Jon Garelick

Book and Jazz Album Review: Henry Threadgill Explains It All For You

July 5, 2023
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The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer eludes easy categorization, but Henry Threadgill’s new memoir — and his latest recording — take a step in defining his singular artistic personality.

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Jazz Concert Review: Terri Lyne Carrington + Social Science — Solid Music and Message

March 30, 2023
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Terri Lyne Carrington, on her home turf (she’s a native Bostonian and holds several positions at Berklee, including being founder and artistic director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice), augmented her six-piece band with three guests.

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Jazz Concert Review: Jason Moran and the Big Bandwagon Pay Splendid Homage to “One of the Original Big Bangs in Black Music”

February 21, 2023
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Jason Moran, as virtuoso pianist and bandleader, enacted all of jazz history at the keyboard, from ragtime to no time, as the saying goes.

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Culture Commentary: World War II Was a Race War, and It Isn’t Over

October 1, 2022
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It isn’t exactly news that the genocide of Native Americans was a model for Hitler, but it hit with fresh force in The U.S. and the Holocaust.

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Concert Review: The High Standards of Michael Formanek’s Elusion Quartet

September 16, 2022
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To hear free music so beautifully contained and expressed in such inventive forms isn’t unheard of (Henry Threadgill? Vijay Iyer? Wadada Leo Smith?). But bassist Michael Formanek has his own way.

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Jazz Concert Review: Two Trios Bring Compositional Acumen to Spontaneous Collective Improvisation

July 27, 2022
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Such a beautiful evening of music — two relatively concise sets, one an hour long, another a little less — adding up to an integral whole.

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Concert Review: The 2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival — The Blessed Return of Musical Serendipity

May 29, 2022
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We’d returned to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. We’d ridden a paddle-wheeler on the Mississippi River. It was good to be back, and why we’ll go back every chance we get: to life.

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Album Roundup: Adventurous Solo Performances from Jazz Pianists

December 6, 2021
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Solo performance is still a way ahead for jazz pianists, judging from four CDs released in 2021.

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Jazz Appreciation: Remembering George Wein (1925-2021)

September 17, 2021
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The sum total of George Wein’s career was a successful wedding of art and commerce.

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Jazz Commentary: Charlie Parker — The Eternal Radical at 100

August 30, 2020
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I’m still not sure I heard what’s revolutionary about Charlie Parker’s recordings — they’re very old news by now. But I warm to the expressions of unique genius, a beauty that in itself is radical.

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