Hollywood Bowl</a><br/>(2 CDs)&#151$35.98</td></tr></table></td></tr></table><br/><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2842387453772747960?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-78736652352802096432011-09-13T09:56:00.002-04:002011-09-15T10:12:40.316-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/yuseflateef_easternsounds_jk.jpg width=304 height=300 border=0><p>Think back fifty years to the days portrayed on the TV series <em>Mad Men</em>. In 1961, John Kennedy and <em>Billboard</em>'s Easy Listening Chart were inaugurated, a freedom riders bus was fire-bombed in Alabama, Rock Hudson was on the big screen, and Doris Day was selling albums.</p><p>As teenagers and their swinging parents were twisting their brains out to Chubby Checker or the "authentic music by the King Curtis Combo," East German communists began construction of the Berlin Wall, the Beach Boys formed in California, and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=16500">The Beatles</a> performed, for the first time, at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.</p><p>At this time, saxophonists <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=8602">Yusef Lateef</a> and <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=5851">John Coltrane</a> were pioneering an approach to music that transcended convention, cultures, borders and labels; concomitantly, Robert E. Brown, a young professor of ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, coined the term "world music."</p><p>September 5, 2011 marked the 50^th anniversary of Lateef's groundbreaking album <em>Eastern Sounds</em> (Moodsville, 1961), engineered and mastered by the legendary <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=11021">Rudy Van Gelder</a>. Although this column will generally be a conversation about the blues, it seems fitting to launch it by commemorating this classic album, arguably one of the first commercially viable examples of world music.</p><p>Seen in its historical context it was an extraordinary achievement. When this album was released, Lateef was in a supporting role in <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=3270">Cannonball Adderley</a>'s group. He had been given a chance to record a session under his own name on the Moodsville label, and obviously the label expected something that could be played at a party hosted by Don Draper. For his part, Lateef had been immersing himself in the music of many cultures, and was eager to explore these influences on an album, something not even John Coltrane had done at this point.</p><p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40348>Continue...</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-7873665235280209643?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-27875566228922437392011-09-13T09:27:00.000-04:002011-09-13T09:22:08.570-04:00<strong>All About Jazz recently topped 7,000,000 free MP3 downloads.</strong><p>Since its inception in 2005, the All About Jazz <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads.php>Download Center</a> has averaged over one million MP3 downloads annually through its MP3 Download of the Day program. The service is free to musicians and readers and it continues to be one of the most active sections at AAJ over the last six years.<p>"Download of the Day was popular from the outset, but it has really come into its own more recently thanks to the efforts of <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.comphp/contrib.php?id=35320>Dave Sumner</a>, AAJ's new Download of the Day editor. Dave has done a fantastic job with musician outreach and spreading the word about this terrific opportunity for musicians and record labels. He has also more tightly integrated the download of the day schedule with AAJ editorial," says <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=1>Michael Ricci</a>, All About Jazz's founder and publisher.<p>Adds Sumner, "focusing my attention on jazz in the present tense has been one of the most rewarding music decisions I've ever made. I'm thrilled at the opportunity, through the Download of the Day, to help spotlight some of the great jazz being recorded today. It's an exciting time to be a jazz fan and I hope to give AAJ readers further evidence of it one day at a time."<p><em>Download a dozen of our recently featured MP3s!</em><p><strong>Publisher's Picks</strong><p><table width=100% border=0 cellpadding=3><tr><td width=33% valign=top><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6830><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/avishaicohen_sevenseas_mt.jpg width=100 height=100 border=1></a><br/>Avishai Cohen<br/><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6830>Seven Seas</a></td><td width=33% valign=top><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6733><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/chrisdingman_wakingdreams_jr.jpg width=100 height=100 border=1></a><br/>Chris Dingman<br/><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6733>Clear the Rain</a></td><td width=33% valign=top><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6771><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/michaelsimon_newyorkencounter_mr.jpg width=100 height=100 border=1></a><br/>Michael Simon<br/><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6771>New York Encounter</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan=3 height=14></td></tr><tr><td width=33% valign=top><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6636><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/jacobkarlzon_thebigpicture_dss.jpg width=100 height=100 border=1></a><br/>Jacob Karlzon 3<br/><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6636>The Big Picture</a></td><td width=33% valign=top><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6460><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/billfrisell_livedownloadexclusive_jk.jpg width=100 height=100 border=1></a><br/>Bill Frisell<br/><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6460>1968</a></td><td width=33% valign=top><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6563><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/travissullivan_newdirections_db.jpg width=100 height=100 border=1></a><br/>Travis Sullivan <br/><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6563>Jamia's Dance</a></td></tr></table><p><br/><strong>Editor's Picks</strong><p><table width=100% border=0 cellpadding=3><tr><td width=33% valign=top><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6766><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/kekkofornarelli_roomofmirrors_dss.jpeg width=100 height=100 border=1></a><br/>Kekko Fornarelli<br/><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6766>Room of Mirrors</a></td><td width=33% valign=top><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6765><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/willcollier_thosewhowait_dss.jpg width=100 height=100 border=1></a><br/>Will Collier Septet<br/><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6765>Those Who Wait</a></td><td width=33% valign=top><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6697><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/rafalsarnecki_madmanrambles_dss.jpg width=100 height=100 border=1></a><br/>Rafal Sarnecki<br/><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6697>Bucaramanga</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan=3 height=14></td></tr><tr><td width=33% valign=top><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6760><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/bramweijters_trioplusstrings_dss.jpg width=100 height=100 border=1></a><br/>Bram Weijters<br/><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6760>What Did I Say?</a></td><td width=33% valign=top><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6655><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/paullieberman_ibeji_dss.jpg width=100 height=100 border=1></a><br/>Paul Lieberman<br/><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6655>Azul No Verde E Amarelo</a></td><td width=33% valign=top><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6669><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/chrisschlarb_psychictemple_ip.jpg width=100 height=100 border=1></a><br/>Chris Schlarb<br/><a href= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6669>White Dove in the Psychic Temple</a></td></tr></table><p><br/><strong>Some of our featured artists and bands</strong><p>AAJ has offered a <a href=/php/jazzdownloads.php>free daily download</a> since November 2005 from artists spanning all genres of jazz including Bill Frisell, Gary Burton, Brian Blade, Matthew Shipp, Jon Hassell, Kenny Garrett, Dave Holland, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Aaron Parks, Terence Blanchard, Craig Taborn, Mike Moreno, Cuong Vu, SF Jazz Collective, Ted Nash, Mingus Big Band, Exploding Star Orchestra, David Weiss, Bob Mintzer, Microscopic Septet, Roseanna Vitro, Ben Allison, Greg Tardy, Ingrid Jensen, John McNeil, Wycliffe Gordon, Mario Pavone, Scott Kinsey, Matt Jorgensen, Charlie Hunter, Erik Friedlander, Maria Schneider, Rez Abbasi, Matthew Shipp, Avishai Cohen, Paul Bollenback, Wayne Horvitz, Joel Harrison, John Ellis, Christian McBride, George Colligan, Club d'Elf, Jeremy Pelt, Vic Juris, Hiromi, Jonathan Kreisberg, Eddie Gomez, Monty Alexander, Either/Orchestra, Moutin Reunion Quartet, Tommy Smith, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Alan Pasqua, Jenny Scheinman, Roberto Magris, Ken Vandermark, Dave Stryker, Bill Carrothers, Chris Dingman, Bob Brookmeyer, Marc Copland, Mark Egan, Charles Gayle, Donald Harrison, Phil Woods, Joe Locke, Scott Amendola, Claudio Roditi, Eddie Daniels, Steve Coleman and many more.<p><strong>Download a Free MP3!</strong><p>Readers can download MP3s from nearly <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads.php>80 download pages</a>, from a musician's profile page (<a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7491>example</a>), from an event page, article page, news page or by searching for top downloads.<p>If you're a musician, this is one of the most effective ways to spread the word about your music and drive traffic to a retail page. <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/cgi/dailydl.pl>Submit a track for consideration today</a>.<p><br/><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads_howto.php>Place AAJ's Download of the Day Widget on your website or blog</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2787556622892243739?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-75345591467986197342011-09-13T09:20:00.001-04:002011-09-13T14:52:52.393-04:00All About Jazz upgraded its <strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/gallery.php?pro=1" target="_blank">photo gallery</a></strong> with a new look and a slideshow, so viewers can now quickly cycle through new photos or photos by their favorite photographer. In addition to an improved presentation, we've added increased security to further protect images uploaded to AAJ.<br><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=86577">Click here to read about all the changes</a>.<br><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/gallery_2011.jpg"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/gallery_2011.jpg" border="0" width="500"></a><br><br><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/photos_dropdown_menu.jpg"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/photos_dropdown_menu.jpg" border="0" width="500"></a><br><br><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/icon-green-checkmark.png" border="0" height="20" width="24"> You can access all related photo gallery links by dragging your mouse over “Photos" on the navigation bar.<br><br> <img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/icon-green-checkmark.png" border="0" height="20" width="24"> If you <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/gallery_upload.php">upload photos</a> to our gallery, please tag <em>and</em> title them. You can tag multiple photos from your <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/gallery_edit.php">manage photos</a> page.<br><br><strong>About the All About Jazz Photo Gallery</strong><br><br>With nearly 70,000 images and new photos added daily, the All About Jazz Photo Gallery represents the largest repository of professional and amateur photographs on the internet. Photos are featured daily as part of AAJ's photo of the day program (see photo strip at the bottom of every page) and presented in AAJ's <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/photo.php">photo of the day widget</a>. AAJ also features outstanding photos weekly on our <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/photosoftheweek.php">Photos of the Week page</a>.<br><br>If you are a <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/pro_photographers.php" target="_blank">professional photographer</a> and would like to feature your work at AAJ, please contact <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/submit_contributor_inquiry.php?id=1">Michael Ricci</a> about getting started. Publicity, live, and archivial photos are all wanted. <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-7534559146798619734?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-53739164697500046422011-08-22T09:51:00.000-04:002011-09-13T09:51:43.602-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/man-headphones-computer-laptop-music.jpg width=400 height=300 border=0><p>Earlier this month we <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=85407">upgraded</a> our two most popular pages: article and news. And in the process, we dramatically increased their page speed.<br><br>We've now added audio capability, so readers can sample music related to an article or news announcement.<br><br>Here's an <strong><a href="/php/article.php?id=40185">example</a></strong> of three free MP3s on a <em>Take Five</em> article and here's an <strong><a href="/php/article.php?id=36859">example</a></strong> of the audio player on a CD Review. (We'll announce the launch of our new audio service soon, so stay tuned.)<br><br>Musician? Feature an MP3 track or associate an MP3 with a news announcement or article by <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/cgi/dailydl.pl">submitting your track here</a>. <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-5373916469750004642?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-10749416231114324282011-08-10T09:53:00.000-04:002011-09-13T09:53:51.386-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/computer-speed1.jpg width=434 height=314 border=0><p>AAJ's optimization effort continues with the upgrade of our two most popular pages: article and news. The upgrade resulted in over a 60% improvement in page load time.<p>We also moved the Google +1 button up to the social section where we currently display the Twitter Tweet button and Facebook Like button.<p>We'll have news about our new photo gallery pages soon.<p>Enjoy! <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-1074941623111432428?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-49894863963775924142011-07-07T10:26:00.000-04:002011-09-13T10:26:51.027-04:00<a href=http://mobile.allaboutjazz.com><img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/aaj_iphone.jpg border=0 align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 width=200 height=355></a><strong>Access the new All About Jazz from your phone!