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Kevin Frenette: Fall River Guitar Guy
However cool the surface of his music, Kevin Frenette is not content to serve up any sort of "easy listening." The guitarist grew up in Fall River, a small city in southeastern Massachusetts, but the beauty of his music is akin to a sylvan setting--to enter into it is to traverse a forest trail. Some themes and motifs--"organisms"--are finely formed and highly developed; some are just budding--new ideas still in the rough, offered to the ear as tokens of innovations transpiring or to come. There are frenzies of activity, coolly psychedelic, and then dry turns--demanding terrain that challenges, but in the final analysis leads to greater triumphs and more difficult pleasures. There is always in it a knot to unravel, or to tie, for those choosing to take his path...
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New Voices: Sarah Manning, John Escreet, Kneebody
Jazz is like the human body. It needs fresh air, constant activity and a steady stream of nutrients to stay hale and hearty. Conversely, if all the genre does is sit in a comfy chair and try to live on what came before, it becomes sedentary, incurious and--ultimately--self destructive. Fortunately, the young keep jazz active and alive. Here are a few examples of the new kids on the block...
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The Cookers and the Vijay Iyer Trio, at Charlie Parker Jazz Festival 2010
Charlie Parker Jazz Festival Tompkins Square Park New York, NY August 29, 2010
After a blistering blues-based set by New York-based singer Catherine Russell, the 7-piece hard-bop ensemble The Cookers (m: Billy Harper: tenor sax; m: Eddie Henderson and m: David Weiss: trumpets; m: Craig Handy: alto sax and flute; m: George Cables: piano; m: Cecil McBee: bass and m: Billy Hart: Drums) took to the stage with a hard-driving number that shifted time signatures, going from a blues-inflected groove to a more syncopated tempo and back again. The tune featured great solos from Harper, Weiss and Cables, who set the tone for the entire performance...
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Julian Joseph: Joining Jazz and Baseball
Julian Joseph is something of a jazz master of all trades. Pianist, composer, bandleader, arranger, broadcaster and educator, Joseph is constantly busy, always working on new ideas and projects, spreading the word about music, encouraging young performers and generally promoting jazz around the world. With Shadowball Joseph has turned his attention to the relationship between jazz and baseball, bringing the two together in a major jazz opera...
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Dave Liebman: Live / As Always and Quest for Freedom
Quite possibly the hardest-working saxophonist--if not the hardest working musician, period--these days, not a month goes by when there doesn't seem to be a new release from veteran jazzer Dave Liebman.
In the twelve months since autumn 2009 alone, Liebman has been spotted in freer terrain, collaborating with another active saxophonist, m: Evan Parker, on Relevance (Red Toucan, 2010), and drummer m: Michael Stephans on Nomads (ITMP, 2009), while mining the modern mainstream with the collective super group Contact on Five on One (Pirouet, 2010), also featuring pianist m: Marc Copland, guitarist m: John Abercrombie, bassist m: Drew Gress and drummer m: Billy Hart...
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Quest: Searching for the New Sound of Be-Bop
Quest Searching for the New Sound of Be-Bop Storyville Records 2010
There are groups that become legends in their own time and others that only gain momentum after that time has come and gone. Quest was by no means unsuccessful during its ten-year run beginning with its self-titled, Japan-only, 1981 debut, but the quartet's reputation has grown considerably in the two decades since its swan song, Of One Mind (CMP, 1990). As key as each member of the quartet was, it remains the collective language of Quest's two principal writers (saxophonist m: Dave Liebman and pianist Richard Beirach) that defined Quest's sound--an acoustic evolution over their 1970s group Lookout Farm, which, unlike its higher volume, higher octane counterparts, remained an unapologetic jazz band, albeit one which explored a post-saxophonist m: John Coltrane landscape through a prism personally crafted of funk, Indian and 20th century classical musics...
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Video and Photo Highlights from the 2010 Tanglewood Jazz Festival
The annual Labor Day Weekend Tanglewood Jazz Festival took place this past weekend at the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Rich Bradway, the new media guru at Boston Symphony Orchestra was our roving reporter capturing highlights from the festival with a handheld and presented new video featurettes on Saturday and Sunday throughout the day. Photographer Kristophe Diaz provided the still imagery...
