Chris Jentsch: Cycles and Reflecting on the Journey 9 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

John Coltrane once said, "Let the music speak for itself." The guitarist/composer and band leader Christopher Jentsch adds an interesting twist on that subject by opting to describe himself when asked about the broader subject of how to capture his music in his own words. "I think of myself as a composer/guitarist working with contemporary improvisational forms on the fringe of jazz, but jazz that is inclusive of rock/pop, world music and classical genres. I also strive generally for a balance between lyricism and dissonance and a deliberate combination of complexity and simplicity--with a smattering of the avant-garde," he says. "We play tunes, for sure, but a certain amount of free improvisation is also important to the mix. Since I have used so many different things in my development as a source material, sometimes I use the term 'hopelessly eclectic' to suggest a confrontation with categorization...

February 2010 9 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Dear Mr. P.C.: So, like, sometimes I hang out with my friends and listen to jazz at this happy hour thing where the waiters are really cute, and my friends can, you know, come up with all these cool songs to call out when the band asks for requests. I feel so totally insecure and stuff 'cause I can never request anything that will impress the band AND the cute waiters. I mean, come on, when you listen to real music, it has words and stuff so you can figure out what the title is, but at this club, it's only instruments, so the title is like something they just slapped on and doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but it's the way the musicians remember what they're playing, I guess...

William Parker -- Who Owns Music? 9 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Who Owns Music? William Parker Soft cover; 140 pages ISBN: 978-3-00-020141-7 Buddy's Knife 2007 Spirituality runs deep in the music and thinking of bassist William Parker. Those who have looked at the sleeves of his albums will have noticed that he not only expresses his philosophy in sound, but also through words, often including writings that are closer to poetry than the descriptions of music usually contained in liner notes...

Take Five With Rick Stone 9 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Meet Rick Stone: I've been teaching and performing in the New York area since 1982 and have had the good fortune to perform with musicians like Kenny Barron, Barry Harris, Junior Cook, Ralph Lalama, Dennis Irwin, Vernel Fournier, Eric Alexander, Peter Leitch, Sam Yahel, Mark Elf, Roni Ben-Hur, Peter Bernstein, Matt Wilson, and many, many others...

Polar Bear: Raw and Spontaneous 8 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

During the six or seven years since its formation, British quintet Polar Bear has garnered extensive praise from critics, fans and fellow musicians. Most famously, perhaps, the band was described by music critic Paul Morley as "dream jazz"--high praise, indeed. The band's second album, Held On The Tips Of Fingers (Babel, 2005), was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. The band has a great reputation as a live act, attracting audience members from the jazz world and beyond. On the eve of the release of its fourth album, Peepers (Leaf Records, 2010), Polar Bear's leader and percussionist, Seb Rochford, and its bassist, Tom Herbert, met at Herbert's house to take part in a telephone interview about the band's development, the creation of Peepers and their plans for the future...

Barry Harris: Setting The Standard On Standards 8 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

The Barry Harris Trio Iridium New York, NY February 4, 2010 Barry Harris has been a major force in jazz and jazz education for well over half a century. Now in his 80s, Harris seems to have lost none of his charm, wit, knowledge and skill, as he clearly held the crowd in the palm of his hand during his stay at the Iridium--just north of Times Square in Manhattan. This 75-minute set emphasized well-known songs from yesteryear, and many of the pieces began with gorgeous, rubato solo introductions from Harris...

The King and Dr. Nick: What Really Happened to Elvis and Me 8 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

The King and Dr. Nick: What Really Happened to Elvis and Me George Nichopoulos / Rose Clayton Phillips Hardcover; 256 pages ISBN 1595551719 Thomas Nelson 2010 Dr. Conrad Murray, singer Michael Jackson's personal physician, is (in February 2010) under scrutiny for his part in Jackson's October 2009 death, for allegedly providing Jackson with the drugs that contributed to his end. Between 1977 and 1980, Memphis internist Dr. George Nichopoulos found himself in the exact same place as the personal physician of another self-destructive international superstar, singer Elvis Presley. The parallel between the Presley and Jackson deaths close Nichopoulos's The King and Dr. Nick: What Really Happened to Elvis and Me...

Take Five With Frank Macchia 8 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Meet Frank Macchia: Born and raised in San Francisco, CA., Frank started on the clarinet at the age of ten years old. Soon afterward he began studies on bassoon, saxophone and flute. By the age of fourteen he began studying composition, writing jazz and classical pieces for his high school band and orchestra and for jazz ensembles that rehearsed at the local union hall, including trumpeter Mike Vax's Big Band...

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra: A Band in the Vanguard 7 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Not only is this the 75th anniversary of the Village Vanguard, this month also marks the 44th anniversary of the Monday night residency of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (VJO), begun in 1966 as the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Those Monday nights are a very significant part of the Vanguard's legacy as THE premier jazz club in history...

Harris Eisenstadt 7 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

One normally thinks of the drummer-bandleader chair in this music as easily given to a mentality that embraces "more is more." Whether bombastic or just plain full, drummers' bands often focus on mass, rhythm and time. In the post-free arena, leaders like Gerry Hemingway, John Hollenbeck and Harris Eisenstadt have learned not only that every instrument can be a drum, but that the drum can be every instrument and that the drummer's role in creative music is as guide, follower, accent and architect...

