By: Edward Blanco A fixture of the Los Angeles jazz scene that has been performing and recording for three decades, composer and vibraphonist Mark Sherman enlists the help of three of LA’s finest jazz musicians for a monster recording simply titled, The L.A. Sessions. Joining him for this latest release …
1957 jazz pianist Dean Fontessa experiences his first rockabilly dance in Gary Scott Beatty’s “Jazz: Rockabilly” fiction, featured in the free online magazine MuskegonOnline.NET this month only. The story, in Beatty’s modernist retro style, explores Dean’s take on the scene from his viewpoint as a cool jazz musician. “We all …
Saturday April 14, 2012 at 9:00pm This is a line up you have to hear. Come on out and hear some unbelievable musicians perform. We’ll touch on a little bit of everything so get there early. In fact, you might want to order your tickets in advance at www.thebakedpotato.com or (818) 980-1615. Hope …
DETROIT (March 20, 2012) – Today, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) unveiled one of the most ambitious seasons in recent years for the Paradise Jazz Series – a collection of one-night-only appearances hand-picked by the legendary jazz musician and composer Terence Blanchard. Five-time Grammy Award-winning Blanchard will join the DSO …
Glenn Astarita San Francisco Bay Area bassist Steve Horowitz of The Code International amid copious projects with largely cutting-edge instrumentalists leads a manifold progressive-jazz effort, augmented by the artists’ ‘monstrous’ chops. With a superfine lineup, featuring reedman Steve Adams of ROVA notoriety and tenor sax ace Dan Plonsey who gets …
LABEL DEBUT FEATURES ROY HARGROVE & ERIC ALEXANDER, AMONG OTHER SPECIAL GUESTS Order on iTunes Order CD While growing up in Tel Aviv, pianist Roy Assaf spent untold hours listening to his brother’s collection of jazz recordings, fascinated by the musicianship of the players and wondering about his own, to-be-developed …
By: Edward Blanco Jeff Hamilton has long-established himself as an elite jazz drummer building an impressive resume with the big bands of Tommy Dorsey, Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman’s Young Thundering Herd and later as co-leader—with Grammy-award winning bassist John Clayton—of the Grammy-nominated Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. But leading a jazz trio …
By Bill Donaldson OMG Chick Corea is 70? Unbelievable. Has has the impishness, invention and grace of a wild-haired thirty-year-old. Obviously, Corea’s interests are wide-ranging, as documented by his weeks-long seventieth birthday celebration at the Blue Note in New York. During the month of November, 2011, Corea performed duos with …
By: Edward Blanco Venezuelan-born pianist Luis Perdomo has been a stalwart of the New York jazz scene since the early 90s and with Universal Mind—his fourth album as leader—accomplishes a dream he thought would never happen—recording with legendary drummer Jack DeJohnette. Perdomo had first heard the drummer’s work as a …
Glenn Astarita The band moniker alludes to a term used for a declining stock enjoying a brief recovery. But saxophonist Matt Steckler links this notion into “creative rebirth and renewal even as a time, tradition, and masters’ move on.” Therefore, the Boston-based sextet abides by conventional methods while injecting a …
Glenn Astarita Recorded May 4-17, 2010, at the historic Blue Note in New York City, this program is a baseline of sorts, framed on piano great Bill Evans’ interminable legacy. However, one of the differentiators here pertains to the respective artists’ signature voices. In other hands, a set like this …
By: Edward Blanco After a long history performing as a sideman on over 30 albums where he has recorded for such artists as Joe Locke, Alex Sipiagin, Brian Lynch, Wayne Escoffery, Hans Glawishing, and the Mingus Big Band among many others, drummer and composer Johnathan Blake finally releases an impressive …