</strong> </p><p> Readers can now enjoy daily All About Jazz content direct from their phones with our new and improved mobile interface. </p><p> Download a free MP3 of the day, view local calendar information and club listings, and access reviews, articles, interviews, news, musician profiles, and more. </p><p> AAJ:Mobile is the perfect companion to the website and allows readers to access content in a phone-friendly format. A streamlined version of the website, AAJ:Mobile loads fast and updates every 15 minutes. </p><p> “Travelers will appreciate our calendar and the convenience of finding shows when they're on the road," says <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=1">Michael Ricci</a>, Founder of All About Jazz. “They can also peruse our daily articles as well as our extensive archive right from their phone." </p><p><br> <strong>AAJ:Mobile Location:</strong> </p><p> </p><ol> <li> Open your mobile phone's web browser. </li><li> Choose the menu option that lets you enter a web address <br>("Go to," “Go to URL," “Enter URL," etc.) </li><li> Enter <a href="http://mobile.allaboutjazz.com">mobile.allaboutjazz.com</a> or <a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/m/">allaboutjazz.com/m/</a> as the web address </li></ol> <p><br> <strong>AAJ:Mobile Includes:</strong> </p><p> </p><ul> <li>Local Calendar of Events with geo search </li><li>Free MP3 Download of the Day </li><li>Club, Festival, Radio Station, Record Store directory and search </li><li>Daily CD reviews and searchable archive </li><li>Daily articles/interviews and searchable archive </li><li>Daily news and searchable archive </li><li>Musician directory and search </li><li>Daily birthdays </li><li>Weekly Jazz Session Podcast</li></ul><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-4989486396377592414?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-53862849805097888592010-11-01T10:05:00.003-04:002010-11-06T07:23:31.968-04:00All About Jazz recently topped six million MP3 downloads (since November 2005) featuring some exclusive tracks not found elsewhere on the web. <p> We highly recommend these recently featured tracks from established and up & coming artists. And be on the lookout for a free track from Cassandra Wilson's latest <em>Silver Pony</em> (Blue Note, 2010) on November 9th. <p> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5855"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/sfjazz_live2010.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5855">Cape Verdean Blues</a></strong> (7:56) <br/>SF Jazz Collective <br/>From: <em>Live 2010: 7th Annual Concert Tour</em><br/>SF Jazz </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5908"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/charliehunter_publicdomain_solo_jk.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5908">Ain't We Got Fun</a></strong> (04:22) <br/>Charlie Hunter <br/>From: <em>Public Domain</em><br/>Self Produced </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5739"><img src="http://www.origin-records.com/recordings/coverimages/82568.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5739">Tattooed By Passion</a></strong> (5:55) <br/>Matt Jorgensen <br/>From: <em>Tattooed By Passion: Music inspired by the paintings of Dale Chisman</em><br/>Origin Records </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5865"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/danwillis_satieproject_rdr.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5865">Second Gymnopedie</a></strong> (7:28) <br/>Dan Willis and Velvet Gentlemen <br/>From: <em>The Satie Project</em><br/>Daywood Drive </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5863"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/kennywerner_nobeginningnoend_jk.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5863">The God of Time</a></strong> (3:27) <br/>Kenny Werner <br/>From: <em>No Beginning No End</em><br/>Half Note </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5805"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/chuchovaldes_chuchossteps_jr.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5805">Yansa</a></strong> (7:50) <br/>Chucho Valdes <br/>From: <em>Chucho's Steps</em><br/>World Village </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"> <tr> <td width="60"><img src="http://images.cdbaby.name/e/d/edwardsimon4.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></td> <td align="left"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5905">How Deep Is The Ocean</a></strong> <br/>Edward Simon <br/><em>Danny Boy</em> <br/>Keogh/Simon Productions </td></tr> </table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5736"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2009/nilspettermolvaer_jk.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5736">Cruel Altitude</a></strong> (08:39) <br/>Nils Petter Molvaer <br/>From: <em>Hamada</em><br/>Thirsty Ear Recordings </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5768"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61vSsmcDy8L._.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5768">The (one of a kind) Shimmy</a></strong> (5:37) <br/>Either/Orchestra <br/>From: <em>Mood Music for Time Travellers</em><br/>Accurate Records </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5875"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/thumb/0/6/b/98e7c69f7e6002dd0d747c9abd450.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5875">Tight Like This</a></strong> (04:26) <br/>Brad Goode <br/>From: <em>Tight Like This</em><br/>Delmark Records </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5883"><img src="http://www.origin-records.com/recordings/coverimages/82576.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5883">Urban Grassland</a></strong> (6:38) <br/>Chad McCullough <br/>From: <em>The Sky Cries</em><br/>Origin Records </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5860"><img src="http://images.cdbaby.name/l/e/leronthomas5.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5860">False Participation</a></strong> (9:37) <br/>Leron Thomas <br/>From: <em>Juxtaposed</em><br/>Self Produced </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5821"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/natjanoff_cometogether_mr.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5821">Transit</a></strong> (5:46) <br/>Nat Janoff <br/>From: <em>Come Together Move Apart</em><br/>Self Produced </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5802"><img src="http://www.oa2records.com/oa2/recordings/coverimages/22073.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5802">Over-Caffeinated and Under-Fed</a></strong> (5:25) <br/>The Kora Band <br/>From: <em>Cascades</em><br/>OA2 Records </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5820"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51W6-3MuWtL._.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5820">Left in a Red State</a></strong> (8:16) <br/>Stephen Anderson <br/>From: <em>Nation Degeneration</em><br/>Summit Records </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5681"><img src="http://images.cdbaby.name/l/u/lucianotroja.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5681">My Love Is An April Song</a></strong> (6:24) <br/>Luciano Troja <br/>From: <em>At Home With Zindars</em><br/>Self Produced </td></tr></table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"> <tr> <td width="60"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/marzioscholten_worldofthought_jk.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></td> <td align="left"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5943">World of Thought</a></strong> <br/>Marzio Scholten <br/><em>World of Thought</em> <br/>O.A.P. Records </td></tr> </table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"> <tr> <td width="60"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/albertrivera_innerpeace_mr.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></td> <td align="left"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5787">Inner Peace</a></strong> <br/>Albert Rivera <br/><em>Inner Peace</em> <br/>Turnaround Records </td></tr> </table> <br/> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5794"><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2010/justinkauflin_introducing_mr.jpg" border="1" height="80" width="80"></a></td> <td valign="center"><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5794">Exodus</a></strong> (5:20) <br/>Justin Kauflin <br/>From: <em>Introducing Justin Kauflin</em><br/>Justin Kauflin Publishing </td></tr></table> <p> AAJ has offered a <a href=/php/jazzdownloads.php>free daily download</a> since November 2005 from artists spanning all genres of jazz including Gary Burton, Brian Blade, Matthew Shipp, Jon Hassell, Kenny Garrett, Dave Holland, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Aaron Parks, Terence Blanchard, Craig Taborn, Mike Moreno, Rob Reddy, Ted Nash, Mingus Big Band, Exploding Star Orchestra, David Weiss, Bob Mintzer, Microscopic Septet, Ron Horton, Ben Allison, Greg Tardy, Ingrid Jensen, John McNeil, Wycliffe Gordon, Mario Pavone, Scott Kinsey, Billy Kilson, Upper Left Trio, Cuong Vu, Darcy James Argue, Charlie Hunter, Erik Friedlander, Maria Schneider, Rez Abbasi, Rick Parker Collective, Brooklyn Jazz Underground, Paul Bollenback, Wayne Horvitz, Joel Harrison, John Ellis, Christian McBride, George Colligan, Club d'Elf, Jeremy Pelt, Vic Juris, Hiromi, Jonathan Kreisberg, Eddie Gomez, Bern Nix, Either/Orchestra, Moutin Reunion Quartet, Dave Phillips and Freedance, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Alan Pasqua, Jenny Scheinman, Roberto Magris, Ken Vandermark, Dave Stryker, Bill Carrothers, Buck Hill, Bob Brookmeyer, Marc Copland, Mark Egan, Charles Gayle, Donald Harrison, Lonnie Plaxico, Joe Locke, Scott Amendola, Claudio Roditi, Eddie Daniels Tom Christensen and many more. <p><br/><strong>Download a Free MP3!</strong> <p> Readers can download MP3s from over <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads.php>117 download pages</a>, from a musician's profile page (<a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=7491>example</a>, see right column), from an event page or by searching for top downloads. <p> If you're a musician, this is one of the most effective ways to spread the word about your music and drive traffic to a retail page. <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/cgi/dailydl.pl>Submit a track for consideration today</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-5386284980509788859?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-62289640827405902292010-11-01T10:04:00.005-04:002010-11-01T10:24:23.991-04:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/zombieswerepeopletoo.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 192px; height: 315px;" src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2010/zombieswerepeopletoo.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><p>A belated Halloween gift. <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=5957>Download "Zombies" by Tomisheep</a>.<P><em>In the artist's words</em>: A real Halloween gift for you guys! This is the musical version of the voice of Paul Scofield, taken from the short film, <em>What to Do in a Zombie Attack</em>, by Joey Carillo, Lone Bannana Productions. Since I'm from an ex-Communist country (Hungary), I find it very amusing to see how similar the style of stupid American propaganda is to the stupid Communist one. This is one of the few songs I did with this type of narration on it. I'm planning on sharing others soon. Even funnier ones!<p>Enjoy!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-6228964082740590229?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-49824318414260947702009-12-19T05:45:00.000-05:002009-12-19T06:04:35.295-05:00For many years, Your Own Personal Genius earned his drinking money by working retail. I've sold computers, appliances, furniture, mattresses, and kitchen cabinets; and in the process, became somewhat of a Grinch when it came to the material aspects of the holidays. Spending 14 hours a day in a store dealing with surly shoppers, an endless loop of the same maddening Christmas songs, and the insincere and overdone holiday decorations is enough to beat the holiday spirit out of all the Whos in Whoville.<p> Even Cindy Lou Who, who was no more than two.<p> <IMG SRC= http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/44400000/44408911.JPG WIDTH=150 BORDER=0 ALIGN=left VSPACE=2 HSPACE=12> Fortunately, my experiences on the business end of the holiday gift-giving tradition weren't enough to completely sour me on the true meaning of the season; an orgy of indiscriminate spending to grease the gears of the economy and keep folks like me in beer till the better warm-weather selling months return.<p> Even though I no longer spend my days on the retail sales floor, I've still got a reflexive dislike of spending any more time in a store than is absolutely necessary. I even find myself planning the most efficient route through Target to get everything I need without going down even one unnecessary aisle or taking the risk of being ensnared by their vast selection of stylish yet affordable housewares. <P> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=35079>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-4982431841426094770?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-43794420991527776182009-12-16T07:09:00.000-05:002009-12-16T07:13:43.600-05:00Dear fellow musician: <p> We made plenty of musician-related improvements since our <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34122>September newsletter</a>. We upgraded your musician profile and we added more features to promote yourself and your music. And we're also running a $100 off sale on our Showcase and Listening Party services. Please read on...<p><br> <strong>Index</strong> <p> <ol> <li><a href=#1>Share your photos at All About Jazz!</a> <li><a href=#2>Musician Profile improvements</a> <li><a href=#3>Your promotional service checklist: Free & Pay</a> <li><a href=#4>Your Suggestions / Your Kudos</a> <li><a href=#5>Showcase and Album Streaming Sale!</a> <lI><a href=#6>Mr. P.C.'s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum</a> <lI><a href=#7>Let's Tribute Ourselves</a> by Vincent Gardner </ol><a name=1></a> <p><br> <img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/thumb/9/6/1/4888b7dac549f8af5dbb066f04f82.jpg width=100 border=0 align=right vspace=2 hspace=12> <strong>Share your photos at All About Jazz!