Steve Provizer
Pianist Kris Davis’s Diatom Ribbons and the multi-disc set Nat King Cole’s Hittin’ the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-43) are among the albums that made more than one list.
All three groups in this Blue Note anniversary concert were distinctly different. One was shaded with a hip hop influence, one proffered organ trio jazz-funk and one, all female, had singing as its focal point.
To hear Nat King Cole move from an anonymous member of a backing chorus to a world-class vocal soloist is well worth the time this boxed set demands.
You can go home again, daddy-o, but you’re not the same person you were the first time around.
Johnny Hodges was originally a Cambridge/Boston guy, and one of the most interesting sections of Con Chapman biography is his knowledgeable description of the local jazz scene in the 1910’s and ’20s.
Robert Macfarlane’s ability to limn the pull between beauty and cataclysm provides a dynamism that elevates this book well above the level of simple “nature” writing.
I left thinking that holding a blues (or a jazz) festival in every city and town would not be a bad idea. It’s a better way for municipalities to spend their money — with a surer payoff — than tax abatements for Amazon.
D. A. Pennebaker was inventive, dogged, and had the ability to win people’s trust.
2019 is the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Double Six of Paris, so it is a good time to shine a spotlight on the group’s spectacular work.
Recommended Books, 2019
An eclectic round-up of our favorite books of the year from our critics.
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