Jazz
Updated.As many Boston listeners feared, WGBH has put its jazz programming on the road to extinction. What is to be done?
If you’re a Gil Evans devotee, or even a casual appreciator, have I got good news for you: Ryan Truesdell’s Centennial, more than 70 minutes of Evans that we never thought we’d hear, 10 tunes realized so beautifully and brilliantly that they should win a Grammy for Truesdell and a second, posthumous Grammy for Evans.
When the musical whirlwind came to an end the crowd responded with a standing ovation, an enthusiastic testament to the power of this sweat-soaked night of edgy jazz guitar.
If you have a taste for something different that also has some depth and heft, then guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson’s new album may be just what you’re looking for.
Heading north this weekend? Whether you’re traveling all the way to Burlington, VT, or just to the left bank of the Charles, summer 2012’s jazz festival season is off to a fine start. Then, the action mid-month shifts south to New Haven.
It’s a worthy effort –- and, as a listener, how many times will you have the chance for real adventure inside a concert hall?
Swarms in the train station! Improv in the library! Video game hits and poetry! Must be Jazz Week–and there’s plenty more, including a major CD release by Argentinian bassist Fernando Huergo paying tribute to the land of the Albiceleste.
Jazz songs by composer John Harbison? An ensemble devoted to the music of Björk? A quartet taking over a theatre and breaking the “fourth wall”? Jazz Week 2012 stakes out territory on the permeable boundary where jazz encounters other genres and even other art forms.
A reprise of Fred Hersch’s Leaves of Grass highlights the key role of Boston’s educational institutions; plus, an abundance of performances celebrating CD releases.
Like other great artists –- Martha Argerich and Steve Lacy come to mind right away — pianist Kirill Gerstein approaches every note with a sense of how important that note is in relation to every one that has come before and every one that is to come after.
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