Jazz
Saxophonist 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…
I 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…
Like a guru, Sonny Rollins offered words to live by at the conclusion of the show, words that are his own guidelines as much as they were advice to his fans: “Keep yourself straight and never mind the rest of the world.” By Steve Elman Imagine a great, blank canvas. Now begin to populate the…
So what’s the critic’s function when the music itself doesn’t have critical mass with the public? Surely not cheerleading or hype. But surely not nose-in-the-air either. By Steve Elman. Well, some editors are paying attention. There were two London Jazz Festival (LJF) reviews, occupying a half page in the Times this a.m. Maybe the reason…
Why aren’t more people in the print media here paying attention to the London Jazz Festival? Last year, when I attended a week of the festival, I idly thumbed through the Times each day looking for reviews, previews, any mention at all, and coverage seemed meager. This year, the same or maybe less coverage. By…
Why should you have been in Jordan Hall on October 21? First, to hear Ken Schaphorst’s reconstruction of Duke Ellington’s “Harlem,” aka “A Tone Parallel to Harlem,” aka “The Harlem Suite,” a score on which Ken labored painstakingly and which the NEC Jazz Orchestra played thrillingly well. Music of Duke Ellington. Performed by New England…
Reviewed by Steve Elman. The larger the band, the more important its leader. The sheer drudgery of keeping a large jazz ensemble functioning as a musical and business entity leads almost inevitably to a need for a guiding intelligence. Even if one person isn’t personally booking the gigs, making the phone calls, preparing the lead…
By Steve Elman My conversation with jazz critic Bob Blumenthal circled around two poles. Part one focused on the music of Sonny Rollins. Part two concentrates on the making of the new book, Saxophone Colossus: a Portrait of Sonny Rollins. Text by Bob Blumenthal. Photography by John Abbott. Abrams, 160 pages, $35. Aside from the Saxophone…
Bob Blumenthal has spent almost his entire listening life as an admirer of Rollins and an appreciator of his music, and he is a prose stylist of great elegance and precision. There is hardly anyone alive more qualified to write this kind of career-spanning appreciation. Saxophone Colossus: a Portrait of Sonny Rollins Text by Bob…
For all the hand-wringing in the media about the death rattle of jazz, what with record stores closing and radio stations losing listeners, Newport reminds you that the art form is alive and well, with a growing audience of people of all ages and races. By Charles McEnerney, Host + Producer, Well-Rounded Radio Both the…
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