Jazz
I wonder why this fine session was withheld for 49 years. It might be the bitter-sounding texts, or the very fact of vocals in a jazz session.
Sloane: A Jazz Singer is very sweet film that never cloys because of the singer’s naturalness, honesty, occasional self-deprecation, and sense of humor.
Both of these documentaries offer gratifying viewing for any curious roots music fan.
“Everyone involved was committed to doing something different and eclectic,” WasFest curator Don Was said. “It’s a mixed bag, and that’s what we wanted.”
At New Hampshire’s just-christened Nashua Center for the Arts, 68-year-old jazz guitarist Pat Metheny shared a wily sidelong glance at his own broad compositional and improvisational history.
As usual with Craft Recordings reissues, these lps are impeccably produced: the silence of the recording before the music starts is almost startling, but it’s the clear sound of what follows that is most impressive.
Fans of Postmodern Jukebox and the swing revival will enjoy this album, as will any jazz fan who appreciates taut small-group arrangements and terse, focused solos.
A rare Black female instrumentalist band leader, whose improvisations on the harp were the equal of any horn, Dorothy Ashby deserves a respected place in jazz historiography.
The music of the Duke Robillard Band may go back a long way, but there was nothing retro about the bittersweet, funky, lowdown sounds that rocked Jimmy’s.
Two new releases, led respectively by a saxophonist and a bassist, add to the growing mystique of trios in contemporary jazz.
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