After a nine year hiatus, Hiromi Uehara returned to Dakota Jazz Club to offer the audience an inside peak to her new band, Sonicwonder, with Adam O’Farrill on trumpet, Hadrien Feraud on electric bass and Gene Coye on drums.
World Beat: Seun Kuti, Linda Ronstadt, Lucibela
A Jazzy Christmas. This year, Putumayo is releasing Jazz Christmas, an uplifting collection of mostly instrumental jazz for the holidays. If you like World Music, chances are, you probably own a Putumayo album. They are known for compiling some of the best music from around the world.
American singer Nancy Wilson has died on December 13th. I know we’re late to mention the news, but her contribution to blues and jazz is so important that we had at least acknowledge the sad news of her passing.
The Baltimore-born Chestnut, who cut his chops playing piano for the likes of Terrence Blanchard, Wynton Marsalis, and Betty Carter assuredly led his Trio (bassist Eric Wheelerbass and 19-year old drummer Evan Sherman) through an enjoyable 100 min set of standards, covers, and playful original compositions, on a perfect Saturday evening under the stars at St. Paul’s Mears Park.
What makes New Orleans not only a musician’s town but also a place that produces musical families? Take the Marsalis family. There’s Wynton, one of jazz’s more tireless promoters. Then you have Branford, Delfeayo and Jason. Plus, don’t forget the man who started it all, Ellis.
If you want to know why I love jazz, look at the aside picture. It’s Art Blakey and he is smiling. In fact, any picture of him behind a set of drums wielding a pair of sticks has a beaming face. That’s unless he’s brandishing a lit cigarette. Then, with lips pursed he reveals a sly grin.
Sometimes I wonder if jazz musicians are born to continually hone their craft. For them, music isn’t an arc where a creative flourish is followed by future reunion tours. Instead, it’s a rise and expansion of musical proficiency and knowledge. For example, take a look at bassist, Dave Holland.
I’m not a big fan of hastily put together cover albums, especially when the musical cannon comes from the Disney Vault. It seems every song that has been done has been covered again. Do we really need another rendition of “It’s a Small World” after hearing Slim Whitman and The Baha Men? But even with my reservation, I have to say I am pleasantly surprised with Everybody Wants to be a Cat.
There is a lot of great music in the Crescent City. More than any other New Orleans is a musician’s town. After all, how many other cities have their airport named after a trumpet player?
When TV Creator, David Simon, chose to set his new HBO series in post-Katrina New Orleans, critics wondered if he was going to bring the same Dickensian scope he brilliantly illuminated in The Wire. The short answer is no.
Michael is a name that means "Who is like God". If we can afford it, we would love to head down to the annual New Orleans Jazz Festival someday. I suppose the next best thing is to get music from the New Orleans area, and like various tributes, Dr Michael White, a clarinetist, basically dedicate his fifth album to the city with Adventures in New Orleans Jazz, Part 1. I have put in a request for the album to be reviewed (Dave has agreed to review it), but I wanted to pass on the news that his album is coming out on June 21st. I have posted a preview track, "West African Strut" for you to check out. As the song title suggests, the song's melodies were influenced by African rhythm, but if you listen some more, it definitely also feels like a fun 50s bop.
We here at We Heart Music are big fans of Putumayo and their focus on music from around the world. They are like a cool friend who makes really great mixed tapes. Forget splapdash and haphazard, the selections they chose have something to say and blend so well with the others.
If you need someone to blame every time you hear “The Girl from Ipanema” in a hotel lobby or office elevator, you can take it out on Stan Getz. But how did a Jewish kid from the Bronx usher in a new global sound?
Growing up in Ohio, Nancy Wilson knew early she wanted to be a singer. After winning talent shows, working clubs, touring with a big band and studying briefly to become a teacher, she decided to make a move to New York City in 1959.
“If you make a mistake, don’t stop. Make it part of what you are playing.” I think of this quote by Oscar Peterson every time I hear one of his songs. He doesn’t so much play the piano as propel it. In the middle of a solo, every key is under his domain as he deftly dashes the ebony and ivory with contradictory urgency and ease. Even if Peterson made a mistake, you may never hear it.
