Photo from Jos Knaepen/ amsterdamjazzagency.com by S. Victor Aaron When I first started the Stacks series last year, I had two formatting rules about it: each artist was to be allotted one paragraph each and there must be at least six albums examined. I’m bending both rules this time, as only five new releases will get a look, and the [...]
Photo by Jim Eigo by Nick DeRiso People think of clarinets as this sound from a different era, and the guys who play them as having done so in black and white. The late Alvin Batiste, who initially found his muse in Charlie Parker‘s “Now’s the Time,” was never that way. His isn’t a same-ole, same-ole southland sound so much [...]
by Nick DeRiso Drummers, even the rare ones who find fame, are enablers. They spend the bulk of their time refocusing the spotlight on others. It’s no different on Nommo, the sterling new quartet release by Turkish-born Ferit Odman. He assembled a thoughtful group of notables for sessions held in Brooklyn, N.Y., and then smartly allowed each of them to [...]
by Nick DeRiso Miles Ahead was initially billed by Columbia Records, in the flatly obvious tone of the day, as “Miles Davis plus 19, with Gil Evans.” Right. Still, it was that last guy, the 20th man, who was the important one. After a burst of creativity in the late 1940s — the clearest result being the very cool but [...]
by Nick DeRiso Cassandra Wilson, who consistently defies convention as this restless chanteuse, doesn’t disappoint with Silver Pony — issued today on Blue Note as the long-awaited part-in studio, part-live followup to her celebrated Loverly. She has the vocal phrasing, the dusky intellect, of Charlie Parker and the elastic intuition of Betty Carter. Yet, Wilson is no throwback. She writes [...]
by Pico One of my favorite funk-jazz albums of all time isn’t by a crossover act like the Crusaders or Herbie Hancock‘s Headhunters, but by a living giant of a jazz alto sax blower. I’m talking about Lou Donaldson. Starting out as a very good Charlie Parker disciple leading bebop sessions on par with his most logical contemporary Jackie McLean, [...]
By Nick DeRiso One of three jazz-legend siblings, Hank Jones was perhaps as unassuming as his brother Elvin (nine years younger, famously of the John Coltrane group) was the outsized extrovert. Feathery light, then concisely powerful at the piano, Hank concluded an intellectual, often overlooked eight-decade career on Sunday when he died at age 91. It wasn’t just because he [...]
by Nick DeRiso A player of both strength and generosity, Louis Armstrong’s influence — as a soloist, as a pioneer who moved folk music into the realm of artistry, as a personality — remains incalcuable nearly four decades after his death. There are lines you could draw: No Armstrong, no Lester Young. No Lester Young, no Charlie Parker. No Charlie [...]
Today, we remember Texas jazz guitarist Herb Ellis, who has passed at 88 in his Los Angeles home after a long bout with Alzheimer’s. Over a career that spanned six decades, Ellis worked with a number of legends, including Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong and in the classic line-up of the acclaimed Oscar Peterson Trio. Here’s one of our [...]
NICK DERISO: Recorded live at the club Memory Lane in Los Angeles over a two-night stand on May 25-26, 1967, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie’s five-track “Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac” is sometimes criticized for its brevity. Sure. There have been boxed sets produced with slighter source material. Still, Gillespie, in particular on tracks like the standout Brazilian-tinged “Mas Que Nada,” remained at [...]
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