Take Five With Kathy Sanborn 7 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Meet Kathy Sanborn: Known for her velvet voice, Kathy Sanborn performs her own original smooth jazz and adult contemporary songs with an elegance that can take your breath away. A keyboard and pianist, Sanborn composes and produces both jazz instrumentals and vocal tunes. She released her first CD, Peaceful Sounds, to critical acclaim in 2008. Peaceful Sounds, a jazzy-new age blend of philosophical songs, was a best seller on the CD Baby web site...

Svend Asmussen 6 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Svend Asmussen is the last of the great swing violinists who emerged during the '30s. The "Fiddling Viking" turns 94 on Feb. 28th, splitting time between his native Denmark and Sarasota, Florida. Recently the violinist performed at the Second Annual Arbors Records Invitational Jazz Party and released new CDs, one a compilation on Storyville (Rhythm Is Our Business) of his '50s Danish quintet recordings and the other made just last year for Arbors, MakinA Whoopee...and Music!. There is also a DVD on Shanachie (The Extraordinary Life and Music Of A Jazz Legend) that features an extensive interview with him and numerous performances from film and television...

Three Jazz Poems 6 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Dolphy What I hear is gone, playpens clattering with rattles like drums, hum of heater on the floor-- I remember this as I tap the tones out of the bass clarinet bell. I yell, Hell! I can tell the past that steers the turnstile giving me gate at the Village Gate or Vanguard, swapping...

Brian Q. Torff -- In Love With Voices: A Jazz Memoir 6 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

In Love With Voices: A Jazz Memoir Brian Torff Softcover; 236 pages ISBN: 1440112851 iUniverse 2009 Brian Torff is a widely experienced jazz bassist who has recorded and played with numerous greats, including violinist Stephane Grappelli, clarinetist Benny Goodman, singers Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme, and pianists George Shearing, Marian McPartland, Mary Lou Williams and Erroll Garner. He has also recorded as a leader and is active in jazz education. His divorce from his wife of 26 years led him in 2008 to move to Paris to focus upon writing his memoir. He has now returned to the US...

Piano and Saxophone Duets: Untying The Standard, A Memory Of Vienna and Live At Saint Stephens 6 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Joel Press and Kyle Aho Untying The Standard Cadence Jazz Records 2008 Joel Press and Kyle Aho Ran Blake and Anthony Braxton A Memory of Vienna hatOLOGY Records 2009 Charles Evans and Neil Shah Live at Saint Stephens Hot Cup Records 2009 Whittled down to twin instrumental poles, there can be a temptation to fill the yawning gaps between. However the best duets are those which take the less traveled path, taut without undue rhetoric, the route taken by these three saxophone and piano twosomes...

Craig Taborn: A Study in Contrasts 6 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Jonathon Haffner Life On Wednesday Cachuma Records 2009 Lotte Anker Floating Islands ILK 2009 Craig Taborn's seemingly innocuous musings have a way of sneaking up on you, revealing, upon closer listening, surprising density and intensity; two recent releases feature the empathetic yet independent keyboardist's complex musical mien...

Two to Tango: Bien Sur and Rollo Coaster 6 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Emilio Solla Bien Sur Fresh Sound-World Jazz 2009 Chris Cheek/Victor Prieto Rollo Coaster self-published 2009 The Argentinean tango has formed a strong connection with jazz not unlike the Brazilian samba and bossa nova. As developed by Astor Piazzolla and those who came after him, classical tango has been widened to include the Folklorico of Argentina...

Dreyfus Tributes to Django Reinhardt 6 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Various Artists Generation Django Dreyfus Records 2009 Dorado Schmitt Family Dreyfus Records 2009 BirA(C)li LagrA ne Gipsy Trio Dreyfus Records 2009 BirA(C)li LagrA ne/ Sylvain Luc Summertime Dreyfus Records 2009 Rocky Gresset Rocky Gresset Dreyfus Records 2009 Philip Catherine Capbreton Dreyfus Records 2010...

Open Secrets: A Triumvirate of Israeli Guitarists 6 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Gilad Hekselman Words Unspoken LateSet Records 2009 Oren Neiman Frolic and Detour Noyman Music 2009 Yotam Silberstein Next Page Posi-Tone 2009 It's an open secret that Israeli jazz musicians are becoming a force on the New York scene, epitomized by three young guitarists, Gilad Hekselman, Oren Neiman and Yotam Silberstein. Each was born in the Holy Land, plays a blond Gibson hollowbody and boasts a strong sophomore release...

Mingus Tributes: Normand Guilbeault and Dok Wallach 6 Feb 2010, 2:05 am

Normand Guilbeault Ensemble Hommage a Mingus: Live at Upstairs 2008 Ambiances Magnetiques 2009 Dok Wallach Live in Lisbon Jazzwerkstatt 2009 It's common, although not common enough, for the great bassist and bandleader Charles Mingus to be granted revered composer status in the jazz canon. The efforts of his widow Sue Mingus have kept the man's name alive and music vital in the 30 years since his death but it's rare to hear projects that seem to pinpoint with such precision particular moments in Mingus' career as do recent tribute CDs by the Berlin quartet Dok Wallach and Montreal's Normand Guilbeault Ensemble...