Jazz

My list of influential bass players and records that I dig. There are obviously people not on this list that should be,* but I had to choose ten, so what can you do? peace, love, & music, Alana Rocklin Continues HERE

We are told ….. Ferguson’s Big Band was playing a residency at New York’s Jimmy’s Club where this album was recorded live one lunchtime CBS were keen to catch the vibrancy of the band hence the rush to record it The material is a mixture with Jimmy Webb’s ‘MacArthur Park’ being one of the standouts […]

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 […]

‘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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

  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 […]

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 […]

We are told: The mid-1980s were a pivotal period for Don Cherry. Much of his energies had been devoted to co-op projects like Codona and Old and New Dreams and he also helped jumpstart the Leaders. The time being ripe to form his own ensemble, Cherry created Nu, a quintet with saxophonist/flutist Carlos Ward, bassist […]

  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 […]

“I never really got into Lifetime’s music, but I still like the recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet with the young Tony Williams on drums. He was a very special, unique drummer and played like nobody else, avoiding the obvious rhythm and “time” which were already present, but filling the space between the beats with […]