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 Wednesday, 17 March 2010 |
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AAJ articles |
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All About Jazz Feature Articles
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Eddie Prevost: Looking Back, Looking Forward
Drummer and percussionist Eddie PrA(C)vost was a founding member of the pioneering free-improvising group AMM, back in 1965, and has remained a member ever since. In the intervening years, AMM saw frequent personnel changes, from the early lineup of PrA(C)vost--saxophonist Lou Gare, guitarist Keith Rowe, pianist Cornelius Cardew, and cellist Lawrence Sheaff--through to the current duo of PrA(C)vost and pianist John Tilbury. Rowe left AMM in 2004 after a prolonged period of the group being a trio. Rowe gave his reasons for leaving in a 2009 All About Jazz interview. PrA(C)vost was sent a transcript of that interview; he returned it unread and has shown no interest in discussing the circumstances of Rowe's departure...
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J.D. Allen -- JD Allen Trio at Bohemian Caverns, February 27, 2010
J.D. Allen Trio Bohemian Caverns Washington, DC February 27, 2010
Saxophonist JD Allen's music is an outgrowth of the mystical and transcendental experimentation key jazz musicians undertook in the sixties and seventies. However, unlike many contemporary performers who explore this tradition as a stylistic choice, perhaps driven by admiration for Coltrane's sound, Allen's exploration of this style is founded in his personal experience, musical direction, and deep spiritual sense...
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Cuarteto Latinoamericano + Quintet of the Americas, March 10 at Americas Society
Cuarteto Latinoamericano + Quintet of the Americas Wednesday, March 10, 2010 Americas Society New York, NY
Compositions by new Mexican composers were presented at this joint appearance from the two classical/folk groups, at their first live collaboration in four years. The Cuarteto Latinoamericano (Saul Bitran, Aton Bitran and Aron Bitran: violins; Javier Montiel: viola; Alvaro Bitran: cello) opened the proceedings with Javier Alvarez's "Metro Chabacano," a lively number inspired by the cadence of the trains of the Mexico City subway. Though classical in essence, the music had clear influence from traditional music and even some touches of the more erudite work of Antonio Carlos Jobim. They followed that with Gabriela Ortiz's "La Calaca," which had almost a movie soundtrack feel, filled with climatic phrases, lots of finger-plucking and illustrative up and down notes. The tune is part of the composer's "Altar de Muertos," a musical chronicle of her country's festival of the dead...
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Monkadelphia: All Monk, All the Time
Over the past several years, there has been a revival and reconsideration of the music of Thelonious Monk. No one embodies this trend better than Monkadelphia, a group of Philadelphia-based jazz musicians who play his music exclusively--a difficult challenge which they embrace with vitality, panache, and sophistication. With Chris Farr on saxophone, Tony Miceli on vibes, Tom Lawton on piano, Micah Jones on bass, and Jim Miller on drums, this group makes the Monk legacy come alive, sustaining rapt attention throughout extended nightclub sets and concert gigs. Their forthcoming 2010 CD is masterful, with echoes of the best groups of the 1950s and 1960s, reflecting Monk's unique contributions yet representing Monkadelphia's own approach, developed in over a decade of performing his music together...
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Dave Holland Octet: Pathways
Dave Holland Octet Pathways Dare2 Records 2010
It's been nearly four years since bassist Dave Holland has delivered an album based around his enduring quintet of over a decade. Since 2006's Critical Mass (Dare2), he's released Pass It On (Dare2, 2008) and The Monterey Quartet: Live at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival (Monterey Jazz Festival Records, 2009), both featuring ensembles where, for the first time in his lengthy career, the bassist collaborated with pianists. While both discs were as exhilarating and groove-heavy as anything he's done, the inherent chemistry of his quintet--powerhouse saxophonist Chris Potter, ever-inventive trombonist Robin Eubanks, harmonically modernistic vibraphonist Steve Nelson and potent drummer Nate Smith--remains something special, whether on its own or at the core of Holland's big band, last heard on Overtime (Dare2, 2005)...
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North Coast Brewing Up Some Monk
In 1931, industrialist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donated two million dollars to the Save-The-Redwoods League to purchase some 10,000 acres of virgin redwood forests in Northern California from logging companies. These companies had already cut nearly 90% of the world's tallest trees, some of these redwood trees had stood on the coast of California since the year zero on our calenders. Rockefeller was persuaded of this mission after leaving New York and traveling to a river called Bull Creek hundreds of miles north of San Francisco to see these magnificent trees, some giants standing nearly 360 feet tall and 16 feet in diameter...
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John Pizzarelli: A Tribute to Duke Ellington
John Pizzarelli is a man of many talents. Singer, guitarist, bandleader and arranger, depending on the circumstances Pizzarelli can step into any or all of these roles and perform at the highest level. Coming from one of the most successful families in jazz, his brother [Martin Pizzarelli] being an accomplished bassist and father the legendary seven-string guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, the New York-based guitarist has built a devoted fan base, inside and outside of the jazz world, that has made him one of the genres most recognized faces and voices. A fan--and strong proponent--of the great American songbook, Pizzarelli's Rockin' in Rhythm (Telarc, 2010) showcases the singer/guitarist's love for the music of legendary writer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington...
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Remembrance: Paying Tribute Through The Art Of Jazz Composition
Paying tribute to the dearly departed is simply a part of life. We honor them with words and we pay our respects through our actions as we help to keep their memory alive. In music, we pay tribute to the dead through the medium that we know best...sound. Whether we use "requiem," "threnody," "ode," "elegy," or any other number of terms, we are always simply saying "tribute through music." Music seems to be an excellent way to say "thank you," or "we miss you," or any one of a million thoughts that come to mind. Jazz, specifically, has a rich history of immortalizing the people who have had an impact on this music in song. While Lester Young's centennial celebration, in August of 2009, made it tempting to start with Charles Mingus' dirge-like "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," the call of the trumpet lured me in another direction...
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Eric Vloeimans Fugimundi, Ottawa, Canada, March 8, 2010
Eric Vloeimans Fugimundi Ottawa International Jazz Festival Fall/Winter Series NAC Fourth Stage, Ottawa, Canada March 8, 2010
For its second-to-last date in its 2009/2010 Fall/Winter Series, the Ottawa International Jazz Festival continued its perennial support of the Dutch music scene by bringing trumpeter Eric Vloeimans' Fugimundi trio to the Fourth Stage of the National Arts Center. Still in his forties, Vloeimans has already amassed a surprisingly rich discography ranging from acoustic dates with illustrious partners like British pianist John Taylor, bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron to the more electrified music of his Gatecrash group. Fugimundi sits somewhere in-between; clearly the intent is chamber jazz--something Vloeimans made clear during the sound check, as he strived to achieve the proper balance of sound to fill the 150-seat room without losing the intimacy of a trio that also featured pianist Harmen Fraanje and guitarist Anton Goudsmit--but, with a surprisingly expansive dynamic range and Goudsmit's sometimes edgy, rock-centric playing, also an ensemble that wasn't afraid to let loose and play hard...
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Lew Tabackin
Lew Tabackin needs no introduction to serious jazz fans. The tenor saxophonist and flutist worked with Maynard Ferguson, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, Joe Henderson, Duke Pearson, Donald Byrd, Elvin Jones and The Tonight Show Band; was a star soloist with the Danish Radio Orchestra in the late '60s; and joined alto saxophonist Phil Woods for a one-shot small group album. But Tabackin made his mark in the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Jazz Orchestra for several decades until it disbanded in 2003. Tabackin has also made around 20 albums of his own since the mid-'70s...
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