Steve Elman

Jazz Feature: A Conversation with Jane Ira Bloom

October 26, 2021
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I spoke with Jane Ira Bloom on September 21, 2021 via Zoom. This transcript has been edited for space and ellipses have been omitted for readability. Some paraphrases and details are added for clarity.

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Jazz Review and Perspective: Sheila Jordan’s “Comes Love”

October 8, 2021
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Comes Love was Sheila Jordan’s first full recording session as a leader, and it automatically becomes a collector’s item for those who love the legendary jazz singer’s work.

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Jazz Performance Review: Cécile McLorin Salvant and Sullivan Fortner at Home

May 17, 2021
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To hear this performance properly. you must do a bit more work than you might do ordinarily . . . but great art deserves such work.

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Jazz Album Review: Miguel Zenón’s Law Years Band & Christian McBride’s New Jawn Band

April 12, 2021
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Two pianoless quartets + two restless leaders = some of the best music of the last few years.

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Music Profile: Violinist, Teacher, Composer, and Arranger Mimi Rabson — Making a Life in Art

February 26, 2021
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The life of a working musician is not a second-class life, and Mimi Rabson’s is Exhibit A: “I try to get past the limits of the definitions and get to the joy.”

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Jazz Appreciation/Album Review — Carla Bley, 84 and Counting

December 5, 2020
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Carla Bley’s last three CDs are not a casual sequence, and hearing all of them together, as I did recently, provides a refreshing reminder of her greatness.

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Jazz Review/Interview: Duncan Heining Revises His Landmark Biography of Jazz Composer George Russell

December 2, 2020
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If you do not know George Russell, this book will bring you closer to one of the geniuses of American music. Read More

Jazz Survey: Chordless Drills – A Listener’s Guide to the Saxophone Trio

November 3, 2020
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Here is a personal selection of recordings in the saxophone trio format. These linear collaborations have been part of the jazz scene for at least seventy years now. The results are almost always illuminating and exhilarating, and a review of them offers a miniature history of saxophone styles.

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Jazz Album Review: “The Prospector” — A Saxophone-Bass-Drums Combination to Treasure

October 29, 2020
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Nothing detracts from the essentials here – three fine players in creative conversation.

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Arts Commentary: Meditations on Separation

September 20, 2020
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This is what I feel can add: the perspective of a native-born son of the Rochester metro; and a view from the bridge through jazz-colored glasses.

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