Barry Schwartz

Barry’s Contributions

December 2007 Albums

King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan
Sister Gertrude Morgan

Nothing straightens out a DJ’s Concord stylus like an obscure record, and the dollar bin in any grimy record store basement holds within its milk crates the promise of the next great find. But while diggin’ in the crates with good taste is a dangerous combination...

November 2007 News

The Harlem Experiment: A Harlem State Of Mind

There’s something about cities that have distinct musical traditions within them,” says Aaron Levinson, producer of The Harlem Experiment. “It’s not an accident.” With both his Spanish Harlem Orchestra and as producer of Ropeadope’s The Philadelphia Experiment...

October 2007 Albums

Ride! Ferris Wheel to the Modern Day Delta
Abram Wilson

Attention spans endangered as they are, a jazz concept album hardly seems advisable for a young player still searching for an audience. With people still getting used to the idea of a rapper/instrumentalist, British saxophonist/MC Soweto Kinch dares to up...

September 2007 Artist Profiles

Gang Starr’s Guru: Solar Power

It’s a long way to go when you don’t know where you’re going. As the legendary rap duo Gang Starr, Guru (Keith Elam), along with producer DJ Premier (Chris Martin), helped to pioneer the sound for hip-hop’s early-’90s golden age. That sound, Gang Starr’s...

12/11/03 News

Diana Krall & Norah Jones: New CDs on Tap

Hot off the presses: Superstars Diana Krall (pictured) and Norah Jones are hard at work putting the finishing touches on their new albums. Both CDs will be released in the first half of next year: Jones' sophomore effort, which follows up her hugely successful...

12/09/03 News

Jane Monheit Sings for JazzReach

JazzReach, a non-profit organization that travels all over the country to bring jazz-related multimedia educational outreach programs to young people has had a remarkable year. In 2003 JazzReach encountered 17,000 young people in 20 different communities...

12/08/03 News

Piano Art

Piano-loving, New York City-based artist John Diebboll’s exhibition “Jazz-Case Piano Drawings,” a collection of 12 multicolored and lyrical jazz art case piano drawings, is on its way to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The exhibition, which opens...

12/04/03 News

Village Vanguard Offers Jazz Calendar

2004 is nigh upon us and you know what that means. You’re going to need a new calendar. Since you’re reading this, chances are good that 12 months of Justin Timberlake or Britney Spears isn’t what you’re looking for. Jim Hall, Clark Terry, Tommy Flanagan...

12/03/03 News

Cooler Soundtrack Features Krall, Caldwell

You wouldn’t know it from his award winning scores for movies like Quiz Show , A River Runs Through It and Romeo Is Bleeding but composer Mark Isham can swing. With his score to the forthcoming film The Cooler , starring William H. Macy and Alex Baldwin...

12/02/03 News

ASCAP Picks Best Young Composers

Start’ em young. The ASCAP Foundation continued its dedication to the American composer when it named this year’s recipients of the annual Young Jazz Composer Awards on Nov. 24 in New York City. Young is a loose term for ASCAP; any American citizen or permanent...

12/01/03 News

Norah Jones Waxes Poetic

The trip-hop outfit Wax Poetic may be just another blip on the map of the New York City music scene, but hell if its members don’t have friends in high places. The six-year-old band formed by multi-instrumentalist Ilhan Ersahin is set to release its second...

11/26/03 News

Harry for the Holidays

The holiday season is nigh upon us, which means jazz pianist/vocalist/actor/superstar Harry Connick Jr. must take a break from his duties on Will & Grace to take on Santa Claus and get some of his own Christmastime exposure, thanks to NBC, which airs Will...

11/25/03 News

Three New Jazz Texts

We receive enough books at JazzTimes —we get almost as many books as we do vocal CDs—that we really should start our own book club (watch out, Oprah). We don’t have time to start that up, though. We have all those albums by vocalists to listen to, after...

11/24/03 News

NEA Jazz Masters Announced

There was a little twist in last Wednesday’s announcement of next year’s National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Masters Award recipients. Not only was pianist Dr. Billy Taylor on hand to perform at the announcement ceremony performing with a group of young...

11/22/03 News

George Benson Readies New Disc

Famed smooth jazz guitarist/singer and eight-time Grammy winner George Benson will release his latest album, the soulful Irreplaceable for GRP, on February 10, 2004. The record, which is essentially a collaborative effort between Benson and the session’s...

11/20/03 News

Deems Taylor Winners Announced

Excuse us while we pat ourselves on our backs… On October 24, the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) announced the recipients of this year’s Deems Taylor Awards, which recognize outstanding achievements in print, broadcast and new...