Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

May 13 will be the 100 th anniversary of the birth of Gil Evans, one of Jazz’s greatest bandleader/composer/arrangers. First as a member of, and arranger for, the highly influential Claude Thornhill Orchestra in the early 1940’s, and then as a long-time collaborator with Miles Davis, Evans re-wrote the book on instrumentation and sound for jazz combos. It would not be an overstatement to suggest t...

Despite a tremendous body of work, pianist Steve Kuhn remains somewhat an afterthought when the great pianists of the past fifty years are named. From his days backing greats like Kenny Dorham, John Coltrane, and Art Farmer; through his days recording trio and solo albums of almost universal excellence, he has been a player and composer of integrity and style. His tenure living and playing in Scan...

Today is Yom Ha'atzmaut (Hebrew for "Independence Day") and commemorates Israel's declaration of Independence in 1948. It was preceded yesterday by Yom Hazikaron , the Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day. Yom Ha'atzmaut centres around the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel by The Jewish Leadership led by future Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, jus...

The highlight of the 11th Annual Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra Weekend, (and indeed, the entire New England jazz season) happens on Saturday, April 28, 2012 .Vibraphonist Jay Hoggard will be performing with pianist and organist James Weidman   and drummer Yoron Israel , joined by special guests, including Wesleyan Professor of Music and saxophonist   Anthony Braxton , percussionist Kwaku Kwaakye Martin...

Joel Harrison is rapidly becoming on of jazz’s finest composers and arrangers. The guitarist has been steadily releasing albums of improvised music, while honing the crafts of composition and arrangement by merging the jazz sensibility with European art music formats. The results, most notably on his String Choir release celebrating the music of Paul Motian, can be moving and stimulating. Harrison...

Ravi Coltrane, one of the finest exponents of expressive, improvisational saxophone, leads his latest quartet into Bowker Auditorium at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA on Friday April 13. I’m psyched to have my tickets in hand, and proud that my employer, United Wealth Management Group is one of the sponsors of the concert. For those not aware of his pedigree, Coltrane is the second...

If you enjoy jazz magazines, Cadence Magazine should be on your radar (or tablet, since its available online as well as in print). Founded in 1976 by jazz critic and historian Bob Rusch, the magazine covers a range of styles, from early jazz and blues to the avant-garde. It was published on a monthly basis until October 2007, when it switched to a quarterly schedule with an increase in page number...

Holy Week, commemorating Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem followed by his Crucifixion and Resurrection. begins today for Christians all over the world. Today is also the Hindu festival of Rama Navami , celebrating the birth of Lord Rama, the seventh incarnation of the God Vishnu. For Jews, preparations are underway for the celebration of Passover on April 6th, the “Festival of Freedom,” recalling the E...

"Some people write in their journals . . . I create my journal through music; expressing what I cannot put into words," – Lynne Arriale. After almost fifteen years of working exclusively within the trio and quartet formats, pianist Lynne Arriale has recorded her first solo CD. A strong player who has recorded both intimately structured originals and bold versions of pop songs, the new CD, simply e...

We read about artistic prodigies on a regular basis, but the late bloomers get less ink. And yet, for every twelve year old pianist at Carnegie Hall, there is a Grandma Moses who began her successful painting career at age 70. Giacomo Gates fits into this category of successful late bloomers. Although he had played music and sung for his own enjoyment for years, he didn’t sing professional until h...

Are we in the midst of a renaissance in jazz trombone? Most of us are aware that the trombone was one of the first instruments used by New Orleans jazz greats like Kid Ory. The Swing Era gave monster players like Tommy Dorsey and Jack Teagarden. The top bands always had killer players - the Ellington Band had “Tricky Sam” Nanton; Count Basie had Vic Dickenson; and Woody Herman introduced Kai Windi...

Lost tapes of Wes Montgomery, the highly original and influential guitar player, have been discovered and restored. Resonance Records releases Echoes of Indiana Avenue - the first full album of previously unheard Montgomery music in over 25 years - on March 6, which would have been Montgomery's 88th birthday. Over a year and a half in the making, the release provides a rare, revealing glimpse of a...

In a world of outsized personalities and vanity projects, the SFJAZZ Collective stands as a truly unique gathering of musicians. Every member of the Collective is a bandleader in his or her own right, and yet they check their egos at the door, so to speak, and enjoying working together to make memorable music. Launched in 2004 by SFJAZZ—the West Coast’s largest nonprofit jazz institution and the p...

