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.
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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.
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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.
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You can go home again, daddy-o, but you’re not the same person you were the first time around.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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D. A. Pennebaker was inventive, dogged, and had the ability to win people’s trust.
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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.
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Recommended Books, 2019
An eclectic round-up of our favorite books of the year from our critics.
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