The other day I took out the garbage. And as I headed inside, I noticed a mound of snow, which had been piling since early December, was now over my head. I took this as a bad sign. If Punxsutawney Phil lived in Minnesota, he would certainly wait until July before moving to Mexico. The weatherperson verified this sentiment the other night. She said that spring will be delayed because the endless acres of fallen snow will act as a giant fridge when warmer winds appear. But that’s many days away. Today its four degrees above zero. Like Vu, I find January to be about survival.
One reason I like jazz is how incorporates other musical genres like Blues, Soul and Samba. Does Hip Hop have a future in this stream? Nas certainly floated the question when he released his album, “Hip Hop is Dead.” His statement wasn’t if Hip Hop is viable but was it more than a product. Can it survive as an independent art form or like disco will it be gobbled by a music industry looking for steady revenue?
Allen Toussaint is one of those musicians you may have never heard of but you know his work. His collaborations run from Patti LaBelle and Otis Redding to The O’Jays and The Rolling Stones. He wrote the Grammy nominated song, “Southern Lights”, famously sung by country singer, Glen Campbell. Recently he did an album with Elvis Costello and even appeared with Cyndi Lauper on David Letterman. Songwriter, producer, musician, there isn’t a facet or genre Toussaint hasn’t touched in his forty years in the business, but what drew my attention was an album he released a couple years ago, “The Bright Mississippi.”
In the liner notes Herbie Hancock apologizes to anyone he may have left out. After listening to his latest album, The Imagine Project, I wonder who it might have been. The purpose of the project “is an effort to show the power and beauty of global collaboration as a golden path to peace.” How do you do that? By inviting everybody to be on your album from Pink and Chaka Khan to John Legend and Seal. Even my two favorite bands, Los Lobos and The Chieftains make an appearance, as well as international stars like Anoushka Shankar and Juanes.
When Duke Ellington ran into Colman Hawkins and said the above quote, I don’t think either of them thought it would take twenty years to put an album together. It did but they never forget the date.
What I like about jazz is how multi-dimensional it can be. From Dixieland, Big Band to a small trio playing in a hotel lounge, jazz can stir a swell of emotions from wooing a lover to putting a spring in your step. It can even make you want to kick back after a long day and relax.
Although Julian was born on September 15th 1928 in Tampa Florida, musically speaking he was given birth and inspired in New York City by the great Charlie “Bird” Parker. But before that all happened he picked up a nickname; not because his alto sax sounded like incoming artillery. In fact, Cannonball is a spin-off of another childhood nickname “Cannibal”, given for his healthy appetite, which I have read he went in with gusto, which can also best describe the way he plays his horn.
Contrary to a popular rock ‘n roll belief, some musicians are better off not burning out quickly or fading away. Like a fine whiskey or an endearing ballad, jazz musician only get better with time. Sure, their technical skills may diminish a little, but there is something more worldly and expressive that manifests in musicians with more than a few decades notched into their instruments. At least that’s what I saw in concert with:
One of the advantages working with 12-16 musicians is the conductor’s ability to expand his palette. Without uttering one word a big band can create a vivid scene rich in color and bustling with motion. For example take Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” and Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia.” Or since we are moving into the season, listen to Dave Holland’s “First Snow” from his 2002 EMC release “What Goes Around.”
The best way an artist can grab the attention of an ever-elusive audience is to take something tried and true and turn it on its head. I’m talking about reinterpretation. When it comes to jazz, there is no better way to ease a new listener into a new sound than to play a familiar tune, especially when song comes from the Rogers and Hammerstein’s musical, “Oklahoma” and Ray Charles is the one singing “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from the 2006 Concord release, “Ray Sings Basie Swings.”
As post-war Bebop began to wane into the cold war era, a group of jazz musicians sought to reconnect with their audience. Hard Bop, West Coast Cool, wherever the name, the songs usually stated a quick, catchy theme, letting the players take it from there. A few classics from this time are Lee Morgan’s “Sidewinder”, Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father” and this gem from Miles Davis, “Milestone” from the same-name 1958 Columbia record.