Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

With the whole world's eyes trained on Rio for the Summer Olympics, it should come as no surprise to readers of that I'm thinking about Brazilian music. Here in America we think primarily of Bossa Nova and Samba, but I also enjoy more esoteric genres like Choro, Forro, and Tropicalissmo. The release last month of two new CDs from Brazilian artists that were not previously on my radar was cause for...

At the turn of the millennium, saxophonist Chico Freeman left the US for Europe, and embarked on a multi-year journey of exploration, both of music and his soul. He traveled across the continent and to Africa, playing music with different types of musicians, and in different genres.  Quite frankly, he was missed. He hasn't been to the US in quite a while to play,and a player, performer and compose...

The Newport Jazz Festival continues to reinvent itself from year to year, and attendees at the Festival at Fort Adams State Park Friday, July 29 to Sunday July31 will get a chance to see and hear music from a veritable plethora of musical genres. It's truly rare, in these days when "Jazz Festivals" are often "jazz" in name only, to be able to celebrate the latest groundbreaking acts and the most v...

It would be easy to dismiss The Hot Sardines as a nostalgia novelty act, coming across like Jazz Age Hipsters. But that would be a mistake. A BIG mistake. Like other acts that have come to prominence in the past few years – think Lake Street Dive for example – they have incorporated older sounds and sensibilities into something very contemporary, and at times, downright exciting. Remember when Jaz...

The 39th Freihofer's Jazz Festival will kick off the summer festival season in style at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center this coming weekend. "The Hang" has something for everyone to enjoy, and this year is no exception. Saturday June 25th brings something blue to the Main Stage with Eric Lindell and Shemekia Copeland, before bringing the new (Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah; Joey Alexander) and...

2016 has been a good year for jazz films, from the biopics on Miles Davis and Chet Baker to documentaries like I Called Him Morgan . The latest addition is Adam Kahan's The Case of the Three Sided Dream , a documentary on the life and times of Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Released in early May on just recently available on iTunes, and had a special screening at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas la...

This will be short, and to the point - Chick Corea is having a special birthday, and this is my card to him. Those who read this blog know that it was the music of Chick Corea, first with Return to Forever, and then moving backward in time, with Stan get, that was my first step intot he world of jazz. Check out this posting for more on this. But with Chick turning 75, I wanted to give you all an h...

  Short Stories is more than an album title for the latest release from Dominick Farinacci, it's the overriding theme of a diverse collection of material. The trumpeter has assembled an all-star band as his core collaborators – Larry Goldings on piano, organ and celesta; Christian McBride on double bass; Steely Dan and fusion veterans Steve Gadd on drums and Dean Parks on guitar; and two of the mo...

The working jazz musician has to wear many different musical hats, sometimes more than one at a time, If that were taken literally, Mac Gollehon would have difficulty walking through any doorway in New York without knocking a few fedoras off the top of his head. His career has taken him from the Latin Jazz Big Bands and Orchestras of Ray Barretto, Héctor Lavoe,  Hilton Ruiz, Larry Harlow, and Char...

Carla Bley turns 80 years old today. Her various creative incarnations - composer, band leader, side person, singer – have all been at the highest level, and she shows no sign of stopping now. So let us now praise Carla Bley. She entered the jazz consciousness as a composer. Encouraged by her first husband, pianist Paul Bley, she wrote strong compositions that were quickly recorded by the likes of...

Talking with Brian Bromberg can be like drinking from a fire hose. Ask him a question that he fins interesting, and he is off on a lengthy, usually fascinating answer. For that reason, I broke our conversation into two podcasts. Part 2 of Podcast 532 focuses on his lengthy discography, and the slew of projects he has planned for the near future. Bromberg has never stayed with one genre for long. A...

April 30 th is the day set aside as International Jazz Day around the world.  Beginning in 2012, UNESCO set aside the day as a celebration of "the virtues of jazz as an educational tool, and a force for peace, unity, dialogue and enhanced cooperation among people." I was fortunate enough to attend the first International Jazz Day concert on the floor of the United Nations that year. It was a fabul...