</strong> <P> We launched the new AAJ <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/gallery.php target=_blank>Photo Gallery</a> back in October and we now host over 28,000 photos! Both musicians and professional photographers are uploading and tagging photos daily and we've made several functional improvements to the gallery since its launch. <p> The gallery works a little like Flickr and MySpace, but is fully integrated with your musician profile at AAJ. So please upload your photos today. Publicity, performance and candid photos are all welcome. <a name=2></a> <p><br> <strong>Musician Profile improvements</strong> <P> If you haven't checked out your profile recently, please review the recent changes and make sure your information is current. Many musicians are building their fan base at AAJ and can communicate with them direct from their profiles. View the CONNECT tab on your profile page to view and contact your fans. <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=22421 target=_blank>Click here</a> to learn more about building your fan base. <p> Make sure you add your Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, blog and other links to your profile. We'll then append those links to the bottom of your articles and news announcements. <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=45957 target=_blank>Check out this example</a>. <p> We're now hosting over 18,000 jazz musician profiles and new ones are created daily. <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=46323 target=_blank>Read about our latest achievement here</a>. <br /><a name=3></a> <p><br> <strong>Your promotional service checklist: Free & Pay</strong> <p> We've recently updated the "<a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=24771 target=_blank>AAJ Musician's Toolkit</a>" page and we also created a new page detailing services you should be aware of beyond AAJ like ArtistData. Read "<a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34672 target=_blank>More Resources for Jazz Musicians</a>." <p> If you recently released a CD then consider <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/cgi/dailydl.pl>featuring a track</a> as an AAJ <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads.php>MP3 Download of the Day</a>. Our service is <em>free</em> and we recently featured a <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4863 target=_blank>track</a> by {{Sylvia Brooks = 16999}} that topped 3,300 downloads in a single day, so it has tremendous potential to raise awareness and drive traffic. <a name=4></a> <p><br> <strong>Your Suggestions / Your Kudos</strong> <P> We continue to gather your positive feedback about AAJ and make it public to our readers. You can view the 48 pages of kudos on our "<a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician_kudos.php target=_blank>Musicians Dig AAJ</a>" page. We never get tired of the praise (thanks everyone!), but we're also very interested in your suggestions on how to improve AAJ to better serve you. We're <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician_comments.php>collecting them here</a> (FYI, you can input your suggestions from your profile page). <p> We added the Twitter link, the photo gallery and we're working on an affordable streaming audio solution. The plan is to allow you to upload and stream music right from your AAJ profile page. We'll have more news about that soon! <a name=5></a> <p><br> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/listeningparty.php target=_blank><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/aajlp2009_mr.jpg align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 border=0 width=90></a> <strong>Showcase and Album Streaming Sale!</strong> <p> Place a Showcase or Listening Party order between now and the end of the year and save $100 off each purchase. The sale price on our Showcase service is $250 for one month and the sale price on the Listening Party is $250 for one week. <p> Learn more about our <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/promo/index.html target=_blank>Showcase service here</a> and our <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/listeningparty.php target=_blank>Listening Party/Album Streaming service here</a>. <P><br> <a name=6></a> <strong>Mr. P.C.'s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum</strong> <P> <img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/images/small/mrpc468x200.jpg width=100 height=100 border=0 align=left vspace=2 hspace=12> Read the <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34860 target=_blank>December</a> installment from AAJ's resident advice columnist, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=73218 target=_blank>Mr. P.C.</a>. Inspired by the cutting edge advice of Abigail Van Buren, the storied bass playing of Paul Chambers, and the need for a Politically Correct doctrine for navigating the minefields of jazz etiquette, he humbly offers his services to his fellow musicians. Read Mr. P.C.'s column then <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/ask_mrpc.php target=_blank>ask him a question</a>. <a name=7></a> <p><br> <strong>Let's Tribute Ourselves</strong> <P> Trombonist Vincent Gardner would like the opportunity to play original music at a jazz festival. Who can blame him? Read his opinion piece, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34919 target=_blank>Let's Tribute Ourselves</a>. <P><br> That's it for now. Have a safe and joyous holiday season. <P> All the best, <BR><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=1 target=_blank>Michael Ricci</A> <P><br><A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article_email.php?id=35033 target=_blank>Share this announcement</A> with a musician friend.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-4379442099152777618?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-78104016108010544952009-12-14T17:47:00.000-05:002009-12-14T17:49:22.222-05:00Seven-time <em>Grammy</em> winner Paul Wertico, a name long-synonymous with innovation and Herculean energy/talent in the world of drums, has stepped out of the box once again to present an album that defies genre boundaries. In addition to the usual suspects of his trio including guitarist John Moulder and bassist Brian Peters, Wertico has combined forces with Israeli guitarist Dani Rabin and saxophonist Danny Marcovitch to form the Mid East/Mid West Alliance. The product of this marriage of talent recently came together at Studiomedia Recording Studio in Evanston, IL, where, after two short evenings of transcendental artistry, <em>Impressions of a City</em> (Chicago Sessions, 2009) was born.<P><center><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/paulwertico_1_jk.jpg width=400 border=1 title="Paul Wertico"></center><P>With the help of Nick Eipers, master engineer and owner of Chicago Sessions, this recording rises above even Wertico's high artistic standards. This team has created a dreamscape that combines experience with differing definitions of mood, daily life and emotional maturation. Their strengths and talents allure from track-to-track. This collective and wholly improvisatory vision manifests itself as a soundtrack for the weary ear, offering a different perspective of what music is and what it can be. There are large servings of ear candy for the soul. A beast lurks deep beneath the musicians thoughts whereas, in other moments, there are tinges of beauty that speak as a siren would, calling out to the vulnerable lives within their sounding range. Tearing through this Babylon of sound, Wertico's impeccable ability to marry artistic dreams with talent are alarmingly in tune and have provided, yet again, a new standard bearer for music and the shape of it to come.<P><strong>All About Jazz: </strong>This recording is quite unique...not like a jazz album at all. Can you tell us the story behind the formation of the Mid East/Mid West Alliance?<P><strong>Paul Wertico: </strong>The story behind this is as intriguing as the record is. I've had my trio since the '90s. It's basically been John Moulder, who is one of my best friends and an incredible guitarist. I've played with him since the early '90s when I played on his first CD, <em>Awakening</em>. Then there's Brian Peters, who I met a few years ago when I recorded my CD, <em>StereoNucleosis</em>. He's this young genius. He plays, or at least it seems like it, just about every instrument imaginable, and also does fantastic engineering, mixing and a lot more. The three of us have been playing together for about five years.<P><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34780>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-7810401610801054495?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-41975811718191048912009-12-12T10:47:00.000-05:002009-12-12T11:01:46.967-05:00All About Jazz widgets can help you build your website's traffic and keep your readers coming back for more. <p> Place any or all of these <em>free</em> widgets on your website or blog: <p> <strong>New Widget!</strong> <p><table cellpadding=2 border=0 width=100%> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/photo.php>Photo of the Day</A></td><td><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/lc_photo.txt target=_blank>Get Code</a></td></tr> </table><p> <strong>Other Jazz Widgets</strong> <p><table cellpadding=2 border=0 width=100%> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/articles.php>Articles</A></td><td> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/lc_articles.txt target=_blank>Get Code</a> </td></tr> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/birthdays.php>Birthdays</A></td><td> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/lc_birthdays.txt target=_blank>Get Code</a> </td></tr> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/reviews.php>CD Reviews</A></td><td> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/reviews.php target=_blank>Get Code</a> </td></tr> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/contests.php>Contest Giveaways</A></td><td> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/lc_contests.txt target=_blank>Get Code</a> </td></tr> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/interviews.php>Interviews</A></td><td> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/lc_interviews.txt target=_blank>Get Code</a> </td></tr> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/jazzvideoguy.php>Jazz Video Guy Presents</A></td><td><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/lc_videos.txt target=_blank>Get Code</a> </td></tr> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/listeningparty.php>Listening Party / Album Stream</A></td><td><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/lc_listeningparty.txt target=_blank>Get Code</a></td></tr> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=/php/jazzdownloads_howto.php>MP3 Download of the Day</A></td><td> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloads_howto.php?pg=2 target=_blank>Get Code</a> </td></tr> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=/php/motd_howto.php>Musician of the Day</A></td><td> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/motd_howto.php?pg=2 target=_blank>Get Code</a> </td></tr> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/news.php>News</A></td><td> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/lc_news.txt target=_blank>Get Code</a> </td></tr> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/podcasts.php>Jazz Session Podcasts</A></td><td> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/lc_podcasts.txt target=_blank>Get Code</a> </td></tr> <tr><td><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/quote.php>Quote of the Day</A></td><td> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/lc_quote.txt target=_blank>Get Code</a> </td></tr> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/thisday.php>This Day in Jazz History</A></td><td> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/lc_thisday.txt target=_blank>Get Code</a> </td></tr> <tr><td width=300><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/widget_icon_small.gif width=10 height=10 border=0> &nbsp; <A HREF=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/releases.php>Upcoming Releases</A></td><td> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/live/lc_releases.txt target=_blank>Get Code</a></td></tr> </table><P><BR> <strong>What are AAJ Widgets?</strong><BR> AAJ Widgets are dynamically updated content boxes that are pushed from AllAboutJazz.com to a user's website or blog. If you know how to copy & paste, you can use our daily jazz content on your site in a matter of minutes. Check out how they appear at the <a href=http://www.jazzexcursion.com target=_blank>Jazz Excursion website</a>, the <a href=http://www.montrealjazzfest.com/friends-of-the-festival/default.aspx target=_blank>Montreal Jazz Festival website</a> or the <a href=http://digjazz.blogspot.com>AAJ News Blog</a>. See them all in action on a <a href=/jazz/livejazz.php>single page</a>. <P><BR> <strong>How do I place AAJ Widgets on my website?</strong> <BR>For the <em>MP3 Download of the Day</em> box, <A HREF=/php/jazzdownloads_howto.php>click here</A>. <P> Adding an article, birthday, cd review and release schedule content box to your website is simple, but it does require some knowledge of HTML. To get started, click one of the live content links above, then follow the instructions. <P>Once the code is copied to your web page, upload the page, and you're done. AAJ will then automatically update your content once every 15 minutes, once an hour, or once a day. this <a href=/jazz/livejazz.php>sample</a> page. <P><BR> <strong>What are the benefits of using AAJ Widgets?</strong><BR> If you want to build "<a href=/php/calendar/stickyness.php>stickyness</A>", then you need to frequently update your website. AAJ can help by providing new content in the form of daily downloads, daily news, articles, cd reviews and upcoming releases. AAJ Widgets gives your readers a reason to come back. <P><BR> <strong>Who should use AAJ Widgets?</strong><BR> If you're looking to retain visitors, the answer is you. Musicians, bloggers, radio stations, venues, festivals, general purpose sites, fan sites, record stores, publicists... everyone can benefit.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-4197581171819104891?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-43437964506130987212009-12-12T10:45:00.000-05:002009-12-12T18:38:50.229-05:00Broadly acknowledged as one of jazz's foremost artists, Kurt Rosenwinkel has established a reputation as an innovator and constant seeker on the guitar. He has carved out a unique sound over many years of experiment and refinement and today commands respect for his singular voice as a player and bandleader. <p><center><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/kurtrosenwinkel_1_jk.jpg border=1 width=400 alt="Kurt Rosenwinkel"></center><P> As a follow-up to the successful double live album <em>The Remedy</em> (ArtistShare, 2008), Rosenwinkel recently released <em> Reflections</em> (Wommusic, 2009), an elegant collection of standards. Rosenwinkel spoke about this latest endeavor from Berlin, the city he now calls home. <p><br><Strong>Growing Up Philadelphia</strong> <p><strong>All About Jazz:</strong> Let's start with some background. You grew up in Philadelphia. How did you first get into music? <p><strong>Kurt Rosenwinkel:</strong> I played my tennis racket along to Peter Frampton. Then went to the piano and made up songs. <p><STRONG>AAJ:</STRONG> Were you attracted to jazz from the beginning? How did it develop? <p><STRONG>KR:</STRONG> I became interested in jazz in high school, through the talented other students who were into it, and through my friend David Brodie, who is still a jazz bassist in Philadelphia. We listened to a lot of music and his father was friends with a lot of jazz musicians and would host jam sessions at his house. <br /><P> Before I was in the picture, apparently, Philly Joe Jones used to come over and hang out there too. Then I started going to jam sessions on Mondays at a neighborhood club called the Blue Note, where Tony Williams (the alto saxophonist), Eddie Greene, Sid Simmons, Tyrone Browne, Al Jackson, Mike Boone, and others used to host the session. It was a big club and would be always filled with people all having a good time. I was embraced and encouraged, and loved the feeling there. <p><STRONG>AAJ:</STRONG> How did you settle on the guitar as your instrument?