Jazz
The saxman and his usual band (including vocalist Patrice Quinn instead of the billed Ami Taf Ra) easily adapted to the 200-seat venue, barely modulating their visceral delivery while also highlighting their softer dynamics and a personal rapport.
These superb recordings provide ample proof that Oscar Hernández is at the pinnacle of his career as the leader of two divergent musical aggregations.
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.
The album seems to me to be about spotlighting the ensemble’s sound rather than the virtuoso displays of its leader.
This collector is happy to have Luis Russell: At the Swing Cats Ball with all its faults.
Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness has scholarly value but, given its diminution of human agency, it will not significantly impact real life public conversations about ending white privilege and dealing with the complexities of cultural appropriation.
One of the true masters of jazz, Wayne Shorter, passed away during the early hours of March 2. Our writers quickly gathered to express their appreciations of Shorter’s innovations and his long life of constant creativity.
Both jazz combos, The Bad Plus and Marc Ribot, sport connections to rock, which might have contributed to the sold-out room.
This Craft reissue is welcome for the presence and distinctness of its sound, and for the state-of-the-art playing. Art Pepper will be going through my head for days.
Jazz Album Review/Commentary: “Don Quixote’s Adventures in the World of Jazz” — Is Jazz Intrinsically Quixotic?
It’s hard to think of music that is more foolishly impractical than jazz, even with its pursuit of lofty ideals.
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