Ken Franckling
Ken’s Contributions
09/08/08 Concerts
Tanglewood Jazz Festival
At this year’s Tanglewood Jazz Festival in the bucolic Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, feelings of irony and concern were inescapable. Trumpeter-composer Terence Blanchard was the three-day event’s final act, presenting his Grammy-winning A Tale...
09/26/06 Concerts
Sedona Jazz on the Rocks Benefit Festival 2006
Newport has sailboats dotting its picturesque New England harbor, slicing through its waters with the graceful Newport Bridge framing the background. Sedona in northern Arizona has its own stake in being one of the most beautiful sites in the U.S. in which...
05/15/04 Concerts
Dee Dee Bridgewater in Boston
Dee Dee Bridgewater is full of surprises. I’m never sure whether I’m going to hear her jazz side, her Broadway diva side or a mix of the two. The 2000 Montreal International Jazz Festival debut of the singer’s take on the Kurt Weill Songbook was a project...
December 1999 Hearsay
Dave Bryant
Despite studying with Ornette Coleman for seven years in the 1980s and working in Coleman’s electric band, Prime Time, since 1990, keyboard player Dave Bryant has had a lot of to pursue his own projects. He has made just one recording with Coleman (Tone...
September 1999 Hearsay
Davell Crawford
Davell Crawford was steeped in the New Orleans rhythm and blues tradition. It’s in his blood as a singer and keyboardist and has been the heart of his recordings until the latest project. The grandson of 1950s R&B star James “Sugar Boy” Crawford, the man...
December 1998 Albums
In The Vernacular
Francois Houle
With young tigers Wessell Anderson, Nicholas Payton, Mark Whitfield, and Peter Martin aboard this New Orleans express, driver Donald Edwards couldn't go wrong in making his debut. The wide-ranging In the Vernacular shows him to be more than a promising drummer...
December 1998 Albums
Soul Carnival
Doug Lawrence
Tenorist Doug Lawrence, a veteran soloist who paid his dues in the Count Basie, Loren Schoenberg and Buck Clayton bands and the DMP All-Star Band, makes his belated debut as a leader on Soul Carnival. It swings mightily with strong rhythm section backing...
December 1998 Albums
My One and Only
Trudy Desmond
Toronto-based singer Trudy Desmond brought together some of her favorite Canadian and New York musicians to tip her hat towards George Gershwin on the centennial of his birth. In her hands, My One and Only is anything but a schlocky tribute session. A singer...
December 1998 Albums
Inner Trust
David Kikoski Trio
Pianist Dave Kikoski has more than 15 years under his belt as a member of drummer Roy Haynes' band. On the road with Haynes and in other settings, he has developed strong skills as a musical interpreter and conversationalist. Both are at the heart of Inner...
October 1997 Hearsay
D.D. Jackson
In his new two-volume series of recordings, Paired Down, Canadian-born pianist D.D. Jackson issued his own musical manifesto about the health of jazz approaching the millennium. He brought a total of nine admired musicians into a New York studio to make...
June 1997 Features
Frank Foster: Xpanded Mission
Tenor saxophonist Frank Foster may be as old as he looks, to paraphrase one of the new tunes on his new quartet recording, but there’s no musical generation gap separating him from the younger players he’s teamed up with in his latest career phase. Long...
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ReportAbout Ken Franckling
Ken Franckling is a veteran arts writer and freelance photographer specializing in music photography. Since the early 1980s, he has covered the jazz scene throughout the Northeast with occasional journeys to other regions in pursuit of essential musical moments.
Ken's serious interest in jazz was formed while involved with the campus radio station at St. Bonaventure University in upstate New York's Snow Belt from 1969 to 1971. It began flourishing in the early 1980s after the Newport Jazz Festival returned to its Rhode Island roots and he began covering that return as a news story while a staff reporter/news editor for United Press International.
Ken covered jazz and wrote a regular column, The Jazz Condition, for UPI for more than 20 years. He is a contributor to the Jazz Journalists Association's quarterly Jazz Notes newsletter and a contributing writer / photographer for JazzTimes, Jazziz, Hot House, AllAboutJazz.com and other publications.