Bret Primack
Bret’s Contributions
April 1998 Albums
Invisible Weave
Joe Morris and William Parker
Guitarist Joe Morris and bassist William Parker recorded this duo session at Michael Dorf's downtown launching pad, The Knitting Factory, early last year and the seven tracks herein are, in Morris' words, creative music. Their color, texture and design is...
April 1998 Albums
Visitation Rights
Paraphrase
Visitation Rites is the debut of Paraphrase, a collaborative improvisational trio featuring Tim Berne on saxophones, Drew Gress on bass and drummer Tom Rainey. Recorded live in Berlin in 1996, Berne and company stomp, boomerang, flail and jump all over the...
April 1998 Albums
Discretion
Bloodcount
Bloodcount expand the envelope of musical form and substance. Discretion features a collection of Tim Berne's never-played-before compositions with the leader on alto and baritone, Chris Speed on tenor and clarinet, Michael Formanek on bass and Jim Black...
April 1998 Albums
Saxcrobatic Fanatic
Luther Thomas Trio
Alto saxophonist Luther Thomas, guitarist Kelvyn Bell and drummer Ronnie Burrage have been playing together since the early '70s but until this recording, they hadn't documented their collaboration. Second generation BAGers, or Baby BAGers, they follow in...
March 1998 Albums
King/Bluiett Trio: Makin' Whoopee
Hamiet Bluiett
Baritone saxist Hamiet Bluiett and tenorman David Murray have been half of World Saxophone Quartet since its inception while alto and soprano saxophonist Eric Person had a brief stint with the group. Outside that hallowed institution, they all continue to...
March 1998 Hearsay
Quartette Indigo
Quartette Indigo’s second release, Afrika! Afrika!, on Savant, underlines the versatility of this string quartet led by cellist Akua Dixon Turre, which includes violinists Regina Carter and Marlene Rice, as well as Ron Lawrence on viola. The eclectic set...
March 1998 Hearsay
Olu Dara
Trumpeter/guitarist/vocalist/ composer/actor Olu Dara conjures up a very tasty musical gumbo on his first Atlantic release, In The World. Subtitled, “From Natchez to New York,” the Mississippi native, a New Yorker for more than three decades, draws from...
March 1998 Hearsay
Owen Howard
For New York jazz musicians, there are two parts to the puzzle. The first is playing well enough to distinguish yourself from the seemingly endless pool of talent that centers around Manhattan. The second is finding consistent work that pays well enough...
March 1998 Hearsay
Fred Sanders
Fred Sanders’ first recording is East of Vilbig on Leaning House Jazz, featuring the Austin, Texas based pianist/composer and special guests Roy Hargrove, Mark Whitfield and Texas tenor legend Marchel Ivery. It was in Ivery’s after-hour jam-sessions at the...
January/February 1998 Hearsay
Laurent De Wilde
The man is a triple threat. He plays the piano, composes and also writes books. Spoon-A-Rhythm, on Columbia, features his trio versions of jazz standards as well as his tributes to Duke Ellington and Barney Wilen. His first book, published by Marlowe Press...
January/February 1998 Hearsay
Jimmy Amadie
The title of Jimmy Amadie’s second release on TPR Recordings, Savoring Every Note, has great significance for the Philadelphia-based pianist. Because of a painful tendinitis condition that delayed his recording debut for decades (Amadie was “ready” in the...
January/February 1998 Hearsay
Ann Hampton Callaway
After Ours, on Denon, is vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway’s first jazz recording. I suspect that if Miles heard her extraordinary version of “All Blues,” he’d probably smile and ask, “Why did you wait so long?” A Chicago native, she came to New York and started...
January/February 1998 Features
Art Tatum: No Greater Art
Today, Art Tatum would have been 88. His music survives and continues to astound. This weekend, after working my way through his Solo and Group Masterpieces on Pablo, which included such collaborators as Roy Eldridge, Lionel Hampton and Ben Webster, I’m...
January/February 1998 Label Watch
Label Watch: American Clave
It all started with a film that never got made. Kip Hanrahan, a Bronx-born composer, producer and bandleader hoped to bring together the texts of Ishmael Reed and the music of Cecil Taylor. But it eventually became apparent to Hanrahan, who had worked on...
December 1997 Albums
Rendezvous
Jacky Terrasson and Cassandra Wilson
In these alarmingly noisy times, I cling to what now passes as something of an antiquated mantra-simplicity is elegance. The work of Lester Young, in particular, remains a guidepost for me. Pres always played only what was necessary, nothing more, nothing...
December 1997 Hearsay
Dominique Eade
One late summer afternoon just after my landlord installed a satellite dish, I happened upon an episode of Peter Gunn, a ’50s detective show featuring Henry Mancini’s hip scoring. The show captured a delicious moment in time when film noir, jazz and the...
About Bret Primack
A journalist who has published hundreds of articles and liner notes, Bret Primack is a graduate of NYU Film School who has worked in documentaries and industrials. He returned
to filmmaking in 2004 when he began producing videos for jazz musicians. The debut of YouTube
and the opportunity for global distribution was the catalyst for his nickname, Jazz Video Guy. Bret's YouTube channel now features more than 600 videos which have nearly 17 million views. Writer/Video Journalist Bret Primack has been at the forefront of new media since he co-founded
Jazz Central Station in 1995. In 1997 he was the first Jazz blogger with Bird Lives, where,
as the Pariah, his heartfelt diatribes struck a responsive chord in the music industry.
Bret has also created websites for Sonny Rollins, Billy Taylor, and Joe Lovano, among many others. "When I I first started posting jazz video in the Spring of 2006, web video was just getting started and there
were plenty of skeptics,” Bret explains. “But now, five years later, video is the most heavily utilized part of the web. Today, people
can jump on YouTube and check out John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. That ability to watch so many jazz artists on demand is one the reasons for the tremendous popularity of Jazz on YouTube.”













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