As another evening falls, the Lenox Lounge sits dim and lonely. Commuters pour out of the 125th Street subway station and onto Lenox Avenue, past its padlocked door. At Ginny’s Supper Club across the street, a mostly black crowd of men in suits and women in heels sips and sways as a band turns out [...]
Sir Shadow Turns Graffiti Into Homage to Jazz
March 29, 2013 | Posted by
With much respect to the Jazz Age and the musical heritage of New York that still boasts a huge number of jazz musicians, events and venues, artist Sir Shadow plays alongside the aerosol tags with his one-liners in the East Village. Using a technique known to many a graffiti writer, the artist makes the piece [...]
’42′ Soundtrack Includes Great Sampling of Period Jazz
March 23, 2013 | Posted by
The past two years has seen two high-profile baseball-themed movies: one good, 2011’s “Moneyball,” and the other less-than-good, last year’s Clint Eastwood-starring “Trouble With The Curve.” While the latter film was a disappointment for the studio, Warner Brothers is hoping they’ll hit a homerun (see what we did there?) with the Jackie Robinson biopic “42.” [...]
Veronneau’s ‘Jazz Samba’ CD Release Celebrates 50 Years
March 18, 2013 | Posted by
In Brazil 50 years ago, “bossa nova” was a barely known term. But in 1963 Jazz Samba, the milestone recording by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd, it became a worldwide catch phrase. In popularizing the seductive, syncopated “bossa” rhythm, it became the only jazz album in history to reach No. 1 on the Billboard pop [...]
Jazz Gaining Acceptance as Worship Music
March 14, 2013 | Posted by
On a Saturday night last month, about a half-mile from a mural featuring Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, and John Coltrane, a trio led by pianist Danny Mixon warmed up with the show tune-turned-jazz standard “All the Things You Are.” Antoinette Montague, the featured soloist, inspired the 400-or-so audience members to compulsive head-bobbing, hand-clapping, [...]
Terri Lyne Carrington Releases Expertly Crafted ‘Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue’
March 8, 2013 | Posted by
Drummer and composer Terri Lyne Carrington won a Grammy for her 2011 album, The Mosaic Project, and though its successor features fewer star guests and its idiomatic range is narrower, it’s just as elegantly constructed and dynamically performed. Carrington crafts jazz materials with the expertise of the best arrangers, as well as being a percussionist [...]
Bilal’s ‘A Love Surreal’ Alludes to the John Coltrane Classic
March 4, 2013 | Posted by
By co-opting the title of John Coltrane’s 1965 classic, A Love Supreme, Bilal is at least hinting at lofty expectations. For the most part he exceeds them. Love songs can be tricky business. At its core, the majority of Soul/R&B music is about falling in and out of love and all the complications relationships bring. [...]
Erroll Garner: New Documentary on Self-Taught Jazz Piano Giant
February 27, 2013 | Posted by
Erroll Garner was and still is considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. He was described by one jazz critic as a “brilliant virtuoso” and “one of the most distinctive of all pianists.” Another writer said of Garner: “Playing the piano for him was as easy as breathing is for you and [...]
Jazz at Lincoln Center Announces 2013 Season Performances
February 26, 2013 | Posted by
The 2013-2014 season for Jazz at Lincoln Center brings performances, commissions and homages by some of the organization’s regulars and favorites — Ahmad Jamal, Dianne Reeves and its artistic director Wynton Marsalis, to name a few — but also a noticeable amount of contemporary and experimental jazz, the organization is expected to announce on Tuesday. [...]
12th Annual Brubeck Festival, 1st Since Jazz Leader’s Death, Due in March
February 18, 2013 | Posted by
University of the Pacific’s Brubeck Institute in Stockton, Calif., will present the 12th Annual Brubeck Festival, titled “Dave Brubeck Across Time,” March 18-23. The festival honors the late Brubeck’s legacy as a jazz giant and his Stockton roots. According to a press release, “The 2013 festival is a broad-based tribute to his legacy that covers [...]