<br /><p><STRONG>KR:</STRONG> I started piano when I was nine; guitar when I was 12. I always play[ed] both after that point, but was more into guitar. Before I left high school and went to Berklee College of Music to follow my friends, I decided I should take a year of jazz piano lessons and decide which I would focus on at Berklee. I studied with the great Jimmy Amadie for a year, who gave me a strong foundation in jazz harmony, which I thank him for to this day. But I ultimately felt that I was a better guitarist so I should keep going with that.<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34896>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-4343796450613098721?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-47224373018604843792009-12-12T10:41:00.000-05:002009-12-12T18:40:05.308-05:00Partisans has been gigging in cyberspace--playing a virtual nightclub in Second Life. Over 13 years and four acclaimed albums, Partisans has developed a strong reputation as one of the most exciting and innovative bands on the British jazz scene. One of the band's strengths is its willingness to keep up to date with technology and experiment with it whenever this might help to expand their work. As a result, the night before saxophonist Julian Siegel and guitarist Phil Robson took part in this telephone interview, they had been involved in an unusual performance.<p><center><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/partisans_1_jk.jpg width=400 border=1 alt="Partisans"><br><font size=-2>Partisans, from left: Thad Kelly, Phil Robson, Gene Calderazzo, Julian Siegel</font></center><P>The night of Friday November 6, 2009 saw Partisans' debut gig in Second Life, the online virtual world, when their concert at London's Crypt in Camberwell was video-streamed into the Crypt's virtual venue. While the live audience enjoyed the band's set in the small club, in Second Life avatars with exotic names and appearances watched and "danced" as the gig was presented on four large screens. The experience was an obvious subject with which to begin the interview: did playing to a virtual audience as well as real people need any special preparation for the band?<p>"We were asked to do the gig" explains Siegel, "then we were told about this element of it. What was different about it? Well, the club put a screen up so that the audience could see the various avatars dancing to what we were playing, although with a time lag of five or ten seconds, but we couldn't see the screen. So for us it was pretty much a normal gig although in the back of our minds was the thought that this was going out to a potentially world wide audience, which is a pretty unique thing."<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34749>Continue</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-4722437301860484379?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-32715169762243640272009-12-12T10:39:00.000-05:002009-12-12T18:37:43.258-05:00"I enjoy all of the music, just as I enjoy different aspects of color in paintings, or different people, or different types of food, or things of that nature. For me, it seems to be a more interesting way of life to have an appreciation for all that is offered on the planet."<P><center><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/charnettmoffett_1_jk.jpg border=1 width=400 alt="Charnett Moffett"></center><P>With that simple statement, bassist Charnett Moffett says a lot about his career in music that began as young a child, and was pretty much inevitable from the moment he appeared on the planet in 1967, as the son of drummer Charles Moffett. He started playing drums at age two, and then investigated the trumpet before he eventually found his hands around an upright bass, performing with the Moffett Family Band, led by his dad, that included brother Codaryl (Cody) also on drums, brother Mondre on trumpet and brother Charles, Jr. on sax. Bass chores were handled by Patrick McCarthy and young Charnett on a half-sized bas<P>He toured Japan at the age of seven with the family band and roughly a decade later was in the employ of Wynton Marsalis. He's since spent years playing all kinds of improvised music, moving from the mainstream lodgings of Marsalis to under the aegis of the free-spirited Ornette Coleman. He's recorded over the years with the likes of McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Stanley Jordan, Pharoah Sanders, Wallace Roney and Joshua Redman. Though improvisational is at the base of his musical explorations, his music influences and tastes are broad. That can be seen in his albums, from his 1987 debut on Blue Note records, <em>Beauty Within</em>, right up to his current recording, <em>The Art of Improvisation</em> (Motema, 2009), his tenth as a leader.<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34858>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-3271516976224364027?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-21766541799060501792009-12-12T10:37:00.000-05:002009-12-12T10:39:12.115-05:00There is something almost sensual about the independent record store experience. Perhaps it's the element of discovery with each new find, or the common bond and passion shared with each other. Maybe it's the inspiration of hearing music that seems to arouse all the senses. Or perhaps it's the understanding that there is something more warm and soulful about music played from a treasured record than from a disposable downloaded file. Whatever it is, there is something magical that happens inside these music shrines. <p> It wasn't long ago that horror stories were being written and the corporates were running scared. Napster was on the horizon and Amazon was ready to kill. File sharing would shred the remains while nostalgia buried the dead. But they are still here and their fires burn deep. They are the independent record store owners, the gatekeepers of the music, the foundation of a community and culture. And they still believe that music can save the world. <p> Terry Currier is the independent record store owner of Portland's <a href=http://www.musicmillennium.com target=_blank>Music Millennium</a> but he also initiated The <a href=http://www.cimsmusic.com target=_blank>Coalition of Independent Record Stores</a> in 1995. I had the opportunity to talk with Terry about the coalition and discuss the music industry history along with the struggles and challenges facing the industry as we step further into the 21st century. <p> <center><img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/large/f/e/2/f8de06422e88990b58d5416adcbda.jpg" width=400 border=0 title="Music Millennium - Copyright &copy; 2009 Lloyd Peterson"></center> <p> <strong>All About Jazz</strong>: If I remember correctly, you started the Coalition of Independent Music Stores. <p> <strong>Terry Currier</strong>: Yes, it was started in May of 1995 but it really all came together in 1992.<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34988&recommended=1>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2176654179906050179?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-36377772259317081062009-12-03T10:33:00.000-05:002009-12-03T20:35:53.204-05:00<img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/aaj_logo_sonicbids.jpg" alt="" title="" align="RIGHT" border="0" hspace="12" vspace="2" width="150"><br />It's time for a makeover, and since late November we've been steadily converting All About Jazz to a cleaner and easier to navigate website. For the most part, we're simply moving objects and boxes around and placing them in more convenient locations. For instance, our streaming media content has been moved from the right panel of some pages to the bottom panel of all pages. <p> We refined each section from the top, to the middle (and right and left panels), and the bottom. <p> The color scheme is lighter (the background color on the home page was changed from black to white, and the content boxes were changed from dark green to light blue). <P> We added more items to the menu bar, making the FORUMS, NEWS and RADIO options easier to find. We also added the daily jazz photo to the right panel of each page. <P> What's left? <P> We still have to implement the new menu bar, the new Featured Stories box and the new-style content boxes. Once they are all in place we'll work on making each content box on the home page a scrollable region. This will allow readers to access more content direct from the home page. <P> The feedback so far has been "much cleaner," "easier to navigate," and "doesn't feel as heavy." Sounds like we're on the right track, but we still have a wee bit more to do. <P> We hope to have AAJ's new design fully in place by mid-December. <P> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=1>Michael Ricci</a><br>All About Jazz<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-3637777225931708106?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-87693844486089743142009-12-03T10:31:00.000-05:002009-12-03T19:07:27.149-05:00AAJ now hosts more than 18,000 musician profiles at our <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician_center.php>Musician Center</a>.<p>Like MySpace, jazz musicians can create a free profile at All About Jazz, submit calendar information, share photos, present MP3s, embed videos, post news, make their teaching information available to students, add their MySpace, Facebook and Twitter links, and much more. AAJ musician profiles rank high on a Google search and drive traffic. We also feature a daily musician and syndicate jazz birthdays around the web.<p>If you have a profile, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician_edit.php>make sure it's current</a>. If you're a jazz musician and you don't have a profile, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician_edit.php?new=1>create one today</a><p><b>Related Links</b><p><ul> <li><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician_hitcount.php>Top Ranked Musician Profiles</a> <p> <li><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician_hitcount_legends.php>Top Ranked Legend Profiles</a> <p> <li><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=24771>Musician's Promotional Toolkit</a> <P> <li><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician_kudos.php>Musicians Dig All About Jazz! </a> <p><li><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34672>Services Beyond AAJ</a></ul><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8769384448608974314?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-18997268555964946252009-12-03T10:27:00.000-05:002009-12-03T10:30:31.182-05:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/ianshaw_1_jk.jpg border=0 hspace=12 vspace=2 align=left width=220 alt="Ian Shaw">Ian Shaw is a jazz singer. This simple description is accurate--it's how Shaw refers to himself--but it falls well short of doing the man justice. Ian Shaw is one of the most distinctive, original and creative jazz singers on the scene: he is a talented pianist and songwriter with a knack for working with top-quality musicians, an ability to seek out and cover some of the finest songs in contemporary music, and a showmanship that ensures that his live performances can raise tears of laughter as well as tears of sadness.<P>Since the early 1990s, Shaw has released 11 albums as leader or co-leader--a diverse collection of recordings featuring songs from the Great American Songbook and from major writers such as Joni Mitchell and Nick Cave. No two albums share the same musicians or the same instrumentation: each one is a departure from its predecessor, yet Shaw's voice, the one ever-present element, makes them all distinctly recognizable as his own. Shaw's development as a musician is equally distinct and perhaps gives some clue to the way in which he works, mixing free jazz influences with comedy and piano bars.<p>Shaw grew up in Wales, and both his parents had a musical background. He began to learn the piano in a fairly standard fashion: "I did the Trinity College, London, piano course until I was 16. I did my 8 grades [examinations]." Some biographical sources state that Shaw studied at Trinity College, Dublin, but he's keen to emphasize the inaccuracy of this information: "I've never, ever, set foot in Trinity College, Dublin. ...Somebody made up this amazing biography of me, only half of which was true. The rest of it was so spectacularly detailed, but untrue. My father and my mother were both extremely musical. My father played trumpet and cornet and I started with piano and brass band. I was a precocious classical pianist brat. Then I came to London and did a music degree at King's College, which I passed, but not with flying colors. I did no work for three years, just went to jazz clubs, bought Miles Davis records and got pissed." Shaw laughs at the memory. "That was my formal training: I did composition and analysis. ... I got what I needed from it. After that I started gigging almost immediately, playing pubs and wine bars--playing piano but not singing. One of my first collaborators was a guy called John Miller, a good, swinging piano player who used to play with Van Morrison and was really into Frank Zappa and [the late English singer-songwriter] Nick Drake."<br /><p><br />Early in his career, Shaw moved into an unexpected area for a budding jazz singer: "I did stand-up comedy with music for about four years. In fact, I did a comedy tour this year with [British comedians] Arthur Smith and Sandi Toksvig." The move into comedy may seem unusual, but Shaw's live shows are genuinely funny events, and it's easy to imagine him in a comedy club setting. Shaw's next move again put music center-stage, as he explains: "I met this guy called Jack Fallon. He was a Canadian bass player [who had settled in England after the Second World War] who played with the likes of Jack Teagarden and Lena Horne. In the '50s, he set up an agency which was still going into the '80s. I auditioned for him, and he sent me out to play piano bars around the world for three years. I'd play four sets a night. I bought all the Real Books and learnt all the standards. I learnt on my feet--well, on my piano stool."<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34691>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-1899726855596494625?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-84873801462203364762009-12-03T10:24:00.000-05:002009-12-03T10:27:22.643-05:00Composer, arranger and multi-reed virtuoso Tim Garland is a treasure the nation of the UK has yet to fully recognize. Having recorded a dozen albums in his own name, and arranged for and played in the groups of Chick Corea and Bill Bruford, Garland's pedigree as one of the leading jazz saxophonist/composers of his generation is unquestionable. In addition, his collaborations with the country's finest musical institutions, including the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, set him apart as one of the UK's most progressive modern composers. Few musicians have such pedigree or such an abundance of talent, and yet amazingly, Garland still awaits an invitation to appear at the country's premier celebration of jazz, the London Jazz Festival.