HENRY THREADGILL: News

Kevin Le Gendrte / THE INDEPENDENT Chicago is one of the great musical powerhouses of America. Since the Twenties, its Black population has produced colossal talents, such as classical composer Florence Price and soul singer Curtis Mayfield, not to mention any number of jazz pioneers, from Sun Ra to Quincy Jones to Herbie Hancock. Less […]

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PAT METHENY: Live In Chicago ’87 (CD)

PAT METHENY GROUP VIC THEATER, CHICAGO, NOVEMBER 29TH 1987 In 1986 Pat Metheny released Song X, an uncompromising free jazz collaboration with Ornette Coleman. Thereafter he signed with Geffen Records and recorded the considerably more accessible Still Life (Talking), which won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance. This superb set was recorded at […]

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JAZZ: A jazz supergroup collective comprised of four of the world’s top instrumentalists: Hudson (CD)

‘Hudson’ is the first album from a jazz supergroup collective comprised of four of the world’s top instrumentalists: Jack DeJohnette (drums), Larry Grenadier (bass), John Medeski (keyboardist of Medeski Martin & Wood) and John Scofield (guitar).In addition to original compositions, ‘Hudson’ features covers of songs connected to the Hudson Valley by such songwriters as Bob […]

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CHARLES MINGUS: Passions Of A Man: The Complete Atlantic Recordings (6CD + Book) Box Set

We are told … The greatest bassist leader jazz has ever known, Charles Mingus, with his spirited playing and spontaneity, always kept his ears and fingers on the pulse. The albums this giant of music recorded for Atlantic between 1956 and 1961 are rightly considered his best. This lavish collection of the jazz legend’s entire […]

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PAUL KLINEFELTER: Night Mood

Dan McClenaghan writes: “Connoisseurs of jazz trios led by pianists may be familiar with bassist Paul Klinefelter’s contribution to Ron Thomas’s superb Music in Three Parts (Art of Life Records, 2006). That particular piano trio outing, one of that year’s finest, featured Klinefelter’s big bass sound interacting in a three-way Zen dance with pianist Thomas […]

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PAT METHENY: News

In 2010, 19-time Grammy Award winner Pat Metheny took his musical exploration to a new territory with his Orchestrion, a computer controlled mini-orchestra capable of responding to his touch on guitar. After releasing the Orchestrion record, Metheny and his ‘band’ hit the road, playing over 100 concerts around the world, culminating with the recording of […]

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Jazz: Michael Feinstein: What I Learned From The Gershwins

Michael Feinstein, the singer and pianist known as the “ambassador of the Great American Songbook,” has a serious pedigree to back up that title: a real-life connection to one of America’s greatest songwriting teams. It’s the subject of Feinstein’s new memoir, The Gershwins and Me: A Personal History in Twelve Songs. (A CD of Feinstein […]

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JAZZ: Karrin Allyson fares better at the microphone than the piano

  Howard Reich:  The pleasant, thoroughly intelligent, often-engaging, sometimes frustrating show set that Karrin Allyson played Friday night at the Green Mill Jazz Club started out strongly and ended that way, too. In between, it lost some steam when Allyson headed to the piano to accompany herself. A voice as distinctive and a stage presence […]

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JUSTIN FAULKNER: Serving the Music

Paul Naser writes: The rare balance of passionate ambition and mature dedication that are the hallmark of young professionals puts them in a category all their own. More often than not they began honing their skills at an early age and it seems as if life conspired to help them succeed. Justin Faulkner, the young […]

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MILES DAVIS: Tutu (Deluxe Edition) (180g Vinyl 2LP)

  In May and June 1985, Miles Davis signed recording and publishing contracts with Warner Bros Records and Warner Chappell, shocking the music world by leaving Columbia.  He immediately started working on an album called Perfect Way after a tune by Scritti Politti, later renamed Tutu by producer Tommy LiPuma.  When Tutu (a tribute to […]

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MINGUS: Right Now (Numbered 140g Clear Vinyl LP) by Charles Mingus

With Clifford Jordan on tenor, John Handy on alto, Jane Getz on piano, and Dannie Richmond on drums, Charles Mingus went into San Francisco and whipped up a storm. This LP contains two compositions over 23-minutes each: “New Fables” and “Meditation (For A Pair Of Wire Cutters).” “New Fables” features a ten-minute solo from Jordan, […]

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Blurring the boundary between classical music and jazz – the long read

GRAMOPHONE: Composer and pianist Iain Farrington surveys the interwoven history of classical and jazz as his new album, ‘Gershwinicity’, is released on the Somm label lthough the terms ‘classical’ and ‘jazz’ are frustratingly vague for such a broad wealth of music, they provide a useful distinction for two different musical traditions. When the two styles […]

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SATIE: New release

We are told …. A unique collection of 13CDs to celebrate Erik Satie’s 150th birthday A box set of captivatingly idiosyncratic piano pieces, songs and ballets by Satie and his friends such as Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc Features famous and popular pieces such as Vexation, a forerunner of Minimalism or the simple, haunting Gymnopédies (1888) […]

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DAVID REES WILLIAMS TRIO

  Tony Andrews writes: When you fuse two genres of music, the outcome can be heaven – but equally it can become hell and an awful mess. The French Pianist Jacques Loussier was one of the pioneers of fusion when he introduced his jazz interpretations of Bach back in the 1960’s. You have to be […]

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WES MONTGOMERY: ‘The Incredible Jazz Guitar’ and ‘A Dynamic New Sound’

Jazz editor Tony Andrews writes ….. As a true Jazz Fan will know, only too well, there are many outstanding Jazz Guitarists from The US and to pick a favourite is virtually impossible …. if you are attempting the approach based exclusively on musical skill. If you choose to decide on either personal preference or […]

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Quill

After The Fall (2CD) by Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette

We are told ….. In the course of its 30-year lifespan the trio of Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack De Johnette – the group colloquially known as “the Standards trio”- made many outstanding recordings. And After The Fall, overflowing with sparkling playing and dynamic interaction, must rank with the very best of them. “I […]

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