Steve Elman
Boston Conservatory’s New Music Festival is inspiring a series of critical and speculative commentaries from Fuse Jazz Critic Steve Elman. Here is the first.
Read MoreThe Steve Kuhn – Sheila Jordan partnership has been one of the luckiest things ever to happen to either of them, or for us as listeners.
Read MoreWhat is a Judicial Review? It is a fresh approach to creating a conversational, critical space about the arts and culture. This is our sixth session, this time a discussion about the concert “Divine Sparks,” a provocative attempt to explore how Jewish cantorial music and other kinds of religious song can spark musical improvisation and…
Read MoreIn the best of all possible worlds, Duncan Heining’s biography will be the cornerstone of the edifice that time will erect to the memory of George Russell and his gift to music. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen. In some ways, because of the vagaries of the book business, it’s up…
Read MoreI cite the repertoire only to give you a sense of the breadth of the material Jason Moran and Fred Hersch built on. The glory of the evening was the complete integration of the two pianists’ musical thought.
Read MoreThere’s something special going on among the four musicians in BANN that is very promising—something that makes me want to see the band live. I hope one of our local bookers picks up on them soon, so I don’t have to go to New York City to do so. As You Like by BANN [Seamus…
Read MorePeople who love jazz should read jazz history books periodically, and Kevin Whitehead, jazz critic on NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross, has done a great service in giving us a What, Who, Where, and When book with insight and ingenuity. Why Jazz?: A Concise Guide by Kevin Whitehead. Oxford University Press, 136 pp. of…
Read MoreSaxophonist Grace Kelly has to decide what kind of artist she wants to be in her maturity, how long a run she’d like to have, how much she intends to contribute to the jazz tradition—and how she intends to accomplish these things. By Steve Elman. A moment of reckoning arrives in the career of every…
Read MoreI never knew I needed to own a book like this, but I undoubtedly do. If there is anyone you know who loves singing and isn’t a snob about genre, this book would be a great holiday gift. It’s a colossal achievement that is also marvelously idiosyncratic. A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and…
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Music Commentary: New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fest versus French Quarter Fest