<P><center><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/images/large/timgarland2009.jpg border=1 width=400></center><P>Despite this anomaly Garland is in demand around the entire world and, as his Lighthouse Trio's <em>Libra </em>(Global Mix, 2009) demonstrates, with good reason. The second of this two-disc set captures Garland, with trio members Asaf Sirkis (percussion) and Gwilym Simcock (piano), in a live setting, displaying all the energy and innovation which has won the group so many plaudits. Simply put, there few jazz trios quite as compelling as The Lighthouse Trio. But it is the first disc which is the most arresting; here, Garland's imaginative writing brings jazz trio improvisation into the womb of a modern orchestral setting, in this case the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.<P>Garland is not the first, and is certainly not the only composer to attempt to fuse such musical polar opposites. Nevertheless, his synthesis of these two genres, and his attempt at achieving balance between the power and structure of an orchestra and the chamber intimacy and freedom typical of the best small jazz groups, places him amongst the foremost composers at the forefront of what G&#252;nther Schuller has termed The New Frontier.<P>Another recording, <em>Celebrating Bach</em> (Audio-B Recordings, 2009), sees Garland interpreting the music of Bach and Stravinsky on soprano saxophone in the company of the Northern Symphonia. Where Garland finds the time to also compose concertos for piano, saxophone and cello, as well as compose film scores is anybody's guess, though one suspects he has more hours than the usual twenty four in his days.<P><strong>All About Jazz: </strong><em>Libra</em> was three years in the making which is obviously a big investment, but you must be very pleased with the results, no?<P><strong>Tim Garland: </strong>Yeah, absolutely. I remember talking with the people who did the artwork and they asked me how long it had taken, so when I told them I think they felt the gravity of how I felt about it. As a result I'm also very happy with the way it looks, which is all credit to them; they really pushed the boat out on my behalf. Of course, I'm really happy. Even if you listen back after the band has worked so long and you think "Oh, we play this much better now" but that is probably true of every recording. I wouldn't say better, I'd say differently.<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34798>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8487380146220336476?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-51687056944229781572009-12-03T10:21:00.000-05:002009-12-03T10:24:48.132-05:00<img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/bobperkins_1_jk.jpg border=1 hspace=12 vspace=1 align=right width=220 alt="Bob Perkins">"It's BP with the GM!" That's how the famed and venerable jazz disc jockey Bob Perkins signs on the air, with the code for "Bob Perkins with the good music." And it's not just a slogan. Perkins has a way of selecting jazz that resonates with his listeners' tastes and represents thoughtful choices on his part that invariably convey something important about the music. His program always flows along and entices the listener. As he himself notes, his trade secret is "big ears"--his ability to listen. And he is listening not only to the music but to the musicians, the audience, and the tenor of the times. He wants to know what's on his listeners' minds, and he uses that information in his programming. Plus, Perkins frequently has musicians as guests on his show.<P>Indeed, Perkins has always heralded and supported Philadelphia jazz players, bolstering the local jazz scene and appearing regularly as a lecturer and concert emcee. (Recently, he gave talks on Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and Miles Davis to accompany related musical performances. In addition, he has emceed the Cape May Jazz Festival and other regional events.) Philly Jazz owes a great deal to Perkins, who has been in jazz radio for over thirty years, and in his current slot at WRTI-FM for more than a decade. And now Bob can be heard on the internet worldwide at <a href=http://www.wrti.org target=_blank>wrti.org</a>, so readers anywhere can tune in.<P>Before he ventured into full-time jazz broadcasting, Perkins was for many years News and Editorial Director at the Philadelphia radio station WDAS, and as an African-American, he helped make inroads into the local political scene that helped the Civil Rights and Equality cause through his advocacy of discussion of issues rather than personalities. More than a jazz disc jockey, Perkins has had radio in his blood from the time he was a child. Appropriately, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia for his work.<P><strong>AAJ:</strong> Since you're always spinning the "good music" on your show, what do you personally listen to on your car radio or at home?<P><strong>BP:</strong> Actually, I very seldom listen music at home. I like the feeling of sharing with an audience, so it's something of a revelation to both myself and the audience, and we're both surprised at the same time, and hopefully delighted by what I play.<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34676>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-5168705694422978157?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-31341754689938671542009-11-25T04:56:00.000-05:002009-11-25T05:00:54.695-05:00<img src= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/profile/christianmcbride2009.jpg width=200 border=0 title="Christian McBride" align=left vspace=2 hspace=12 align=left>If we think about it for a little while, it's possible to believe that there is something almost mystic and undeniably powerful about jazz. The way it developed through the years and its constant ignition-like energy; the creativity of those who lead the way and those who continue the journey today; the improvisation that takes over souls and willingly delivers its magic for an amazed world to listen.<P>Jazz is a growing teenager whose future is as wide and vast as the horizon that lies before its tapping feet. Looking back, one also realizes that nothing you ever heard before can quite be compared to anything you are hearing today, for jazz is a never-ending adventure, and part of its ongoing, boundless imagination gently rests its head on a past so brilliant that the mind can only welcome what the heart feels...and that can only be described with music.<P>That is when Christian McBride comes in handy. His versatility has been praised and admired for years, making it seem as though the 37-year-old bassist extraordinaire should be in his late seventies by now. He has mastered an instrument that for many is the absolute essence of jazz, guilty of giving it a sense of unity and control. The former Juillard student's work with a bow is a simple, and rather delicate indication of just how deep his artistry really goes.<P>Leave it to the bass player to show you the way to musical perfection. And better yet, leave it to him to show you a good time while listening to his new straight-ahead band, Inside Straight, with Carl Allen on drums, Eric Reed (a most celebrated side man for Wynton Marsalis) at the piano, Steve Wilson (Dave Holland Big Band) on sax and Warren Wolf Jr., on vibes, completing this faultless circle that he has created for his new studio project, <em>Kind of Brown</em> (Mack Avenue Records, 2009).<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34547>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-3134175468993867154?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-71868524718652400512009-11-25T04:51:00.000-05:002009-11-25T04:55:41.781-05:00Look for several related musician links at the end of a <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news_center.php>news</a> announcement or <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article_center.php>article</a> at All About Jazz. Prior to today, we included just the musician's website link--we now include their MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Website, blog, and other links associated with their musician profile. (See example below.) <p> If you're a musician, please add the related links to your profile. If you're a musician and currently do not have a profile, please create one today. Our service is free. <P> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician_edit.php>Update Profile</a> | <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician_edit.php?new=1>Create Profile</a><p><br><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/related_links.jpg width=400 border=0><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-7186852471865240051?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-20093793556436777852009-11-23T06:55:00.000-05:002009-11-23T06:57:56.190-05:00In words often used to describe the music of Duke Ellington, Myron Walden is a saxophonist beyond category. More so than many other musicians, Walden himself eschews reliance on any one instrument, not tenor or alto nor soprano nor bass nor... well, you get the idea. The voice that he is striving to use in any particular setting can vary widely from time to time; there is no favorite child in this man's family of instruments. <P><center><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/myronwalden_2_jk.jpg width=400 border=0 alt="Myron Walden"></center><P> The same can be said of the music he plays. Three current releases (1) conjure Miles Davis, (2) reflect his innermost feelings of love, and (3) jump with countrified vigor. Look up the word "eclectic" in the dictionary, and you'll find a photo of Myron Walden. <P> While it is not uncommon for saxophonists to stray from their main instrument, or to explore musical variety, Walden is a committed non-denominational. The driving factors are usually the voice, range and weight that he is seeking on a particular performance or composition. Although not unusual on the surface, the fact that he expresses no favorite does suggest a big melodic and tonal palette. <P> Walden's work ethic is something to behold, having appeared with six different lineups in September and October (some of them as part of a fundraising effort for The Jazz Gallery, the Greenwich Village non-profit venue). And, he is releasing three different recordings between mid-November, 2009 and January, 2010. After a recording hiatus of four years, during which Walden wrote feverishly and wood-shedded the tenor saxophone, the first new release to hit stores was the November 17, 2009 issue of <em>Momentum</em>, to be followed by <em>In This World</em> and <em>Countrified</em>. <P> <em>Momentum</em> was inspired by the range of expression from Miles Davis' 1960s bands, recordings and compositions. This fall's Jazz Gallery performances included Walden on tenor saxophone, with {{Darren Barrett = 11891}} on trumpet, Eden Ladin on piano, Yasushi Nakamura on bass, and {{John Davis = 6135}} on drums. <P> <em>In This World</em> is a labor of love and gift to his wife, a project that captures feelings of reflection. This aggregation features Walden on tenor, soprano saxophones and bass clarinet, Jon Cowherd on piano, Mike Moreno on acoustic and electric guitar, Yasushi Nakamura on bass, and Obed Calviare on drums.<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34795>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2009379355643677785?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-61552295391833643352009-11-22T09:28:00.000-05:002009-11-22T09:33:36.136-05:00<img src=http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/imgad?id=CIfE8-z508jrhgEQrAIY-gEyCDlImrUpIGf7 width=300 height=250 border=0><p>All About Jazz is a crowd-sourcing website produced by a volunteer staff of jazz enthusiasts. Thanks to our dedicated team of writers and editors, we've achieved impressive growth over the last several years. To keep pace with our growth, however, we need to constantly expand our staff. If you have an interest in working with us, even if it's for just a few hours a week, please contact the appropriate person below about our available positions. <p><strong>POSITIONS AVAILABLE</strong> <p><strong>Editors</strong> <br><em>Volunteer</em> <ul> <li> Article Editors (5) <li> CD review Editors (3) <li> Interview Editor (1) <li> Managing Editor Assistant (1) <li> Photo Editor (1) </ul> <P>Requirements: <p>All editors are trained and furnished with the necessary tools, reference material and support. Familiarity with the basic HTML tags (bold, italic, paragraph break, line break, hotlink) and image manipulation is helpful, but not mandatory. <p align=right> Contact: <a href=mailto:jkelman@allaboutjazz.com>John Kelman</a></p><p><br> <strong>Ad Sales Rep</strong> <br><em>Paid Commission</em>All About Jazz is looking for an ad sales rep to contact record labels, venues, festivals, instrument manufacturers and other potential industry advertisers. Established connections in the industry or at the very least, familiarity with the industry is preferred. Must be a self starter and must have a general understanding of online sales and some familiarity with All About Jazz. You will work directly with Michael Ricci and use Google Ad Manager. AAJ will pay you a 20% commission on the gross sale of each campaign. <p align=right> Contact: <a href=mailto:advertising@allaboutjazz.com>Michael Ricci</a></p><p><br> <strong>CD Assignment Coordinator</strong> <br><em>Volunteer - Philadelphia Area</em> All About Jazz is looking for someone to listen to and organize incoming promotional CDs, and prepare packages to be sent to AAJ writers for review consideration. One to two days a month at AAJ HQ (in Lansdale) is required. <p align=right> Contact: <a href=mailto:helpwanted@allaboutjazz.com>Michael Ricci</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-6155229539183364335?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-59703199753284397142009-11-22T09:23:00.000-05:002009-11-22T09:28:28.685-05:00We've made several improvements to our new <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/gallery.php>photo gallery</a> which was launched on October 11th (<a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=43806>read about it here</a>).<P><strong>Recent photo gallery improvements include:</strong><p><ul><li>22,000 images imported from the old photo gallery <li>More tagged images (over 80% of our images are now tagged) <li>Sequential scrolling between images <li>Filter by professional photos <li>Show total number of images in each user's gallery <li>Expanded "Recent Additions By" list to 20 <li>Photo protection on the mid-size image </ul><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-5970319975328439714?