Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i JazzTimes

– Exclusive Content Thomas Conrad reviews the Umbria Jazz Winter festival in Orvieto, Italy; full obituaries for saxophonist/composer Jimmy Heath and trumpeter Claudio Roditi; and Michael J. West selects the top albums of the loft-jazz era in our biweekly JazzTimes 10 list. Plus album reviews and much more. – JT Blog Speculation about the future of late jazz piano legend Dave Brubeck’s archives was put to rest on Jan. 11 when Wilton Library, in Brubeck’s longtime home of Wilton, Conn., announced that it will now house his collection of documents, recordings, and other memorabilia. Check out the full report on our website. – Audio & Video The second episode of David Sanborn’s new music video series Sanborn Sessions, featuring Michael McDonald and Brian Owens; track premieres by Sara Gazarek and…

On tenor saxophone, Jure Pukl possesses a sleek tone with which he sculpts alluring melodies, accentuated by coruscating passages. When he talks about his music or about life in his home country of Slovenia, the allure is similar; he draws you in immediately with his ebullient cadence. Pukl’s latest disc, Broken Circles (Whirlwind)—featuring vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassist Matt Brewer, drummer Kweku Sumbry, and guitarist Charles Altura—isn’t quite so bubbly. It’s a call to arms for people worldwide to treat each other with greater respect. “I’m very involved with the political and social state the world’s in,” the 42-year-old Pukl explains on a late September afternoon as he sits in the spacious Harlem apartment he shares with his wife, fellow saxophonist Melissa Aldana. The impetus behind Broken Circles is, in two words,…

BEST OF ALL ARTIST OF THE YEAR Wynton Marsalis Chick Corea Esperanza Spalding Steve Gadd NEW ARTIST Veronica Swift Terri Lyne Carrington and Social Science Joel Ross Pasquale Grasso NEW RELEASE Scott Robinson Tenormore (Arbors) Peter Eldridge/Kenny Werner Somewhere (Rosebud) Veronica Swift Confessions (Mack Avenue) Douyé Quatro (Bossa Nova Deluxe) (Rhombus) VOCAL RELEASE Veronica Swift Confessions (Mack Avenue) Catherine Russell Alone Together (Dot Time) New York Voices Reminiscing in Tempo (Origin) Harry Connick Jr. True Love: A Celebration of Cole Porter (Verve) HISTORICAL/VAULT/REISSUE RELEASE John Coltrane 1963: New Directions (Impulse!) John Coltrane Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings (Craft) Miles Davis The Complete Birth of the Cool (UMe) Wes Montgomery Back on Indiana Avenue: The Carroll DeCamp Recordings (Resonance)* Esbjörn Svensson Trio E.S.T. Live in Gothenburg (ACT)* BEST GROUPS ACOUSTIC SMALL GROUP/ARTIST Chick…

CHILLIWACK (POP. 100,000) IS A RURAL CANADIAN TOWN, ABOUT A 90-MINUTE DRIVE EAST FROM VANCOUVER, IN BRITISH COLUMBIA’S AGRICULTURAL HEARTLAND. IT’S KNOWN FOR ITS MILD CLIMATE, SOARING MOUNTAIN VIEWS, LAKES, RIVERS, AND MORE THAN 900 FARMS. IT IS NOT KNOWN AS A HOTBED OF JAZZ. So when Bria Skonberg, the trumpeter and singer, was chatting with me in the living room of her impeccably neat and organized one-bedroom apartment in a high-rise on New York’s Lower East Side, the question presented itself: “How did a blonde-haired, blue-eyed farm girl from Chilliwack, B.C. manage to become a singing, trumpet-playing hot jazz icon in New York City?” One explanation came a few weeks later in a phone call with Skonberg’s friend Molly Ryan, a fellow jazz singer in New York. “She’s a ‘yes’ person,” Ryan said. “Everything she…

From January 9 to 18, New York was the undisputed center of the jazz universe as NYC Winter Jazzfest returned for its 16th annual season. As usual, the festival featured a two-day marathon (January 10 and 11), with dozens of artists performing at a variety of locations in downtown Manhattan. And this year’s WJF artist-in-residence, drummer/composer Mark Guiliana, presented seven nights of performances, with a different project every night. A few of the many other highlights included sets by Joey Alexander, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Jaimie Branch, and a tribute to trumpeter Marcus Belgrave featuring Ron Carter, Sheila Jordan, Louis Hayes, and many more. Photographer ALAN NAHIGIAN captured the action.…

Roger Kellaway recently hit a major milestone: He turned 80 on November 1. For many who reach that monumental threshold, it’s a time for reflection and winding down. However, those concepts don’t exist for a Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated pianist/composer/arranger/bandleader who’s recorded more than 250 albums and scored an impressive list of films and TV shows. He recently finished a weeklong double engagement at Birdland in New York, playing both downstairs (in a trio with guitarist Roni Ben-Hur and bassist Jay Leonhart) and upstairs (with the Django Festival Allstars, who celebrated their 20th anniversary). Upon returning home to Southern California, Kellaway performed with his West Coast trio—Bruce Forman on guitar and John Clayton on bass—at Vitello’s in Studio City. He also works regularly with a young 10-piece ensemble led by trumpeter…

