The "Standards Trio" plays it straight, more or less
A full menu highlighted by Sonny Rollins, Terence Blanchard, Hiromi, Steve Coleman and more
Henry Threadgill and other avant-masters rule at this Canadian marathon
Josef Woodard reviews jazz festival held in Vossa, Norway, on April 15-17, 2011
This sometimes intoxicating collaboration between mild-mannered guitar hero Bill Frisell and guitarist-singer Vinicius Cantuária, a Brazilian living in Brooklyn, might come as a surprise for anyone following Frisell’s discography. Then again, it might not...
Josef Woodard reviews latest album from guitarist Al Di Meola
While alto-sax firebrand Tim Berne hasn’t officially recorded as a leader for ECM, he has been slipping in the side door in provocative ways in recent years. David Torn’s Cloud About Mercury was essentially a more ambient reworking of Berne’s Science Friction...
Josef Woodard reviews performances at festival held November 3-7, 2010
While the commanding drummer Tyshawn Sorey has been known for his mathematical and muscular intensity in settings with Steve Coleman, Fieldwork, Steve Lehman and other groups, he also boasts a fascinating free sensibility, as heard on this intriguing trio...
Josef Woodard reviews legendary jazz festival in Monterey, California on September 17-19, 2010
Review of Festival in Guelph, Ontario on September 8-12, 2010
Steve Coleman has been serving up complicated, beguiling musical math for nearly a quarter century, from his early work with the M-Base scene beginning in the mid-’80s through his various projects with his group Five Elements. By now, we’ve grown accustomed...
Josef Woodard reports from the Copenhagen Jazz Festival
Josef Woodard reports on festival held in Morocco
For 30-odd years, piano Prometheus Keith Jarrett has done his musical bidding and exploring in self-limited settings, most often either in his “Standards” trio with Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock, or—with greater regularity of late—solo. That alone makes...
Josef Woodard reviews adventurous festival in Germany
Josef Woodard has covered jazz for JazzTimes and other magazines since the late 1980s, classical/contemporary music for the Los Angeles Times since 1993, opera for Opera Now, and pop and jazz for Rolling Stone, among countless other associations. At the moment, he is working on a book on Charles Lloyd. Also a guitarist, songwriter, co-owner of the 20-year-old Household Ink Records label (householdink.com) and general “situationist,” Woodard tries to maintain a balance between looking at music from the outside and burrowing into creative machinery.
E-mail
Share
RSS
Report