Brian Bromberg's latest CD, Full Circle , truly lives up to his name. The long-time bass player has been virtually absent from the public for the past four years, as he recovers from a serious back injury the required extensive physical therapy. Now he returns to recorded music, not only playing his trademark piccolo bass (among the many he uses), but also playing drums, the instrument upon which...

Artist-run organizations are a new and successful trend in the jazz world, and Rob Garcia has been a major force in this new way for jazz to continue and thrive. He is the founder and executive director of an artist-run, non-profit organization called Connection Works, which presents world-class jazz performances and educational events to the Brooklyn community. He is a member of the Brooklyn Jazz...

 One of the astounding things that we realize when we contemplate the musical legacy of Prince (1958-2016) is that while he passed away at the age of 57, he had written and recorded music since he was 17. Those forty years of wildly exciting, innovative, profane, uplifting music will be with us always, and we are once again left wondering what might have come as he continued his evolving career. I...

The many musicians who are today identified as veterans of the “Smalls scene” of the 1990’s are truly coming of age. The influential Greenwich Village jazz club was the launching pad twenty plus years ago for some of the top improvisers and composers of today, including Jason Linder, Mark Turner, Avishai Cohen (both the trumpeter and the bassist), Kurt Rosenwinkel, Guillermo Klein, Omar Avital, Se...

  David Fiuczynski is not your typical guitar hero. Usually playing his double-necked guitar – the lower fretted, the upper fretless – he is capable of making a roaring sound when he wants, but more often he is interested in microtonality. He writes and plays non-western scales that can have exponentially more notes and sounds than the classic 12 tone chromatic octave we all learned in school. In...

If you go to the New York Clubs, you’ve probably seen Tony Lustig capably filling the Baritone Sax chair in Big Bands lead by the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Christian McBride, Arturo O'Farrill, Gerald Wilson and, George Gee, amongst others. The release of his quintet album, Taking Flight , allows us to see another side of this talented musician. Lustig has wisely surrounded himself with top musicia...

In 2016, it is safe to say that there are jazz festivals, and then there are jazz festivals. Many events slap the word “jazz” in the title, even though the acts they are presenting may only peripherally have anything to do with jazz – Blues, R&B and Classic Soul headliners are all too common. Other jazz festivals are narrow in their presenting scope – think the smooth jazz and soul jazz that gets...

Marc Copland’s music career started with a sax, but he’s made his name as a pianist. Hailing from Philadelphia, Copland was a peer of Michael Brecker, and the pair often studied and played together. Copland attended Columbia University, where he eventually landed in the influential Chico Hamilton Quartet, meeting lifetime collaborator John Abercrombie in the process. But Marc put down the sax soon...

The Spring is truly the season of spiritual awakening and celebration. Holy week for those of the Christian faith is underway, coming early on the calendar this year. As a result, the Jewish holiday of Purim, rather than Passover, tis this coming week. The festival of Vaisaki, celebrated by Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs iis their Spring holiday, just as Theravada, the New Year festival for Theravada...

Has there more written-about any jazz legend than has been written about Charles Mingus? A cursory review of the Library of Congress catalog finds seventeen titles about the legendary composer/musician, including the Mingus autobiography Beneath the Underdog . Only Miles Davis and Duke Ellington have had more books written about their lives and storied careers. Krin Gabbard has written an importan...

And now for your edification, a brief history of Valentine’s Day, courtesy of Infoplease.com : The history of Valentine's Day is obscure, and further clouded by various fanciful legends. The holiday's roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15. Pope Gelasius I recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, dec...

“The way we listen to music today is broken” With that bold statement, pianist/entrepreneur Elan Mehler explained to me the strategy behind Newvelle Records, a new kind of label with a curated repertoire of new music from some of today’s finest jazz musicians. Released only on highest quality vinyl, each album on the Newvelle label is recorded at East Side Sound in New York City by Grammy-winning...

Today at 12:08 PM It happens a little earlier on the calendar this year, but the goings on in New Orleans are unmistakable.  Mardi Gras! For those interested in the religious significant, “Mardi Gras” is the term for Fat Tuesday, or more appropriately, Shrove Tuesday (“Shrove” coming from the word “shrive”, or “confess”). Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", reflecting the practice of the last...