Bigthink - Site Features Feed (Free subscription) | 14/11/2009
How do you know someone's just caught the jazz bug? According to Village Voice critic and "Jazz" author Gary Giddins, when Ken Burns started loving Louis Armstrong as a fan and not just a filmmaker, he got a "glow on his face" that "you can't fake." In an conversation that shared the passionate, improvisational spirit of the music he loves, Giddins's interview with Big...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 09/11/2009
Powerful jazz double bassist with a gift for improvisation Back in 1971, three adventurous young US jazz musicians formed an uncompromising improv group called the Revolutionary Ensemble – a title that had resonances in the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war, and the radical transformation of jazzmaking that had been ignited by Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and John Coltrane. The work of...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 09/11/2009
Charles Tyler was an innovative musician who could unfurl a maelstrom of ideas from just a spark. He played with fire and spirit, finding his muse in free jazz and filling his music with bold inventions. Tyler met {{Albert Ayler = 3538}} when he was 14. He later went on to play with Ayler, whose influence can be heard in his approach. Tyler, however, held his own shining in the company of other free...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 28/10/2009
The Charles Tolliver Big Band The Iridium Jazz Club New York, NY October 17, 2009 Charles Tolliver leads a modernist 16 piece big band that pushes the envelope of contemporary orchestral jazz sounds. The Big Band played a four night stand at the Iridium Jazz Club and I was fortunate to catch the second set on Saturday night. The Iridium is situated in Midtown Manhattan, just a few blocks away from...
bebop spoken here (Free subscription) | 28/10/2009
Alister Spence Trio: Alister Spence (pno/electronics), Joe Williamson (bs), Tony Buck (dms). Bevan, Morris, Lash and Buck: Tony Bevan (sop/ten/bs sax), Joe Morris (gtr), Dom Lash (bs), Tony Buck (dms). Driving home, Art Pepper was playing on the car stereo - "Fascinating Rhythm". It was so relaxing after what had gone before at the Cluny that it was difficult to reconcile the fact that the...
Jazz & Blues Music Reviews (Free subscription) | 19/10/2009
As Nat Hentoff notes in the original liner notes to this album, pianist Cecil Taylor had scant few chances to record or even perform live during his formative years in the late 1950’s and early ’60’s. So he had quite an opportunity in the mid ’60’s to record a few albums for Blue Note Records, including this influential LP where he improvises with Jimmy Lyons on alto saxophone,...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 19/10/2009
David S. Ware Live in Vilnius No Business 2009 The year 2009 could be a rather big year for tenor saxophonist and improvising composer David S. Ware, and that's saying a lot. After all, Ware has long been one of the most celebrated figures in free jazz, owing not only to his work with artists like pianist {{Cecil Taylor = 4823}} and percussionists {{Andrew Cyrille = 6044}} and {{Beaver Harris = 7440}},...
undomondo (Free subscription) | 07/10/2009
The in-house gag about this show was that we were ready to work at the BRT (a fictional state owned radio station from Brasil that resembles our TRT) simply because it never wanders off brasileira & exotica, albeit a few breathers of downtempo jazz from Cecil Taylor and Marc Copland. Play this on sunny afternoons.
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 25/09/2009
The 36th edition of Follow The Sound will run from September 30 - October 4 in Antwerp. The international music festival will take place at deSingel and in the industrial workshop space of ScheldApen on the Scheldt River quay. As always the festival is focusing on improvisation within a wide range of genres, including free jazz styles, experimental rock and electronic music. Central to Follow The Sound...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 25/09/2009
Sunny Murray Trio The Vortex London, England September 1, 2009 Two nights in north London with free-jazz drum pioneer Sunny Murray's European Trio was a prospect to set the pulse racing. That expectancy was widely shared, it appeared, as there was standing room only even on the second evening. Murray first found a way to shift beyond his bebop roots to pit a shimmering rhythmic undertow against {{Cecil...
JazzHQ (Free subscription) | 24/09/2009
Aki Takase-Louis Sclavis - Yokohama (Phantom ) Al Jarreau - Hits (Rhino ) Al Jarreau - Al Jarreau Hits (Rhino ) Alain Mion - Some Soul Food (Indies Japan/Zoom ) Alex Band Welsh - One More Chance (United States Of Dist. (Uk) ) Alex Welsh - One More Chance (United States Of Distribution LTD. ) Alex Welsh - Oh, Baby! (United States Of Distribution LTD. ) Alex Welsh & His Band - Oh Baby! (United States...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 16/09/2009
Recorded live in concert at the Willisau Jazz Festival on August 30, 1979, The Long March documents another of drummer {{Max Roach = 10725}}'s historic duo collaborations with the leaders of the jazz avant-garde. This stellar date with tenor saxophonist {{Archie Shepp = 4266}} follows Streams of Consciousness (Piadrum, 1977), with pianist {{Abdullah Ibrahim = 7858}}, and Birth and Rebirth (Black Saint,...
RVAjazz (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
German free-jazz pioneer Gunter Hampel with his Trio + Bass is headlining the Jazz Beyond Festival in Richmond on September 25. The event is being hosted by Richmond free-jazz unit New Loft and will also feature brianjonespercussionensemble and Chromatic Mysteries with Elliot Levin from Philadelphia. Hampel, a true multi-instrumentalist, explores the woodwind and percussion families equally: bass...
St. Louis Jazz Notes (Free subscription) | 09/09/2009
The Nu-Art Series , run by trumpeter, gallery owner and former arts administrator George Sams out of his Metropolitan Gallery downtown, is kicking off its fall 2009 season this month with two concerts featuring former St. Louisans who have earned international acclaim in the jazz world. The group Trio 3 , featuring saxophonist and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake ( pictured ), bassist Reggie Workman...
The Daily Swarm (Free subscription) | 04/09/2009
A mini-debate on the future of jazz has formed around Terry Teachout’s article for The Wall Street Journal . Here’s an excerpt: In 1987, Congress passed a joint resolution declaring jazz to be “a rare and valuable national treasure.” Nowadays the music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis is taught in public schools, heard on TV commercials and...
Videos