Jazz Artist Interviews (709)
Get up close and personal with your favorite jazz artists!
One car ride with tenor saxophonist Don Braden is like a trip around the world. Within an hour of dropping off his instruments for repairs and locating our destination for a chat, we talked about finding spirituality in The Big Apple, the presence of God in the music industry, his four-year old Lexus, our disappointment in the present political administration, the insane traffic jam in mid-town we were caught in, and the Braden family fish. What he exemplifies is the attitude of some of today’s …
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The 1940s and 1950s are fondly remembered for many reasons. Two of the main ones are the great movies that were made and the great jazz that was featured in them. In addition to brilliant composition and some of the best players that ever lived, those movies also had great singers. Some of the actors, it turns out, were not actually singing. The studios used great voices to make those melodies unforgettable. Such was the case with Rita Hayworth, star of Gilda and widely acknowled …
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I’m excited to interview Joe Lovano about his impressive 18th Blue Note CD--recorded by James Farber on Blue Note Records at Avatar Studios in New York--in which his producing, composing, conducting, as well as tenor saxophone, alto clarinet and aulochrome talents are displayed. This saxophone giant features a lot of his friends on the "Streams of Expression" CD, out this summer of 2006. It was one of pianist John Hicks’ last recording sessions, and Lovano reminisces about Hicks in this intervie …
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The rest of the world is finally catching up to Nancy King. The respected, yet underrated, jazz singer is on the charts with two CDs. She appears on Karrin Allyson’s No. 1 album, Footprints, and King’s own Live at Jazz Standard was recently No. 23 on the charts and climbing. The success is an overdue nod to an artist who has been around for years, earning an underground reputation for her free-spirited improvisational skills, but never quite reaching the lofty peaks of so …
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Guitarist, Mark Elf, is dedicated to celebrating his music, his career and his life. For more than 30 years, Elf has written songs, played guitar, taught and recorded music. Now head of his own label at www.jenbayjazz.com, Mark Elf is glad to be alive, and glad to be doing what he does, in a voice that’s all his own. JazzReview: I first became aware of you when I had the good fortune to review Glad To Be Back. I was so impressed with your work, I began searching the web to find …
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Last September, I saw Eldar at Founder’s Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, Calfornia. There was a lot of hype about this young man and I was a little skeptical going into the concert. He came out with his trio and sat down at his piano. Then he started playing and about half way through the first song, I knew that what I thought was hype was just the truth. Eldar can play the piano! Eldar can make jazz with a trio! Watching him …
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The group Down to the Bone has always been in the forefront of breaking the smooth jazz mold. One of the group's signature personnel is saxophonist Paul "Shilts" Weimar, who is the group's longest running member. After working nine years with Down to the Bone, Shilts is breaking out with his own style of music in a solo project called HeadBoppin'. Not only has Shilts been playing sax with Down to the Bone for nine years, he has been playing sax since he was ten years old. He says, …
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Cool is as cool sounds and that is still true over three decades of the contemporary phenomena known as Pieces of A Dream, a jack hammer of hits with sweet sounds filtering through every jazz venue here and abroad. With that said, it was my pleasure to sit and discover the heart of this machine--this personality and creative elixir, Pillow Talk, that has poured out once more from Heads Up Records. Keyboardist James Lloyd took a moment to reflect on many of his thoughts over the year …
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Nancy Kelly’s refined vocal style is a study in phrasing, style and the ability to swing. Kelly’s powerful singing has captured many awards and the ears of many jazz fans around the globe. With a new CD that continues to demonstrate why critics have called Nancy Kelly "the real deal," Kelly is back and keeping the jazz world swinging. JazzReview: What initially inspired you about jazz? Nancy Kelly: The freedom! Jazz is a great vehicle for …
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Nick Colionne has become a guitarist that is setting the pace in smooth jazz diversity. His style is all together different than many other guitarists, even though he respects the abilities of his mentors. He knows that in today's world of music where it's not only how you play, but the way you present yourself to the audience, you must project the best positive attitude you can to show the audience what you're made of. Not only does Colionne perform for audiences around the world, he also he …
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Comedian Bill Cosby said, "Ours is a youth culture, and like a golf tournament, we honor only low scores." There seems to be a young prodigy born every minute and a record label circling in search of its next savior to record. Barely a release or two are issued and their careers are deflated due to insufficient sales and the loss of appeal. But, there are those young artists that open up and blossom in their own time with a vigor to experience jazz and the power of its many elements. Alto sax …
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I spoke with trumpeter Christian Scott from his place in New York City on May 2006. He was preparing for gigs in Boston and St. Louis. He just got the news that he’d been booked at this year’s JVC Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, August 11-13. His new release on Concord Records is entitled Rewind That. JazzReview: What brought you to Berklee [School of Music in Boston]? Christian Scott: The main reason I attended Berklee was because I wanted to go to …
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Saxophonist, singer and composer Sheila Cooper began life in Toronto, Canada, studying to play the piano at first, and then later, the french horn. But it was not until she began playing the saxophone that she felt more at ease making music with the instrument keys. Her skills as a saxophonist netted her a grant from the Canada Arts Council as a young musician to study jazz in New York City. It was in New York City that she met jazz saxophonist Andy Middleton whom she married two years before jo …