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-68783782752394991922009-11-22T09:19:00.000-05:002009-11-22T09:21:08.677-05:00It's got to be love, hasn't it? Why else would someone bother to transcribe 200 of Frank Zappa's tunes? For what other reason would someone dedicate himself for over 15 years to presenting his arrangements of Zappa's music in the setting of a 17-piece jazz big band, and at a loss to boot? <P>Yes, it's safe to say that saxophonist, composer and arranger Ed Palermo really, really loves Frank. <P><center><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/large/7/0/b/1e8476125d96225a2100b85438d5f.jpg width=400 border=1 title="Ed Palermo--Copyright &copy; www.allaboutjazz.com"><br><font size=-2>Ed Palermo (center, on alto) with Ed Palermo Big Band</font></center><P> Palermo's love affair with the music of Zappa began in 1969, when as a receptive 14-year-old, he saw Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in concert, an experience which would forever change the way Palermo saw music. Forty years on, the flames of love are undiminished, and Palermo and his wonderfully talented big band have released their third CD of Palermo's adventurous arrangements of Zappa's music, <em>Eddy Loves Frank</em> (Cuneiform, 2009). This latest recording in Palermo's ongoing Zappa project shows Zappa's challenging compositions in a whole new light. At the same time, loudly making the case for Palermo's big band as being one of the very best on the contemporary jazz scene. <P> Sadly, Eddy's love is unrequited, as Zappa passed away in '93, and never heard Palermo's heartfelt tribute to his vast musical legacy. Listening to Palermo's bold, swinging reinventions of Zappa's music one cannot help but feel that Zappa would have approved mightily.<P><strong>All About Jazz:</strong> Firstly, congratulations on <em>Eddy Loves Frank,</em> I'm sure you must be pretty pleased with the way it turned out.<P><strong>Ed Palermo: </strong>: Yes, it's the best thing I've ever done in my life. <p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34551>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-6878378275239499192?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-33969683570786811142009-11-22T09:16:00.000-05:002009-11-22T09:18:52.185-05:00The history of Portico Quartet is brief, but it's also eventful. Since forming in 2005, this young British band have seen their first album, <em>Knee Deep In The North Sea</em> (Babel, 2007), become a <em>Mercury Music Award</em> Album of the Year, they've gathered rave reviews for their second album, <em>Isla</em> (Real World, 2009), and they've introduced a brand new acoustic instrument into the jazz repertoire. Although much of their music is recognizably "jazz," their use of the Hang creates a distinctive, instantly recognizable, sound that lies outside the expected sonic boundaries of contemporary jazz. The quartet's formation, development, working methods and even living arrangements are more akin to those of a rock band than a jazz ensemble. They are, in short, one of the most original and intriguing groups to emerge on the British scene for some time.<p><center><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/porticoquartet_stephanierosewood_jk.jpg border=1 width=400 alt="Portico Quartet"><br><font size=-2>Portico Quartet (l:r): Jack Wyllie, Nick Mulvey, Duncan Bellamy, Milo Fitzpatrick</font></center><P>Saxophone player Jack Wyllie and percussionist Nick Mulvey were more than happy to discuss Portico Quartet's past, present and future over the telephone from East London, taking it in turns to share Nick's mobile phone after some technical problems arose. They are friendly and articulate interviewees and their insights into the band and its activities are illuminating. <p> Unlike many in the new wave of young British bands, Portico Quartet isn't the result of meetings at music college. Wyllie and bass player Milo Fitzpatrick were friends in Southampton on the south coast of England, where they both played in the Southampton Youth Jazz Orchestra. Mulvey and drummer Duncan Bellamy were friends in Cambridge. All four moved to London to study--Wyllie and Mulvey at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Bellamy at art college and Fitzpatrick at Goldsmith's College. None of them studied music, although three of the band did music-related degrees, as Mulvey explains: "Milo studied popular music, different styles of Western music... Me and Jack both studied ethnomusicology. So there has been related study, but not of performance techniques or styles. I'm quite happy about that...it gives a certain liberation."<P><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34559>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-3396968357078681114?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-10293249574783563232009-11-09T08:17:00.000-05:002009-11-09T08:19:06.081-05:00Jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter is not a musician who's comfortable resting on his laurels. With nearly twenty albums under his belt and no sign of stopping in sight, Hunter continues to wow audiences with the wizardry of his seven-string guitar technique, by which he lays down bass grooves and simultaneously wings guitar solos along the frets with flawless finesse. This has earned him a reputation as an intrepid musician and an incredible showman who draws packed crowds into jazz clubs across the U.S. and overseas to see his magic at work. But the razzle dazzle of his unique virtuosity is second fiddle to the music itself. His albums have run the gamut from blues to bebop, free jazz to funk fusion, with Hunter constantly experimenting with new sounds and rhythmic arcs, all the while perfecting that pocket counterpoint between the guitar and bass.<P><center><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/charliehunter_1_jk.jpg border=0 width=400 alt-"Charlie Hunter"></center><P>Hunter recently completed a month-long residency at Rose Live Music in Brooklyn, where he was playing a duo series with veteran musicians from his past projects, such as drummer Tony Mason. There, he chatted at length about music culture, his latest album <em>Baboon Strength</em> (Spire, 2008), family life in Montclair NJ, the current jazz scene, and his personal journey from blues guitarist to European street musician to hybrid guitar/bass phenomenon.<P><strong>All About Jazz:</strong> It seems with every album you produce, you're always working with new sounds and new styles, constantly trying to push the music forward...<P><strong>Charlie Hunter:</strong> Yeah, I'm always thinking, "This is what I'm interested in now, how do I put this into my bag and mess with it? How I can work something out with this?"<P><strong>AAJ:</strong> And you'll be recording a new studio album soon, right? What's your focus when you go into the studio? Are you actively composing or just walking in there to see what you and the musicians can come up with?<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34575>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-1029324957478356323?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-37714116961176530742009-11-07T10:20:00.000-05:002009-11-07T10:26:32.655-05:00<IMG SRC= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2009/thedreamsonme.jpg WIDTH=400 BORDER=1><p>Johnny Mercer<BR><em>Clint Eastwood Presents Johnny Mercer: The Dream's On Me</em><BR>TCM (2009)<P>Film director Clint Eastwood's love of jazz and American popular song is far from a secret, especially following his feature-length biopic about alto saxophonist Charlie Parker (<em>Bird</em>, 1988), during which the ever restless Eastwood got the idea to produce a feature-length film about pianist Thelonious Monk, released somewhat later during the same year as <em>Straight No Chaser.</em> Hence, it should surprise few that Eastwood will introduce viewers to a month-long 100th birthday celebration of American lyricist Johnny Mercer on Turner Classic Movies (TCM), beginning with <em>Eastwood Presents Johnny Mercer: The Dream's On Me</em>, which will be telecast in the U.S. on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 with a repeat on Wednesday, November 18. Throughout the month of November, when Mercer would have been 100, Wednesdays on TCM will be devoted to classic Hollywood films with lyrics penned and, in some instances, performed by Mercer, who not only wrote but sang more hit songs than virtually any other American songwriter.<P>The Eastwood opener is admittedly a "teaser," a mosaic of familiar songs and faces that nevertheless succeeds in giving viewers, regardless of their degree of familiarity with Mercer, plenty of motivation to delve into his considerable body of work. (<em>The Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer</em>, published by Knopf earlier in 2009, must surely rank among the thickest, heaviest tomes ever produced.) While Mercer's is a familiar voice and face to anyone who remembers the popular music of the 1930s and 1940s, as well as his later work with singers Bobby Darin, Andy Williams and Barry Manilow (who set his elegiac lyric "When October Goes" to music before releasing a recorded performance posthumously), it comes as a surprise to even many of his steadfast admirers to learn that it was Mercer who founded Capitol records, which would go on to become one of the several most important recording companies of the latter half of the 20th century.<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34636>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-3771411696117653074?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-4516674954316157272009-11-07T10:18:00.000-05:002009-11-07T10:20:20.463-05:00ECM at 40. It's hard to believe that a record label responsible for stretching the boundaries of modern music has survived the various crises that have threatened and, in some cases, decimated so many others. With Enjoy Jazz's "The Blue Sound: 40 Years of ECM" festival-within-a-festival, it's as good a time as any to take stock of where the label has been, where it is, and where's it's going.<P><center><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/enjoyjazz_15_jk.jpg width=400 border=0 alt="Enjoy Jazz / Mannheim / 40 Years of ECM"><br><font size=-2>Mannheim Castle, Venue for "The Blue Sound: 40 Years of ECM"</center></font><P>In a press conference that took place prior to the first evening's concerts, label head/producer Manfred Eicher spoke of how the label has, indeed, survived such perceived crises as the oil crisis in the late 1970s which, as he dryly put it, "resulted in vinyl as thin as pizza crust." Just as much a threat was the industry's move to CD format, forcing the label to rethink its design approach to accommodate a smaller footprint. And as music seems, at the same time, to be moving away from hard media to digital downloads <em>and</em> returning to vinyl, ECM continues to stand strong with the vision that has not only made it a remarkable innovator, but a rare survivor. There simply is no other independent label in jazz and beyond that has remained so for so long, and it's Eicher's singular vision of sonic transparency and musical cross-pollination that, as he explained, is all about instinct--the intuition that has kept the label at the forefront of modern music--no longer jazz, no longer classical, but simply <em>music</em>.<P>Eicher talked about the increasingly blurred line between the label's regular series (once considered the "jazz" side) and the New Series line (the "classical" side), and how musicians are surprisingly well-informed about music beyond their apparent purview. He talked of attending a Radiohead concert and being invited backstage, where he ended up in a discussion about Beethoven with the group's bassist, Colin Greenwood. "It was a surprise," Eicher said," but then again it shouldn't have been." It was a sentiment mirrored by Wolfgang Sandner--a respected German journalist who is co-curating the ECM festival with Enjoy Jazz Festival director Rainer Kern and journalist Hans-J&#252;rgen Linke--who talked of how classical composer Gy&#246;rgy Ligeti was informed by jazz, and how violinist Thomas Zehetmair, scheduled for a duo performance with violist Ruth Killius later that evening, takes considerable improvisational liberties with the music of Paganini on his most recent recording, <em>Paganini: 24 Capricci</em> (ECM, 2009).<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34557>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-451667495431615727?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-48538531025212028432009-11-07T10:16:00.000-05:002009-11-07T10:18:07.539-05:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/profile/benneill2009.jpg align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 border=1 width=220>To say that Ben Neill plays the trumpet--the instrument of such jazz legends as Miles Davis and Clifford Brown--is an epic understatement. "I think electronica is like a new form of jazz--it's an instrumental form of music that plays out in popular culture but has musical ideas that go beyond the expectations of pop music," says Neill, a student of the electro-acoustic innovations of Robert Moog and minimalist aesthetic of LaMonte Young. Neill specifically plays the mutantrumpet, a self-designed instrument that he's been slowly perfecting since the mid 1980s. His latest album, <em>Night Science</em> (Thirsty Ear, 2009), is a heady, dark alchemy of improv and electronica. No surprise, then, that the record is the latest release on Thirsty Ear Records' Blue Series.<br /><p>The brainchild of Thirsty Ear head Peter Gordon, The Blue Series has long sought to find a point where the electronic manipulation of sound (both in post-production and on the spot) and the live interaction of seasoned jazz musicians become blurred, all but insignificant. <em>Night Science</em>, in many ways, is the pinnacle of the Blue Series' raison d'etre. Sans turntables, Neill is DJ-cum-jazz artist. Or perhaps vice versa.<p>Neill began work on <em>Night Science</em> in late 2007. "The process of the recording happened on several levels simultaneously," Neill explains. "The first layer was developing beats and bass lines in Logic Pro, then exporting those elements to Ableton Live so I could improvise with them from the mutantrumpet.<br /><p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34514>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-4853853102521202843?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-81317396866122023662009-11-07T10:13:00.000-05:002009-11-07T10:16:10.700-05:00<a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=32010 target=_blank><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2009/milesdaviskindofbluelegacy_dc.jpg border=1 hspace=12 vspace=2 align=right height=150 alt="Miles Davis"></a>When the year 1959 began, there were only 48 states. Alaska and Hawaii would became part of the United States during that annum, the third year of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's second term. It was the year Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba and took a goodwill tour of the U.S., two months after an interview with Edward R. Murrow on CBS television.<P>Mattel toy company launched the Barbie doll. In professional basketball, theCeltics beat the Lakers for the NBA crown--but it was the Minneapolis Lakers.<P>Bob Dylan, (then Robert Zimmerman), graduating from Hibbing High School in Minnesota might have gone that year to see the epic motion picture "Ben Hur" or the comedy "Some Like It Hot" that made cross dressing acceptable under certain circumstances--especially if it involved wooing Marilyn Monroe. Or he might have tuned in television shows like "Bonanza" and "The Twilight Zone," both premiering in 1959.