Concert Reviews (851)
Nothing beats experiencing live jazz music as its being created right in front of you. Stop here for reviews of your favorite jazz artists live and in concert.
For the last 2 years the Mid-States Jazz Camp in Dayton, Ohio has hired 6 of the worlds finest jazz musicians to work with the young musicians who attend the camp. Each of these years these musicians have traveled 1 hour south to Cincinnati for a Wednesday night performance. Now Wednesday night is not the best night to draw a crowd for a jazz show here. But for the last 2 years "Cecil McBee and the NYC Jazz All-Stars" performed before a large, enthusiastic mid-week audience, with this year's sho
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Daryl Stuermer cast a spell over a hometown crowd at the city's outdoor music festival. The band started with 'Icarus Banjo' off of his LIVE AND LEARN CD. The curiously named tune features a jangly guitar and piano that is reminiscent of early Bruce Hornsby. It took little time for Stuermer to show he is the master of lyrical guitar. With a crystal clear sound coming from the P.A. system, the band soared through this song, which could be best described as an 'American anthem.' Keyboardist Kostia
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Drummer/bandleader Chico Hamilton has, like Ellington, Mingus and Blakey, a tradition of his bands being 'finishing schools' for jazz musicians: Larry Coryell, Eric Dolphy, Paul Horn, Arthur Blythe, Fred Katz and Gabor Szabo are among those passed through the ranks of his various organizations. Hamilton, unlike some jazz players, has not stood still in his career, style-wise: bop, cool, chamber jazz, fusion ' he's been-there, done-that and more.Hamilton has kept not-the-highest profile the pa
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Percussionist Michael Zerang has made name for himself both for his musicianship and compositional skills and for helping to foster a community of improvisers in Chicago. His latest project in the latter area is running a performance and rehearsal space called the Candlestick Maker. The Candlestick Maker is located on the Northwest side of the City of Broad Shoulders in a neighborhood that doesn't lack for places to get falafel. Although there will be occasional concerts, the main intent is f
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FLEURINE AND BRAD MEHLDAU Fleurine and Brad Mehldau have recorded an intimate album entitled "Close Enough For Love" and why not? They certainly were close enough when the roller-skating Fleurine fell down the stairs at the Village Vanguard and crashed right on top of Mehldau. That was their first meeting. Performing at North Sea, Mehldau took his usual Bill Evans' hover over the piano and the lovely and beautiful Fleurine, dressed in a stunning black velvet and gold cocktail dress, stood
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This was the second year Russell Malone performed with his own band at the North Sea Jazz Festival. This was yet another mid-size concert hall that was standing room only, proving the ever-increasing popularity of these exceptionally talented jazz musicians of the younger generation. Russell has really come into his own after making a name for himself backing Diana Krall. Russell was with Jimmy Smith's band for two years in the late '80's and toured with and appeared on CDs with Harry Connick
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Catalina's in Los Angeles was lucky to host the Ray Brown trio July 25-30. Bassist Ray Brown was joined by Karriem Riggins on drums and Seattle-based Larry Fuller on piano. The trio played standards in a straight-ahead but expressive style, never moving too far away from the essential melodic line. The three are tight even on slow ballads - this despite an unfortunate stage layout that kept Fuller out of eye contact for the week. Ray Brown is a master musician. He has the unhurried attitude o
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Diana Krall is without a doubt a jazz music icon. Since the release of "When I Look In Your Eyes" her name has become a household word in many circles, in and out of the jazz world. Whether hearing her performances solo; on film or as duos with many great artists, one quality remains constant. Diana Krall's beautiful voice. Since she has performed her spirited, personable versions of standards, audiences are finding jazz music fun to listen to once again. Krall's music is steeped in the finest j
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Indianapolis is a city that host's great events related to sports like pro racing, basketball, football and the NCAA headquarters. During July however, the city plays host to a world -class roots / blues and jazz festival every year that rivals any other in the US or abroad. With 60,000 in attendance, the third year of the Indy Jazz -Fest has proved to be a charm. The performers ranged from James Brown, The Isley Brothers, Neville Brothers and Los Lobos on the pop stage - to Ramsey Lewis, Diane
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Art Good has done it again by bringing a great lineup to Catalina for the annual festival. Many of us are fortunate enough to listen to Art's radio program each week. The radio program features music and interviews with many of the top smooth jazz musicians in the country. The show is a treat in itself , but each year in October these same featured jazz artists assemble in the Avalon Casino Ballroom on Santa Catalina for three days of super music. This year the dates were October 2- 4 and 9-
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On Friday, November 6th the popular smooth jazz group Down To The Bone came to Milwaukee. This was their second stop on their U.S. tour. Their first concert was in Chicago the night before. The beautiful Astor Street, was a perfect venue for this high class act. The blazing lobby fireplace took the chill from the fall air and led the way to a warm evening of listening and dancing pleasure. Most of the music played was from their very popular album, From Manhattan to Staten, which has been rec
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Jazz purists say none can compare to the legendary jazz performers like Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Chet Baker or Miles Davis. They were musicians who lived and breathed the art form, but one must admit, jazz exists through musicians who performed it in the past and those who perform it now. Transcending the new breed of jazz musicians, some stand apart from the jazz-based music that today might be labeled "smooth jazz" which is anything but jazz in its purist form. One such artist is jazz trumpe
