Arve Henriksen: The Trumpet is My Pen
Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen is one of a handful of creative upstarts, like trumpeters Nils Petter Molvær or Erik Truffaz, who are embracing electronics and the improvisational side of jazz in their music. Henriksen's music is an otherworldly amalgamation of different and sometimes opposing elements, with imaginative soundscapes built on the tradition that trumpeter Miles Davis ...
Read MoreBray Jazz Festival 2013
Bray Jazz Festival Bray, County Wicklow Ireland May 3-5, 2013 For many years, the picturesque town of Bray's main claim to fame has been that it's the oldest inhabited seaside town in Ireland. That is, it was the main claim to fame until Bray local lass Katie Taylor won boxing gold at the ...
Read MoreNew York Voices: Keeping the Vocal Jazz Flame Burning
Kim Nazarian went to college in upstate New York for acting, with dreams of the Broadway stage. Some 25 years later, she's enjoying a career that has taken her to stages around the globe--but as a singer. Not just a singer, but one of four that makes up New York Voices, a group that has won ...
Read MoreGeri Allen: Apollo's Muse
Pianist/composer Geri Allen is gearing up for her role as artistic director for an especially ambitious production of the 2013 Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival at the Apollo Theater. Presented as “Geri Allen & Friends Celebrate the Great Jazz Women of the Apollo," the program will offer two shows on May 11, 2013 that explore the legacy ...
Read MorePointing Fingers... And Naming Names
As the countdown continues toward the last Big Band Report in June, the time has come to point fingers and name names--in other words, to compile a short list of contemporary jazz musicians who have risen above the norm to help make life more pleasurable for one devoted listener. These are, mind you, personal choices, and ...
Read MoreRhythm Changes: Rethinking Jazz Cultures
Rhythm Changes Media City UK, Salford Rethinking Jazz Cultures Conference Manchester, UK April 11-14, 2013 The study of jazz in academic institutions may be a relatively modern trend, but the presence of over a hundred academics from South Africa to Russia and from America to Portugal at the Rhythm Changes: Rethinking Jazz ...
Read MoreKendrick Scott: Conviction of a Jazz Oracle
Kendrick Scott, considered by many as one of the most gifted drummers of his generation and trusted on stage by peers such as trumpeter Terence Blanchard, is ready to take the spotlight as a bandleader once more with his third studio project. This is a record about a true desire to act as an instrument of ...
Read MoreBig Jazz on SmallsLIVE
Since its launch in 2010, the SmallsLIVE record label has been offering a substantial sampling of the outstanding jazz talent consistently featured at Smalls Jazz Club in New York City's Greenwich Village. Musicians who appear on the label range from the great veterans Harold Mabern and Jimmy Cobb to contemporary players at the top of their ...
Read MoreTerri Lyne Carrington: The Long Road
"Better Git It in Your Soul," a perspicacious jazz man once communicated in a song title more than half a century ago. Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington wasn't even born yet, but she sure did have it in her soul upon arrival. Long before she was even aware of bassist Charles Mingus, the author of those words, ...
Read MoreTake Five with Aruan Ortiz
Meet Aruan Ortiz: Named “the latest Cuban wunderkind to arrive in the United States" by BET Jazz, this classically trained violist and pianist from Santiago de Cuba, considers himself “a curious person who loves music," and portrays his music as an architectural structure of sounds, incorporating contemporary classical music, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and improvisation as primary ...
Read MoreTake Five with Ted Sirota
Meet Ted Sirota: Veteran Chicago drummer, Ted Sirota, has been playing the drums since 1980. Ted has lead his own band, Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls, since 1996. Rebel Souls have recorded five CD's for the Naim & Delmark labels. Ted has also played every Saturday night from 12:30-5:00am at Chicago's top jazz club, The Green ...
Read MoreCape Town Jazz Festival 2013
Cape Town Jazz Festival 2013 Cape Town, South Africa April 5-6, 2013 Music has the power to transport those on the receiving end to another place, but the terms of travel are usually figurative in nature. For four North American journalists, however, the figurative took fantastic form with an offer to visit Cape Town, ...
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