Jazz and Pop Critic
The News Review:
- Jazz and Pop Critic
- Sonny Rollins: Still Seeking the Lost Chord
- In 10 With Luca Luciano
- Musician Grammy nominee Chicago Music Award hopeful
- Commenter f The Day: Sweet Home Chicago Edition
- Music Review Around the World in ne Night Courtesy of Song
Jazz and Pop Critic
New York Times United States
I’ll try to hit some parts of it but I probably won’t answer it to your satisfaction. In the last 60 years people almost completely stopped dancing to jazz and far fewer people grew up with pianos in the house. I think that has a lot to do with why jazz is no longer the popular vernacular art it used to be. When you dance to music (in all ways — partner dancing stepping headbanging — just reacting to music with your body) or when you play it then you own it. A lot of people born since 1960 don’t feel that they own jazz. Absolutely the media plays a role in why the average person doesn’t know who Cedar Walton is. But I think the mainstream media — obviously we’re not talking about jazz magazines like Downbeat which has Benny Golson on the cover this month (a good example of the kind of artist you’re talking about) — doesn’t by definition deal with the kind of art that post-bop mainstream jazz has become which is an art of tradition and very slow refinements.
Sonny Rollins: Still Seeking the Lost Chord
All About Jazz PA
People stop what they’re doing and listen. In a loose flowing shirt with hair and beard now silver in hue he has a distinctive aura. It befits his status and stature in the music world for in jazz music he stands very near the source. Rollins doesn’t raise his horn above his head these days blaring to the heavens as he did as a younger man. He can’t pull off what he did more than two decades ago at the pus 40 Festival near Saugerties NY when he jumped down off a stage about four feet high broke his heel and—unfazed—continued to play while lying on his back his band mates in as much awe as the audience (captured in the Robert Mugge-produced film “Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus” Winstar 1986). But he brings the power. Like at Newport in August of 2008 when he blew “Global Warming” mightily into the harbor that eventually leads to the mighty Atlantic.
In 10 With Luca Luciano
All About Jazz PA
Professor of both jazz and classical clarinet he started his career at a very young age (only twelve) performing at one of the most prestigious concert-halls of his home town Naples appeared on television nationwide live aged twenty-one and quickly established himself as one of the most interesting talents in the UK and Europe. He has accumulated experience in both the jazz and classical fields got a Bachelor in Music at the Conservatoire of Salerno (Italy) and a post-graduate course on music entrepreneurship founded by the ECC. His repertoire encompass Weber Brahms Copland Stravinsky and jazz music. Instrument(s):clarinet. When were you happiest?The first time I performed live. I was twelve and it was in an ancient concert hall in the centre of my home town Naples (Italy).
Musician Grammy nominee Chicago Music Award hopeful
Pioneer Press nline IL
(Photo courtesy of Dean Malsack) Malsack will find out Jan. 18 whether his latest project will win the Chicago Music Award for Best Jazz Album. He’ll attend the ceremony at Park West in Chicago and whether he wins or not Malsack said he’ll come away knowing that “Frankly — Dean’s Way” is something to be proud of. “I think it’s the best yet” said Malsack who has recorded several solo recordings of his original songs as well as arrangements of jazz classics Broadway favorites and songs from movie soundtracks. “Frankly — Dean’s Way” is a collection of songs recorded by Sinatra but not all of them were made famous by the songster. Like all of Malsack’s arrangements he’s made the 14 tracks on his latest recording all his own.
Commenter f The Day: Sweet Home Chicago Edition
Jalopnik MI
As the largest city in the nation not near an ocean Chicago has been a defining cultural and musical influence for the entire United States — especially the Midwestern states. In the early decades of the 20th century a “Great Migration” of poor southern African-Americans resulted in a strong distinct tradition of blues and jazz music that continues to this day. Those blues and jazz traditions combined in the ’60s to help create the famous Chicago Soul sound music notable for less gospel and more blues input than other regional soul. More recently the city’s R&B and hip-hop music has seen a huge boost in popularity over the past 15 years with artists like R. Kelly and Kanye West tearing up the charts. Kelly has achieved some level of notoriety for his offstage antics as well including a well-publicized 2008 trial on charges that he engaged in some less-than-proper activities normally associated with a urinal with an underage girl. While this kind of news falls more under the purview of Us Weekly or Nancy Grace than it does under that of Jalopnik.
Music Review Around the World in ne Night Courtesy of Song
New York Times United States
Kher a noted Bollywood playback singer and judge on “Indian Idol” the televised singing competition was the flashiest and most charming of the night’s performers a star comfortable with stages bigger than the one he had here. Many of the night’s other acts tried assiduously to keep a straight face musically much to their detriment: Chicha Libre from New York played light overly polite cumbias and L& from France offered whimsical chanson cabaret verging on preciousness. There was a shambolic set by Brooklyn Qawwali Party which plays jazz-funk variations on the Sufi devotional music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The Brazilian samba singer Márcio Local was tender perhaps too tender to leave a mark (though not too much for the many women in his crowd swaying side to side suggestively biting their lower lips) and La Troba Kung-Fú charming Spanish purveyors of Catalan rumba lacked percussive thump. Saddled with the night’s earliest time slot the Hot 8 Brass Band from New rleans was technically agile but its set had the listlessness of the obligatory. (In this context the sound of the second line is another local heritage style in need of preservation. ) Had it played later in the night it certainly would have been received as enthusiastically as the event’s closing act Watcha Clan from France whose toothless drum ’n’ bass and hazy vocals made for an often grim mix.
Related from Foxpunks: Music Review Around the World in ne Night Courtesy of Song