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Tony Terry's silky smooth R&B/Jazz vocals and his Adonis-like looks have often left many a woman swooning over his love songs. It was therefore very fitting that this personable crooner was once cast as Prince Charming in the stage production of Sisterella. The thirty-two year old Terry's career was kick started in the late eighties when he had the audacity to suggest to a band that they replace their lead singer with him. "My recording career started when I was pretty much at a cr …
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After performing In New York, Africa and Europe, Wilder has been hailed as the next big thing.He just performed with hip-hop singer "Case" who he blew off the stage, and then turned the Montreal Jazz Festival on it's ear's with the best concerts in 10 year's of the legendary Jazz Festival. Montreal has been a hotbed for singers and musicians. Youman Wilder has made Montreal a home away from home. He has sold out several show's and is dating Montreal model/actress Kia Shoremakin. …
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Lori Perry grew up in Bakersfield, California, listening to Spanish, Gospel and Country music. Yet today, Lori Perry is best known as the soulful passionate lady of Jazz and R&B who has recorded with the likes of Brian Culbertson, Cher, Elton John and George Michael. Along with her three sisters Carol, Darlene and Sharon, Lori Perry comprised Perri one of the most talented Jazz vocal ensembles to grace the airwaves during the eighties. In 1986 Perri provided the backup vocals for Anita …
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A while ago I started interviewing and writing about George Russell and I fell in love with his latest album New York N.Y., which was originally released on Decca. The line up of musicians on the album is absolutely incredible so I decided that I would try to speak with as many of the musicians who had played on the album as I could. One of the musicians I was fortunate enough to speak with was Benny Golson. At the time I first spoke withBenny GolsonI wasn’t using a tape recorde …
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Guitarist Grant Geissman, who played a classic solo on Chuck Mangione's Feel So Good, is standing up against smooth jazz radio programmers. He says they are just like people who want to colorize old movies. However, he says, "It's worse than that because it's saying 'we like this part of your movie, but we don't like this part, so we're going to chop that out and then we'll go back to the last half of your movie.' It's kind of like that what they are doing at radio because they're saying …
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I first heard Michel Camilo play with his trio at Founder’s Hall, which is located in the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. When the opportunity to interview him presented itself, I was thrilled. As I started doing my research on this pianist/composer, I was awe struck by his accomplishments. There are amazing musicians playing jazz piano today, but Michel does so much more. He plays classical and jazz, he interprets the masters and creates works which have in turn become cl …
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His musical genius never in doubt, his opinions never dull and with his creativity seemingly getting ever sharper Jazz composer/pianist Chick Corea took a few minutes out from an ambitious tour schedule to talk to me about his newest creation The Ultimate Adventure CD and a program that he has created for Vienna Austria's celebration of Mozart's 250th birthday. The program will be presented this July. About the Mozart piece he says, "The fact that they chose an American Jazz musician t …
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It is very difficult to try and place Oscar Castro-Neves in any one category, but the nice thing about it is you don't have to. Guitarist, composer, arranger, singer and producer, Castro-Neves fits in all places all at once. This is very readily on display on his new recording All One on Mack Avenue records. When I spoke to him recently, he said that at first he started out with a long list of songs to choose from and that he slowly made his way through the list and mana …
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Victor Fields sings really, really well with a voice that covers a double range from baritone through tenor, and a very skillfully developed delivery. I put VICTOR, Mr. Fields latest release on Regina Records, on the office CD player and all of my office mates really dug it. They even let me play it again, which isn’t usual for many of the jazz albums that I play. VICTOR is a collection of ten songs with a jazzy, soulful R & B sound. Back in my single days …
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Nearly thirty years into performing, Spyro Gyra is still at the top of their game and still known as jazz fusion’s most original group. While other groups are ready to retire, Spyro Gyra is ready to keep on "keepin’ on" with a wealth of creative talents, adding young, fresh performers as they go. Sure, this group has a signature sound, but nothing is ever the same as they aspire to push their individual creativity. No wonder their original fan base is still with them-by the millions around th …
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On the new album, "Learn to Smile Again," from the Susie Arioli band, there is a sound--a sound that you do not usually hear on recordings. It's faint, but there. What is it you ask? Perhaps it's something that should have been taken off the final product. The sound is breathing--Susie Arioli's breathing to be exact, and it's there because it's supposed to be. In fact, the band asked to have it left there. "There was a guy we had worked with on this recording that …
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Ladysmith Black Mambazo has released a joyous and habit-forming album of South African scapula singing called the LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, which is part of the "Heads Up Africa Series" on the Heads Up International Label. Heads Up International is a division of Telarc International Corp. When LONG WALK TO FREEDOM arrived I first read through the beautiful sixteen-page booklet of notes that accompanies it. There are many pictures of the group and even in a still shot Ladysmit …
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