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Bobby Zankel: Peaceful Jazz Warrior
For many decades, Philadelphia has been home to a cadre of multi-generational jazz musicians who go on year-after-year composing, arranging and performing some of the best, highest level music to be heard anywhere. This tradition is exemplified in no better way than by alto saxophonist, composer and bandleader Bobby Zankel...
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September 2010
Dear Mr. P.C.:
In jazz music, much is spoken of the virtue of leaving space. If I don't, they'll say I'm too busy; if I do, I they'll say I can't play. m: Count Basie played sparsely, and I bet he didn't get the applause or the chicks; I bet they gave him a wide berth. But I bet m: Oscar Peterson scored...
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Louis The Movie -- "Louis" A Silent Movie with Live Accompaniment at the Keswick Theatre
"Louis" A Silent Movie with Live Accompaniment August 31, 2010 Keswick Theater Glenside, Pennsylvania
The Keswick Theatre returned to its roots with a twist. The elegant music venue in suburban Philadelphia built in 1928 as a movie and vaudeville house was one of the five cities hosting a showing of the silent film "Louis." But this time the old theatre organ that still sits stage right was silent. Tonight, the music was provided by famed trumpeter m: Wynton Marsalis, pianist Cecile Licad, and an outstanding ten-piece jazz orchestra whose members consisted of many veterans of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. The film, directed by musician and Hyatt Hotel heir Dan Pritzker, and the musicians were on a five-city tour where they have played to capacity audiences and standing ovations. It was a lovely evening indeed with a performance that dazzled the eyes, ears, and emotions...
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The Spiritual Beauty of Marilyn Crispell
There have been a number of pianists within the classical and jazz genres whose work have remained majestic and timeless, but never has there been a pianist quite like Marilyn Crispell. Never has a pianist been able to reach such extraordinary depths of spirituality and complexity. Nevertheless, levels of creativity rarely equate to levels of popularity and therefore, it's not surprising that visionary works remain largely misunderstood and unappreciated during their own time. Such is the case with Marilyn Crispell...
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Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet: "3 Days in Oslo"
We live during a time when society needs music in boxes, connected with dots; music that can be readily explained and even more readily understood. But Peter Brotzmann tears down the walls, rips apart the boxes and completely shatters any preconceived notions of what music is supposed to be. He understands the necessity of art being able to express from the soul and spirit of the artist, and that is a freedom fought for, one that is intensely fought for. It is a simplicity found in its own complexity, a search that cannot be taught but must be carefully found through one's own sense of discovery. It is the nature of the universe in it's highest and most creative form...
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Fred Anderson: In Loving Memory....
I had the opportunity to interview with Fred Anderson on several occasions. In each instance I walked away with the feeling that I was a better person for the time I spent with him. It was his wisdom, his generosity of spirit, his knowingness that our time here on this planet was short at best, and his humble appreciation to have been able to play music during this lifetime...
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When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors
The Doors When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors Eagle Vision 2010
There are a usually two ways of looking at iconic 1960s rock group, The Doors. One views it as nothing more than a vehicle for front man Jim Morrison, an enigmatic and undeniably charismatic singer with little regard for convention and, to some, a profound lyricist. Another finds Morrison's self-indulgent, self-destructive behavior as nothing more than rampant narcissism; a textbook demonstration of what can happen when a massive ego gains access to big money and even more massive adulation. When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors does little to change anyone's opinion, but does set the record straight in ways that Oliver Stone's heavily revisionist biopic, The Doors (1991), never did...
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Rufus Reid: Live in Vienna
Rufus Reid Live in Vienna Quantum Leap/MVD Visual 2005
In a memorable 2005 concert performance at the Porgy and Bess jazz club in Vienna, bassist Rufus Reid's trio interpreted several of his original compositions as well as the standard "Cherokee." And what power that old chestnut emitted. With pianist Fritz Pauer and drummer m: John Hollenbeck, Reid tore the house down with his one-of-a-kind delivery...
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