BEST OF ALL ARTIST OF THE YEAR Terri Lyne Carrington Branford Marsalis Joe Lovano Kris Davis NEW ARTIST Angel Bat Dawid Joel Ross Terri Lyne Carrington and Social Science* Jenny Scheinman & Allison Miller’s Parlour Game* Chris Lightcap’s SuperBigmouth BEST GROUPS Acoustic Small Group/Artist Crosscurrents Trio (Dave Holland/Zakir Hussain/Chris Potter) The Bad Plus Fred Hersch Trio Sons of Kemet ELECTRIC/JAZZ-ROCK/CONTEMPORARY GROUP/ARTIST Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah Snarky Puppy Bill Frisell Kamasi Washington BIG BAND/LARGE ENSEMBLE Maria Schneider Orchestra Miho Hazama and m_unit Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Anat Cohen Tentet BEST OF THE INDUSTRY RECORD LABEL ECM Resonance Pi* International Anthem* Mack Avenue SYNDICATED RADIO PROGRAM Jazz Night in America Radio Deluxe with John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey Jazz After Hours with Jeff Hanley Art Good’s JazzTrax PODCAST The Checkout We…

JOÃO GILBERTO 6/10/31 – 7/6/19 By Luciana Souza João is a very common name in Brazil. John. So many Johns. Too many Johns. But this João, this João Gilberto, was no ordinary man. He singularly shaped an entire generation of arrangers, musicians, and singers. My first memory of hearing João was probably in my mother’s womb. His record, Chega de Saudade, came out in 1959, several years before I was born, and it was always playing at the house. It became the soundtrack of my youth. And my meditation. His guitar playing, the indescribably relaxed and swinging beat, the hip and understated singing, all of it was so interesting and attractive. The best school for a young singer like myself. As a child, I heard many stories about João. My…

CARLA BLEY/ANDY SHEPPARD/STEVE SWALLOW Life Goes On ECM The endless staircases of M.C. Escher’s castles don’t demand a soundtrack to be appreciated, but if you bask in Carla Bley’s “Copycat” while absorbing a few of the Dutch artist’s impossible labyrinths, you might be in for extra fun. One of Life Goes On’s three micro-suites, Bley’s piece arrives with a process mandate: Each line of the group’s performance should be an echo or variation of the preceding line. That leads to a wonderfully fluid symmetry. The choices pour forth, pensively at first, and then puckishly, as is often the esteemed composer’s wont. The fourth album in a quarter-century’s worth of collabs by the buoyant trio of the pianist, bassist Steve Swallow, and saxophonist Andy Sheppard, Life Goes On teems with the…

Within the arts community, longtime U.S. Congressman John Conyers, who passed away on October 27 at the age of 90, was regarded as one of the most persistent and influential advocates of the uniquely American music called jazz. I knew him for more than 30 years, working with him on a number of initiatives at the Smithsonian Institution, where I was the curator of American music. We bonded because of jazz, which he championed as a proud product of African-American and American culture. Sometimes he would invite me to his office to talk about the music, and he spoke frequently at the Smithsonian, including (to my everlasting gratitude) at my 2017 retirement party. Though his hometown of Detroit became well-known to the public as the headquarters of Motown, Conyers’ ears…

In the first half of the 20th century, the Kansas City jazz scene was one of the country’s most vibrant hubs of blues and improvisation, home to such pioneers as Jay McShann, Bennie Moten, Count Basie, and, of course, Charlie Parker, the architect of bebop. If the scene isn’t what it once was—how could it be?—it’s still more than healthy. “A lot of guys move to Kansas City in search of work,” says Gerald Dunn, director of entertainment at the Blue Room, Kansas City’s premier jazz club. “I think cats are able to do all sorts of gigs. It’s sort of like it was back when they used to call Kansas City the ‘Paris of the Plains.’” In his role at the Blue Room, part of Kansas City’s American Jazz…

Cellist Hank Roberts’ recent Newvelle Records release, Congeries of Ethereal Phenomena, his tenth as a leader, springs from his decision in the summer of 2015—after the youngest of his four children turned 21—to relocate 225 miles downstate from Ithaca, New York, to Brooklyn. He’d lived in Ithaca for more than 25 years. Before he moved there in 1989, however, he’d been an essential protagonist in New York City’s so-called “downtown jazz” scene. Tim Berne had deployed Roberts’ distinctive voice on several albums, including two by the collective trio Miniature (with drummer Joey Baron). Roberts had also played on guitarist Bill Frisell’s first three albums, as well as three with bassist Mark Dresser and violinist Mark Feldman in the Arcado String Trio. But he had a wife and young family, and…

Waiting Game, the debut album from Terri Lyne Carrington’s new trio Social Science, is a most unusual package. The first disc finds the drummer/leader and her two bandmates—pianist Aaron Parks and guitarist Matthew Stevens—joining hip-hop MCs and R&B singers on songs that address various examples of American injustice. The second disc, by contrast, is a continuous 42-minute free improvisation. It’s as if Carrington were trying to unite the two ends of the contemporary jazz spectrum—fusion with contemporary black pop music on the right and unfettered experimentation on the left—in one project. “We want someone who hears the first record to be totally surprised by the second record—and vice versa,” Carrington declares. “We like R&B and we like avant-garde jazz. My dream gig would be playing drums for the Rolling Stones,…

Like piano trios, old stereos may not use all the latest technologies, but when it comes to their basic function of playing music, they do their job as well as—and sometimes better than—newer options. Of course, new stereos can be far more advanced in the ways they access music, because most have the capability to play Internet music streaming services and Internet radio. In fact, it’s getting hard for jazz fans to get by without streaming. Jazz was slow to embrace streaming, but most of the new albums you see reviewed in JazzTimes are now up on streaming services by the time the review is published, and all of the services have colossal catalogs of jazz classics. For most of today’s artists, streaming is now the primary way to connect…