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On December 30th I went to catch the performance by Richard Elliot and his band at The Rave, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I've seen Richard perform live many times since the late eighties in many different venues, including several times in the Avalon Ballroom in Catalina. He's always great and I thoroughly enjoy his performances, but this time he was perhaps the most outstanding of all. The energy which Richard brings to the stage makes me wonder about the term "smooth jazz". It certainly doesn'
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The best recordings of Duke Ellington's music can be listened to again and again, because his works are not decorations of a familiar shape but a new arrangements of shapes. Ellington, in fact, is an authentic composer, the first jazz composer of distinction and the first black composer of distinction. His work apart from a few minor details is not left to caprice the ear of the instrumentalist; it is written out in full score. Though in the course of time variants may creep in, th
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The Sugar Village Jazz Club, Meldert, Hoegaarden, Belgium outdid themselves in presenting another terrific jazz performance. Belgium's best kept secret, The Sugar Village Jazz Club has provided twelve years of some of the best known jazz artists for the Province Vlaams Brabant. Only three-to-four performances are held throughout the year; so jazz connoisseurs keep close watch for upcoming events as they are always outstanding. The atmosphere is warm and friendly and there isn't a bad seat in
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Though less spectacular than the other events of the JVC-NY the solo piano recitals held each year..... are a source of joy. These concerts start very precisely on time and are made to end similarly on the dot at the end of 60 minutes....While jazz audiences welcome starting things on time to terminate the music when everything is groovy and both artist and audience are willing, such military rigidity is most disconcerting. I remember Hilton Ruiz had to be almost physically removed at one of the
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In a world where the term 'jazz singer' has been usurped by a generation of Quiet Storm R&B crooners and cabaret hangers on, the rare chance to be in the presence of true greatness is rare. So the opportunity to see Andy Bey in one of his (tragically) rare live appearances was all the more gratifying. Though the increasing notoriety that his brilliant albums bring is rendering the labeling of Bey as an 'unsung' master obsolete, the juxtaposition of his monumental gifts and what could be calle
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John Coltrane met Pharoah Sanders in 1964, shortly after Coltrane released "A Love Supreme" and "Crescent". Those two albums signaled the end of one Coltrane's hard bop phase and the beginning of the free jazz experimentalism that would mark the rest of Coltrane's career. During Coltrane's last years he was enamored with other saxophonists; Sanders had a blustery growl of a tone that floored Coltrane, but moreover, a beautiful grasp of melody that would serve him well long after Coltrane passed
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Years from now, when the work of Cassandra Wilson is discussed among jazz fans, scholars, and critics, two albums will stand out among her canon. The first, "Blue Light 'Til Dawn", her debut on Blue Note, was a breakthrough for the singer. After a tenure at Verve Records that found Wilson drifting further from the experimental jazz-funk of the seminal M-Base collective and sounding increasingly like a Betty Carter clone, producer Craig Street stressed spartan instrumentation, moody arrangements,
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Approaching St. Louis and its famous arch from the East is like taking a fresh breath of crisp winter air. I was feeling a sense of anticipation for the concert I was about to see that evening. Given the images that St. Louis is famous for; the St. Louis Arch, Charles Lindbergh's plane the Spirit of St. Louis, the defending World Champion Rams, the world's home run leader and the Busch family brewery. One could only conclude that the site of the 1904 World's Fair should feature Al Di Meola's Wor
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An assemblage of quintessential musicianship performed before me last night at a concert in Amherst, Ma. The quintet was Alan Silva on bass (a rarity for him), Marshall Allen on alto sax, Hamid Drake on drums, Kidd Jordan on tenor sax and William Parker also on bass. Silva began the one set gig with a long introduction playing a lilting rhythmic line, sometimes strumming the strings like he would a guitar, setting the theme, stating the pace. The other players listened. Each one had his eyes
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I have been thinking for quite a while since last Wednesday night’s concert at FLYWHEEL in Easthampton, Ma. how to arrive at the words to describe the intriguing music I heard. There were essentially distinct definable spaces in front of me in which each of the four musicians created their own place to produce their musical lines. Matt Weston’s more than complete drum set was in the back left corner of the platform. Le Quan Ninh’s large bass drum was on the right of the platform, an array of
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In the seventies, prior to the "World Music" explosion of the nineties, Brit fusion guitar god John McLaughlin teamed with a trio of Indian musicians to form Shakti in an attempt to make a jazz noise of the music of the Indian sub-continent. The joy of this particular cross-cultural union of musical souls was that McLaughlin and company - violinist L. Shankar and percussionists Zakir Hussain and Vinayakram didn’t seem to give a damn what genre they were tossed into, just as long as they could we
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I may never understand the power that creative improvised music but its existence is undeniable. Leading up to a concert by Jemeel Moondoc and William Parker I was not having a good day. It wasn't that everything was going wrong so much as nothing seemed to be going right. I was rushing around all day without much purpose or focus. The concert was set to begin at 8 p.m. and by 7 p.m. I was seriously considering the possibility of not going. Yes I had been looking forward to the concert for a cou
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The theater was crowded, packed with a healthy cross-section of humanity. Jazz-heads old & young, many folks Indian or Indian-American, fans of Indian music, well-dressed fusion fans, musical eclectics of all ages, skin hues & economic status-all have come to see/hear what legendary jazz guitarist John McLaughlin had up his sleeve that night, and/or to hear McLaughlin "revisit" a previous musical context: Shakti. Shakti was a group of McLaughlin's in the mid-to-late 70s. He'd moved away somew
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