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Table of Contents
May 2008

FEATURES

Dianne Reeves: Grand Passion

It’s appropriate that Dianne Reeves’ first studio album in five years is titled When You Know (Blue Note). The Grammy-winning vocalist had long ago massed the songs she wanted to record but wasn’t quite sure what tied them all together. Then Reeves visited an art museum in Vienna; suddenly she really, really knew—it's all about the love. Don Heckman delves.

Lionel Loueke: African American

Growing up in the West African nation of Benin, Lionel Loueke remembers happening upon a George Benson album and wondering “how it was possible to play a guitar like that.” Before long he’d not only figured it out, he’d developed his own style of “jazz with an accent.” Now, on Karibu, his Blue Note debut, Loueke shows Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter how it’s done. Geoffrey Himes is curious, too.

Stanley Jordan: The Healer

It’s one of the great whatever-happened-to stories in jazz. More than 20 years ago guitarist Stanley Jordan enjoyed a hugely successful album in Magic Touch, on which he introduced a revolutionary new string-tapping technique. But by the mid-’90s he’d virtually disappeared, settling in Arizona and largely withdrawing from the music biz. Now he’s back with a stunning new album for Mack Avenue, State of Nature. Bill Meredith catches up with the reclusive virtuoso.

Jam Ambassadors

For more than two decades during the Cold War, the United States government staged a not-so-secret mission: exporting jazz to nations in Eastern Europe, South Asia and the Middle East with the hope that the freedom inherent in the music would catch on. From now through July 13, a magnificent photo exhibition in Washington, D.C., Jam Session: America’s Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World, honors the musicians who served their country in this most unique way, and JT has some of these classic images to share.

The Israeli Jazz Wave: Promised Land to Promised Land

It seems to have come out of nowhere, but, in fact, the influx of stellar Israeli jazz musicians to New York has been building for quite some time. The recent high-profile emergence of Anat Cohen, Omer Avital and several others has drawn attention to the jazz scene in that perennially troubled nation. Andrew Gilbert investigates.