<P>In music, the <em>Grammy Awards</em> were created and debuted. And on the darker side, a chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson crashed in an Iowa snowstorm, killing them and the pilot, a tragedy later termed "the day the music died" in Don McLean's song, "American Pie." Famed New York disc jockey Allan Freed at WABC Radio refused to sign a statement saying he never accepted payola--payment for getting an artist's records on the air--and was fired.<P>But in jazz, there was no such bad news (if one discounts the increasing popularity of rock n' roll music that was pushing jazz toward the fringes of popularity). The year 1959, for whatever reason, whatever alignment of the planets or whim of the Fates, was a glorious year.<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34534>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8131739686612202366?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-84436895405351497642009-11-07T10:10:00.000-05:002009-11-07T10:12:51.393-05:00Born in Cleveland, Mississippi in 1934 and raised between Dallas and Los Angeles, trumpeter Bobby Bradford began playing with Ornette Coleman in Los Angeles in the 1950s, and replaced Don Cherry in an unrecorded Coleman quartet during the early 1960s. However, the most significant partnership in Bradford's musical life was with the clarinetist and composer John Carter (1928-1991), with whom he worked and recorded from 1969 into the 1980s a very different brand of free-bop. Now a professor at Pomona College, Bradford continues to lead his Mo'Tet and is being celebrated at the 2009 Festival of the New Trumpet in New York.<P><center><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/bobbybradford_2_jk.jpg width=400 border=0 alt="Bobby Bradford"></center><P><p><strong>All About Jazz:</strong> Could you talk a bit about who you're working with presently?<p><strong>Bobby Bradford:</strong> I have a group called the Mo'tet, and for a while we were working about once a month in this Italian restaurant in Sierra Madre, but we could play whatever we wanted--no restaurant music or anything. That band has William Jeffrey on drums; Roberto Miranda on bass; I use Don Preston on piano and on saxophone Chuck Manning; Ken Rosser on guitar; and Michael Vladtkovitch on trombone.<p><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34148>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8443689540535149764?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-65134792598638984852009-10-29T09:24:00.000-04:002009-10-29T09:25:40.715-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/ChristinaHendricks2009.jpg align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 border=1 width=220> After surviving a near-fatal marriage and returning once again to the Original Geniusdome, the site of some of my best work (remember that really funny thing I wrote about jazz that time?), I recently took some time to reflect upon my contributions to Our Music. As the Dean of American Jazz Humorists&#169;&#174;, I have long considered it my responsibility both to demystify some of the more esoteric aspects of jazz and to loosen the death grip of the zealot so that the music can breathe. And if by fulfilling these duties, I should somehow end up rich and famous, romantically linked to unspeakably hot actresses like Christina Hendricks and/or Scarlett Johansson and given a lifetime supply of beer by the Anheuser-Busch corporation for my work promoting the consumption of their product by tireless example, well, then, so be it. <p> But in the process of sifting through my collected works, a glaring oversight was pointed out to me by my parakeet/bodyguard Luca Brasi. "Yes, we get it, {{Wynton Marsalis = 1914}} has a very round head. But where in all this do you give JazzNoobs a lesson in how to listen to this sometimes daunting music?" he said, making a valid point for someone who spends a significant portion of his day chirping at his own reflection in a mirror. <p> Sure enough, in eight years of occupying my mantle here at AAJ, I had not once addressed the very basic issue that is probably most responsible for keeping people from making a more dedicated foray into the seemingly impenetrable depths of Our Music that lie beyond the safety and comfort of the familiar kind of jazz one hears on those 1970's TV shows where people in polyester bell-bottoms and crocheted sweater-vests are supposed to be hip.<br /><P><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34485>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-6513479259863898485?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-35299770067970337812009-10-27T11:33:00.000-04:002009-10-27T11:35:03.607-04:00<b>The new All About Jazz <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/gallery.php>Photo Gallery</a> is live! </b><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/gallery.php><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/5/c/f/a58f6d3c2a9a37aa1cab20ddc6fa5.jpg width=400 border=0></a>If you're a professional photographer, a musician or a fan who takes pictures at concerts or festivals, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/gallery_upload.php>upload your photos</a> to AAJ and share them with the largest jazz community online. Portrait/publicity photos, concert photos, archived photos and candid photos are all welcome. You can upload paintings and illustrations too.<p> Tag your photos, add descriptions and associate them with musicians, venues, festivals and yourself at AAJ. You can upload 1, 10, 100... 500 photos at a time. It's easy and it's fast.Our new gallery works a little like Flickr, but is fully integrated with the All About Jazz website.<a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/gallery_upload.php>Upload your jazz photos</a> to AAJ today! <p> <b>Photo Credit</b> <br><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/gallery_image.php?id=2378>Sue Storey</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-3529977006797033781?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-42042199362578558812009-10-27T11:31:00.001-04:002009-11-07T10:27:39.849-05:00Attn: Musicians! <p> You're invited to participate in AAJ's new etiquette column, "Mr. P.C.'s Guide to Jazz Etiquette and Bandstand Decorum." <p> <b><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34429>Read our October questions and answers here</a></b>. <p> Have a question for Mr. P.C.? <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/ask_mrpc.php>Send it to him here</a>. <p> Have fun! <P><br> <img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/profile/mrpc2009.jpg width=80 border=0> <p><strong>About Mr. P.C.</strong> <p> Inspired by the cutting edge advice of Abigail Van Buren, the storied bass playing of Paul Chambers, and the need for a Politically Correct doctrine for navigating the minefields of jazz etiquette, I humbly offer my services. <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=73218>More...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-4204219936257855881?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-68955244740302896942009-10-27T11:28:00.000-04:002009-10-27T11:30:44.209-04:00<b>Download five free MP3s courtesy of <a href=http://www.cuneiformrecords.com target=_blank>Cuneiform Records</a>.</b> <p> <table border="0" cellpadding="3"> <tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4810"><img src="http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/NEWbands/ergo/289.jpg" width=100 height=100 border=1></a></td> <td valign=center><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4810">She Haunts Me</a></strong> (3:41) <br>Ergo <br>From: <i>Multitude, Solitude</i><br>Cuneiform Records </td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4811"><img src="http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/NEWbands/smith/290_291.jpg" width=100 height=100 border=1></a></td> <td valign=center><br><br><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4811">South Central L.A. Kulture</a></strong> (4:50) <br>Wadada Leo Smith <br>From: <i>Spiritual Dimensions</i><br>Cuneiform Records </td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4812"><img src="http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/NEWbands/zevious/287.jpg" width=100 height=100 border=1></a></td> <td valign=center><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4812">Where's the Captain?</a></strong> (5:10) <br>Zevious <br>From: <i>After the Air Raid</i><br>Cuneiform Records </td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4808"><img src="http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/NEWbands/rolldown/292.jpg" width=100 height=100 border=1></a></td> <td valign=center><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4808">Hide</a></strong> (4:26) <br>Jason Adasiewicz's Rolldown <br>From: <i>Varmint</i><br>Cuneiform Records </td></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4809"><img src="http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/NEWbands/beatcircus/294.jpg" width=100 height=100 border=1></a></td> <td valign=center><strong><a href="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4809">The February Train</a></strong> (4:16) <br>Beat Circus <br>From: <i>Boy From Black Mountain </i><br>Cuneiform Records </td></tr> </table><P> The tracks above are also available on each musician's <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician_center.php>profile page</a>. <p> Enjoy!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-6895524474030289694?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-10870250991066544502009-10-27T11:25:00.000-04:002009-10-27T11:27:15.417-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/brucehornsby_new_jk.jpg width=220 border=0 align=right vspace=2 hspace=12>For more than 20 years, singer/songwriter, pianist/composer, and band-leader Bruce Hornsby, has proven to be a survivor in an ever changing music environment. From winning multiple awards including a <em>Grammy</EM> for Best New Artist in 1987 for the multi-platinum album <em>The Way It Is</em> (RCA, 1986) with his band The Range, to dual releases in 2007 (on Sony/Legacy)--a foot-stomping bluegrass duo <em>Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby</em> and the swinging jazz trio outing <em>Camp Meeting</em>, with drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Christian McBride--Hornsby has thrived in a variety of settings. <P> AAJ Contributor Mark F. Turner spoke with Hornsby recently, about his latest release, <em>Levitate</em> (Verve, 2009)--the first studio disc to feature his longtime band The Noisemakers--his first Broadway musical, <em>SCKBSTD</em>, starting out on guitar, and much more in <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34496>Bruce Hornsby: The Master of Levitation</a>, published today at AAJ. <P> You can also read Mark's <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34550>insightful review</a> of <em>Levitate</em>, also published today at AAJ.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-1087025099106654450?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-82809437032847210672009-10-27T11:21:00.000-04:002009-10-27T11:25:22.683-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/oznoy_news_jk.jpg align=left vspace=2 hspace=12 border=0 width=220>Oz Noy's <em>Schizophrenic</em> (Magnatude Records, 2009) is the perfect moniker for the Israeli-born, New York-based guitarist. With an array of influences ranging from Charlie Parker to Jimi Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Noy melds elements from funk, rock, blues and jazz into his own unique, personal take on modern instrumental music. <P>Noy's solos seem to be in constant flux as he weaves in and out of hard-driving rock grooves, jazzy based harmonic progressions and rhythmically complex, often lightening fast, improvisations. Listening to Noy's compositions and solos reveals a musician that may be described as having musical schizophrenia, but also one that has emerged with a voice like no other. <P> AAJ's Matthew Warnock spoke with Noy recently, about recording his latest album, <em>Schizophrenic</em> (Magnatude, 2009) and reconciling his various stylistic influences into one, cogent approach. <P>Check out <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34246>Oz Noy: No Longer Making Choices</a> at AAJ today!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-8280943703284721067?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-28897209652825789222009-10-13T14:33:00.000-04:002009-10-13T14:35:34.461-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/harriseisenstadt_5_jk.jpg width=400 border=0><br>Over the past decade, drummer, bandleader and composer Harris Eisenstadt has been a force in improvised music, active in both Los Angeles and New York (where he now resides). It's a testament to his creativity and energy that his ensembles have run the gamut from free-bop in the vein of post-Blue Note small groups, to orchestral works and the recasting of traditional Senegalese popular song into improvisational vehicles. <em>Canada Day</em> is the name of his latest ensemble and disc (Clean Feed, 2009)--a love letter to modern jazz of the 1960s and to his birthplace. Though busy with both family and music, Eisenstadt's artistic pace shows no sign of slowing.<P>AAJ Contributor Clifford Allen spoke with Eisenstadt recently, about his various projects, travels, education and cutting his teeth on the Left Coast scene before relocating to New York.<P>Check out <a href=/php/article.php?id=34198>Harris Eisenstadt: From Mbalax to Canada Day</a> at AAJ today!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2889720965282578922?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-51822646503072255812009-10-13T14:31:00.000-04:002009-10-14T11:32:39.407-04:00<b>All About Jazz to publish articles in Spanish, Italian, French and German</b> <p> <table cellpadding=3 border=0> <tr> <td><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/flag_es.gif width=16 height=11 title="in Spanish"></td> <td><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/flag_it.gif width=16 height=11 title="in Italian"></td> <td><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/flag_fr.gif width=16 height=11 title="in French"></td> <td><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/news/flag_de.gif width=16 height=11 title="in German"></td> </tr> </table> <p> As a service to their increasing global readership, AAJ will publish choice content as well as translated content in Spanish, Italian and French. <p> Says <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=1>Michael Ricci</a>, All About Jazz's Founder/Publisher, "It's been a longstanding goal to publish localized versions of AAJ. We have the ability to deliver regional information in the United States through <em><a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=10471>MY AAJ</a></em>, and thanks to Luigi Santosuosso, we have provided coverage of jazz from Italy (in Italian) for eight years. We are developing solutions beyond English and Italian to present other languages starting with Spanish." <p> <img src="http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/large/f/5/b/3fb99e450c3853660fa5cb096ffda.jpg" width=220 border=1 title="Barcelona Jazz Festival 40th Edition Book" align=right vspace=2 hspace=12> As of today, All About Jazz will publish articles in Spanish under the editorial direction of <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/contrib.php?id=42983>Joan A. Cararach</a>. Look for interviews with pianists Danilo Perez and Omar Sosa, a review of Dafnis Prieto new album (<em>Live at Jazz Standard</em>), and an interview with Joan A. Cararach himself, who just happens to be the artistic director of the <a href=http://www.barcelonajazzfestival.com/ target=_blank>Barcelona Jazz Festival</a>. The <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34412>first article</a>, published today, is the prologue to the English version of the Barcelona Jazz Festival 40 Edition book, written by Miguel &#193;ngel Moratinos, Spanish foreign minister. We'll also translate a 2003 <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=372>interview</a> with Blue Note's CEO Bruce Lundvall who is one of the guest lecturers at the 2009 Barcelona Jazz Festival.