Tagged: allaboutjazz

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , All About Jazz Thomas Hendrich German reedist Peter Brotzmann got his start in the '60s, quickly making a name for himself in the European free jazz and avant-garde music scene. Thanks to classic albums like 'Machine Gun,' Brotzmann is best known for conjuring a tone on his tenor sax that is not unlike an ill-tempered V8 engine with straight pipes. But that isn't the whole story. [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , All About Jazz , Q + A Andy Sheppard, Redferns The latest entry in All About Jazz's Legends series is alto saxophonist Lee Konitz , who first arrived on the scene back in the late 1940s when he played in Claude Thornhill's orchestra. As a teen, he studied with the legendary Lennie Tristano, eventually playing and recording with the master. He was also a member of the group [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , Exclusive , All About Jazz , Q + A Barbara Zanon, Getty Images It's safe to say that most people who reach their 70th birthday have started to slow down and take it a bit easier than in their youth. But that is certainly not the case for keyboardist Chick Corea , whose early career saw him make his debut as a leader in 1966 [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , New Music , Exclusive , All About Jazz Jeremy Cowart It's hard to figure out where to position Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Since their inception in 1988, the Grammy -winning band has been at the vanguard of the newgrass movement, primarily because Fleck started out in bluegrass and is one of the greatest living banjo players. The rhythm section of bassist Victor Wooten [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , All About Jazz Steve J Sherman By now, everyone with a passing interesting in current-day jazz is familiar with the story of Fred Hersch , the HIV-positive pianist who was so ill with pneumonia in 2008 that he was put into a medically induced coma for two months. Around the time of the release of his 2010 trio album 'Whirl,' we checked in with [...]

Filed under: News , New Music , Exclusive , All About Jazz Jimmy Katz Yes, many will call James Farm an all-star band. Featuring drummer Eric Harland, bassist Matt Penman, pianist Aaron Parks and saxophonist Joshua Redman, the band certainly has some of the leading lights of today's jazz scene. But to hear Harland and Parks speak about the band's origins, James Farm seems something organically grown rather than a self-conscious assembly of heavy hitters. [...]

Filed under: News , New Music , Exclusive , All About Jazz Becca Meek Whether one is improvising, composing or even just playing songs, music is a declaration of self. This is never more apparent than with singer and composer Malika Zarra . Born in Morocco and raised in France, Zarra draws upon her roots to inform her jazz by adding elements of North African chaâbi and well as traditional Moroccan styles like Berber, Gnawa, [...]

Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , All About Jazz Guy Fonck We're the first to admit that we don't follow the European jazz scene nearly as closely as the one here in the US. Part of the reason is that we live in the US and see the artists play more often. Another part of it is we generally like the music in the American jazz tradition better. Call us provincial. There are exceptions of [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , All About Jazz Liz Penta Jazz bands have their own kind of dynamic. Usually there is a band leader who writes all or most of the tunes, and the group size is listed after the name, hence the Miles Davis Quintet or the Bill Evans Trio. It's jazz shorthand that tells fans more or less what to expect when they are scanning live listings, record bins and [...]

Filed under: News , New Music , Exclusive , All About Jazz Tom Couture People have their own path to becoming a jazz musician. Sometimes a parent or other family member who plays. Sometimes a musician starts off in one direction and then goes in another. Alex Skolnick has to be one of the most unique examples of the latter. The guitarist joined the thrash-metal band Testament when his was 16, immediately putting him [...]

Filed under: News , New Music , Exclusive , All About Jazz David Bartolomi Gretchen Parlato is not your stereotypical jazz diva. You won't see this singer up on stage dressed in a prom dress, and her beautiful voice doesn't have the impressive range of other some singers out there. With a short asymmetrical haircut and a hip fashion sense, her look is her own. Nonetheless, it is Parlato's voice that stands out. [...]

Filed under: News , New Music , Exclusive , All About Jazz Mark Venema, Getty Images The first time we came across Kurt Elling was in June of 1997 during a guerilla campaign of gigs in the Northeast over a six-week stretch. It was towards the end of that run and the singer was walking with crutches after a hiking mishap. His iconoclast reputation as a divinity school dropout (one credit short of his [...]

Filed under: Exclusive , All About Jazz , Q + A Samuel Dietz, Redferns I seem to be on a roll lately with getting bone fide living legends on the phone. This time around, I caught up with Roy Haynes on the eve of his 86th birthday -- and just after he won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys -- at his home on New York's Long Island. To study [...]

Filed under: All About Jazz Courtesy David Binney Alto saxophonist David Binney has been on the New York jazz scene for years now, collaborating regularly with fellow saxophonists Chris Potter or Donny McCaslin, or playing the hired gun for icons like Jim Hall, Bill Frisell and countless others. He's released several records as a leader on his own label and smaller European imprints, becoming known as something of a musicians' musician due to the stellar list of [...]

Filed under: News , Exclusive , All About Jazz , Q + A Jordi Vidal, Redferns Born in 1930, Sonny Rollins grew up in the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Harlem and has been at the center of the jazz universe ever since. The saxophonist fell in love with the playing of Coleman Hawkins (who lived in his neighborhood) and Charlie Parker and came to be tutored by the great [...]

Filed under: All About Jazz Robert Abbott Sengstacke, Getty Images This year marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Impulse! Records. Of course, John Coltrane ( pictured ) was the leading light on this revered imprint, releasing much of his '60s material on the label, but Impulse! was actually founded and run early on by legendary record producer Creed Taylor , who brought the label to immediate prominence under the ownership of ABC. [...]

Filed under: All About Jazz Robert Abbott Sengstacke, Getty Images This year marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Impulse! Records. Of course, John Coltrane ( pictured ) was the leading light on this revered imprint, releasing much of his '60s material on the label, but Impulse! was actually founded and run early on by legendary record producer Creed Taylor , who brought the label to immediate prominence under the ownership of ABC. [...]

Filed under: All About Jazz Joe Lovano The legacy of Charlie Parker is something that every jazz musician has to contend with. As a co-creator of bebop up at Minton's with Dizzy Gillespie , Thelonious Monk , Bud Powell and others, Parker has assured his legacy by the time he died at age 34 in 1956. He was more than just a landmark innovator, as Bird's outsized playing and personality in a community known for [...]

Filed under: All About Jazz Charles Lloyd Charles Lloyd first arrived on the scene back in the '50s and soon made a name for himself on the West Coast (and well beyond) playing saxophone in a Coltrane-influenced vein that made him something of a crossover success. In the late '60s and early '70s, he was one of the biggest names in jazz, leading a band that at one point included Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette. His music, then and [...]

Filed under: All About Jazz Stefan Falke I first became aware of singer Catherine Russell through fellow singer Carolyn Leonhart, who had good things to say about her fellow Steely Dan backup singer. I then found Russell's 2006 debut album, ' Cat ,' a beguiling mix of old-time jazz, early blues, swing and the great American songbook (in the broadest sense of the word). But for some reason, I never had the chance to chat with this singer. [...]