Stephen Sondheim is among our greatest living composers, have spent more than sixty years collaborating with legends (Leonard Bernstein, Oscar Hammerstein, Jule Styne) and then becoming one himself, with ground breaking musical theatre pieces like “A Little Night Music”, “Follies”, “Company”, “Pacific Overtures” and “Sweeney Todd”. His songs have regularly been recorded by singers of from many gen...

POEMJAZZ , the new CD recorded by Robert Pinsky and Laurence Hobgood on the Circumstantial Productions label represents a continuation of a tradition of jazz and the spoken word . Jack Kerouac teamed with pianist David Amram for memorable performances, as did Ken Nordine with the Fred Katz Group in the 1950’s. Lawrence Ferlinghetti collaborated with Stan Getz. More recently, Michael Mantler’s trea...

I've listened to so much wonderful Brazilian jazz this past week that I decided the annual Valentine's Day Podcast would be devoted 100% to that genre. It's still winter here in New England, so some sultry, warm music should help conjure up an appropriate romantic mood for you and your special someone. Of special note is a sneak peak from the upcoming CD from Marisa Monte, O Que Você Quer Saber de...

“John Zorn soaked up much of the media attention with his splashy genre-colliding experiments such as Naked City , but based purely on the recorded evidence, it may very well have been Tim Berne who was the definitive genius of NYC’s downtown 1980s jazz scene.” - Time Out magazine. Tim Berne doesn’t rest on his laurels, and he doesn’t look back. After coming to prominence playing on projects like...

"He sings the great songs the way they should be sung." - Woody Allen   Steve Tyrell has had a long journeyman's career in the music business, serving as record company executive, songwriter, and producer. But no one could have predicted the twist his career took in the late '90s. After he sang standards on the soundtracks of the films Father of the Bride (1991) and Father of the Bride 2 (1995), h...

February is the month when the Northampton Center for the Arts in Northampton , MA traditionally celebrates the art of jazz in a series of solo piano concerts by modern masters. In celebration of creative music, they will present “A World of Piano: 3 Jazz Masters” and welcome Satoko Fujii (February 3), Myra Melford (February 10) and Angelica Sanchez (February 17), all of whom have established inte...

Charlie Hunter has established himself as one of the premier modern fusion/jazz-rock artists. Hunter will often find a funk groove and turn it into an amplified, wah-wah pedal induced free jam that competes with saxophones, keyboards and even violins. Since the early 1990s, Hunter has released 17 acclaimed albums featuring his dizzying technical and virtuosic 8-string guitar playing. Hunter has co...

PDX Jazz will honor trumpeter Thara Memory as the second annual Portland Jazz Master to kick off the 2012 US Bank Portland Jazz Festival Presented by Alaska Airlines on Friday, February 17th  at 7:30pm at the Winningstad Theatre . An influential performer and educator within the Portland community for over 40 years, Memory will use the occasion to present an ambitious, special program in tribute t...

I don't pretend to have the critical abilities to give you a "best of" list for any year in jazz, and there are always musical  releases I fail to catch up with that likely would make a list. Instead, I've created a number of categories to give you some idea of my favorite recordings of 2011, and Podcast 251 features a selection or two from them. This year's Favorite Things include:   Notable Rele...

I'm getting psyched already for a performance by the SF Jazz Collective at the University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center March 1, 2012. The all-star band - saxophonist Antonio Hart ; trombonist Robin Eubanks , a two-time DownBeat “Trombonist of the Year”; trumpeter Avishai Cohen ; Grammy-nominated vibraphonist Stefon Harris .  pianist Edward Simon and  two of the most in-demand sidemen on the i...

2012 is starting out with a bang for the venerable trumpet player Jimmy Owens. J immy will be honored as a NEA Jazz Master Tuesday, January 10, 2012 7:30pm at Rose Theater  presented by  Jazz  at Lincoln Center .  Owens, Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette, Sheila Jordan and Von Freeman will be given the nation's highest honor in jazz. Owens will also be the recipient of the 2012 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz...

"I'm not a showpiece drummer. ... I feel like I'm an accompanist. It's my sort of thing to make the other people sound good, as good as they can be. I feel like I should accompany them, and I should accompany the sound that I am hearing and make it the best that I can — that I can do." – Paul Motian. The jazz world lost one of its greatest performers, composers and mentors earlier this year when P...