<P> "I've followed All About Jazz regularly since 1997," states Mr. Cararach. "So I invited Michael Ricci to come to Barcelona to be part in my lecture series along with such other prestigious journalists as Nate Chinen, Stanley Crouch, Gary Giddins, Ashley Kahn, Bill Milkowski and Ben Ratliff. The opportunity to partner with an organization as committed to jazz advocacy as All About Jazz is very exciting, and we greatly look forward to developing a Spanish language version of AAJ with original content. It's time to write about musicians like Chano Dominguez, Guillermo Klein and Danilo Perez, as well as Cuban masters like the great Bebo Valdes, in their own shared language." <P>Look for the language flags on the <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article_center.php>Article Center</a> and <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/review_center.php>CD Review Center</a> pages--we'll also identify languages on each article page and on the home page.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-5182264650307225581?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-25575739568797424032009-10-13T14:29:00.001-04:002009-10-13T14:30:47.196-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/large/3/4/4/ff7c48f51d649086e1fe280f155d4.jpg width=400 border=0><br>The world of jazz guitar has long been filled with some of the most storied names in jazz history. Artists such as Charlie Christian, Johnny Smith, Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny and John Scofield have all become recognized as some of jazz's greatest innovators and most prolific performers. <P> In a day and age when it seems that jazz, and jazz guitar, has been through just about every transition, amalgamation and innovation possible, there are still new voices emerging to take the music forward into unexplored and exciting territory. One of the guitarists that is leading this charge is New York-based picker Jonathan Kreisberg. With a strong foundation in the jazz tradition, and a personal vision of the genre's future, Kreisberg is winning over crowds and critics alike with his albums and concerts held around the world. <P> AAJ Contributor Matthew Warnock spoke with Kreisberg about his background, moving from progressive rock to jazz and, for guitar-heads, a little tech-talk. <P> Be sure to check out <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34225>Jonathan Kreisberg Unearthed</a> at AAJ today!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2557573956879742403?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-74419941171305869792009-10-13T14:12:00.000-04:002009-10-13T14:27:35.961-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/media/large/a/c/c/fed9d72e0c4d5bb28628d1f3794a8.jpg width=220 border=0 align=right hspace=12 vspace=2>It's been an out-of-the-ordinary career trip for Roberta Gambarini--a trip that's seen her go from a young girl in Italy, scatting along with records by American singers Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, to struggling to get singing gigs in her native land, to grabbing an opportunity to come to the United States, to gaining recognition by respected elders like Benny Carter, James Moody, Clark Terry and nonagenarian pianist Hank Jones, who has proclaimed her "the best jazz singer to emerge in sixty years." <P>She was accepted into certain jazz circles over a decade ago, and doors begin to open, even if slowly at first. But always behind that acceptance was a natural, exceptional talent, without which she wouldn't have opened certain ears and eyes--and doors--in the first place. She's blossomed, since coming to the United States in 1998, into one of the very best singers out there. She owns a wonderful instrument: her vocal cords, displaying power and nuance, rich textures and flexibility. And she's always working on how to convey a song with the right feeling and tell a story. It's important to her.<P>AAJ Contributor R.J. DeLuke spoke with Gambarini about her new album, <em>So In Love</em> (Groovin' High/Emarcy, 2009), choosing unorthodox material for interpretation, and the importance of the pianists she has worked with in her relatively brief, yet meteoric career.<P>Check out <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34304>Roberta Gambarini: Making Listeners Fall 'So In Love'</a> at AAJ today!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-7441994117130586979?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-28318284336883916322009-10-02T14:47:00.000-04:002009-10-02T14:50:06.154-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/profile/beatles2009.jpg width=400 border=0><br>All About Jazz is celebrating our own brand of Beatlemania with a <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=42351>14-CD contest giveaway</a> (expires October 10th), a <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34183>comprehensive review</a> of the recently reissued stereo box set, plus two articles: "<a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34064>Jazz Honors the Beatles</a>" and "<a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34090>How Jazz May Have Influenced The Beatles</a>." <P>"<a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34064>Jazz Honors the Beatles</a>" includes nearly 80 quotes about the Fab Four by jazz musicians ranging from Christian Scott to John Scofield. Simon Jay Harper delves deep into The Beatles' music-making and <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34090>postulates</a> how jazz played an influential role, particularly on their early-recorded material. <P> And finally, we're featuring guitarist Chuck Anderson's "<a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4783>Eleanor Rigby / Norweigian Wood Medley</a>" as today's featured MP3. <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=4783>Download it now</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2831828433688391632?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-8211080885902229252009-10-02T14:45:00.000-04:002009-10-02T14:47:12.344-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/chrisbyars_1_jk.jpg align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 width=220 border=0>As legendary jazz vibraphonists Teddy Charles describes him, "It's not easy to be Chris Byars. With an incredible array of talents brought to bear on his composition, arrangements, and cooking jazz performances, it's no wonder he's worked his way to the forefront of the myriad of jazz players overwhelming the scene."<P>Byars has been working hard over the past few years, releasing a string of critically well-received albums including <em>Blue Lights: The Music of Gigi Gryce</em> (SteepleChase, 2009) and, with Charles, <em>Dances With Bulls</em> (Smalls Records, 2009) <P> AAJ Contributor Ludwig van Trikt spoke with Byars about his upbringing as a child opera star, his eventual conversion to jazz altoist and, ultimately, his efforts to bring greater attention to the music of deserving, but lesser-known artists including {{Gigi Gryce = 7277}}, {{Jimmy Lovelace}} and {{Frank Hewitt = 14759}}. <P> Check out <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34108>Chris Byars: Studying Unsung Heroes</a> at AAJ today!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-821108088590222925?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-62487275471343077182009-10-02T14:41:00.000-04:002009-10-02T14:44:52.159-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/theotravis_2_jk.jpg width=220 align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 border=0>British musician Theo Travis has one of the most varied performing and recording histories to be found among contemporary jazz musicians. A talented saxophonist, flautist and composer, Travis has performed solo, in duos and quartets, in straight ahead jazz combos and in electronic, improvisational groups.<P>Despite his extensive back catalog, however, Theo Travis is not as well-known to jazz or prog fans as he should be. This may be due in part to his unassuming nature and a refreshing lack of ego, or to his determination to play what he enjoys rather than just playing for the money or the exposure. Whatever the reason, the lack of fame is not mirrored by a lack of work: Travis is constantly involved with musical projects, groups and collaborations with an at times bewildering array of players. He's a busy man, as he readily admits.<P>AAJ Contributor Bruce Lindsay spoke with Travis about his multifaceted career, working with some of the most prominent names in progressive/art rock, and the development of Ambitronics, his own woodwind response to Fripp's Frippertronics and Soundscapes. Read Bruce's informative interview, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34136>Theo Travis: From Prog to Jazz and Back Again</a>, at AAJ today!<P>But that's not all. You can read AAJ Managing Editor John Kelman's <a href=/php/article.php?id=34227 target=_blank>review</a> of <em>Slow Life</em> (Ether Sounds, 2003), an album of solo flute that spawned Ambitronics, also published at AAJ today.<P>Finally, <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownloadv.php?id=4764>watch Travis live</a>, a 2009 solo performance that demonstrates his use of Ambitronics, today's AAJ Daily Video. <P>AAJ is committed to bringing you the most extensive coverage anywhere, so check out the buzz surrounding Theo Travis at AAJ today!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-6248727547134307718?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-23307730059320295422009-10-02T14:39:00.000-04:002009-10-02T14:40:43.734-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/fredhersch_1_jk.jpg width=200 align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 border=0>From the start of his career as a sideman in the 1970s for such jazz luminaries as Joe Henderson, Art Farmer and Stan Getz to his own ensembles and solo projects, there has always been a great diversity and intensity to Fred Hersch's art. Having won a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for composition (2003) and having been the first piano player in The Village Vanguard's 70 year history to do a week's solo residency, Hersch has managed to be both a musician's musician and resonate in the jazz public's consciousness without ever compromising his own artistic vision.<P>AAJ Contributor Maxwell Chandler spoke at length with Hersch, about his early indoctrination to jazz, his many projects including the recently released <em>Fred Hersch Plays Jobim</em> (Sunnyside, 2009) and critically acclaimed <em>Leaves of Grass</em> (Palmetto, 2005), and making history at The Village Vanguard.<P>Check out <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34085>Fred Hersch: No Limits</a> at AAJ today!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-2330773005932029542?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-78285612268424060332009-09-22T16:59:00.000-04:002009-09-22T17:00:58.238-04:00<img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/photos/2009/StefonHarrisBlackout2009b_mr.jpg align=right vspace=2 hspace=12 border=0 width=220>Authenticity is a special word for vibraphone wizard Stefon Harris when it comes to his art, which springs from the tradition of jazz music, but is approached through a modern lens that takes into account the sounds and perspective of 2009.<P>He has enough audacity--also a special word for Harris--to say it clearly, to elucidate what he is going for in his music. And he has enough audacity on the bandstand to go for it.<P>Harris recently released <em>Urbanus</em>, the second disc with his urban-meets-jazz group Blackout, and his first for Concord Records. AAJ Contributor R.J. DeLuke spoke with Harris at length, about Blackout and <em>Urbanus</em>, about his early days, and how he's benefited from a combination of formal education and the kind of mentoring that's so important in keeping jazz alive and authentic.<P>Check out <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34110 target=_blank>Stefon Harris: Authenticity and Audacity</a> at AAJ today!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-7828561226842406033?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8469426678180287993.post-60444394838954991742009-09-21T14:33:00.000-04:002009-09-21T14:37:35.091-04:00The Beatles <BR><em>Catalog Remasters</em> <BR>EMI-Apple <BR>2009 <P> As with most news concerning The Beatles, the <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=41248 target=_blank>announcement</a> of the release of remastered and repackaged CDs of the group's entire discography seemed at first something to celebrate. Second thoughts arose when details of the exercise were divulged. But over-cerebralization gets in the way of enjoying the music. The nature of the marketplace, and diversities of personal preference, are perhaps more productively viewed as different ways to enjoy the work of a band that has exerted more influence than any other in the history of pop music. <p><center><img src=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coverart/2009/beatles2009_boxset_large_mr.jpg border=0 width=363></center> <P>The first batch of Beatles CDs issued in 1987 presented the titles in their original British track sequences. This was in contrast to the hodgepodge created at the time of the original American releases when Capitol cobbled together what amounted to extra LPs to satisfy the demands of Beatlemania--by mixing album tracks and singles. (Those titles have themselves since been reissued, indicating that interest in the Beatles' work really knows no bounds). <P>As digital technology and archiving expertise evolved over a quarter century, virtually nothing was done with the Beatles' catalog with the exception of <em>The Anthology</em> (Capitol-Apple, 1995-6), a mammoth work on its own terms, plus the isolated revision of <em>Yellow Submarine</em>, as soundtrack to the 1999 DVD reissue, and <em><a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_It_Be%E2%80%A6_Naked target=_blank>Let It Be... Naked</a></em> (Capitol-Apple, 2003), more about which later. In contrast to the forward thinking that earmarked the Beatles career, the modernization of their recorded legacy was left to languish. <P> <a href=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34183>Continue...</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8469426678180287993-6044439483895499174?l=digjazz.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AllAboutJazz.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14021230403221759712noreply@blogger.com0