Artist Profiles
August 2008 By John Murph
Nicholas Payton: Musical Middle Ground
Five years ago, soon after the release of Sonic Trance (Warner Bros.), trumpeter Nicholas Payton vowed never to record the same way again. He drew a line in the proverbial sand, marking a break from his critically acclaimed string of acoustic postbop discs...
August 2008 By Christopher Loudon
Steve Tyrell: What the World Needs Now
Gravel-voiced Texan Steve Tyrell can legitimately claim his latest album, Back to Bacharach (released on his own New Design Records), has been 40 years in the making. Tyrell was a mere lad of 19 when he jettisoned a budding career as an R&B singer in his...
August 2008 By Bill Meredith
George Schuller’s Circle Wide: Round Repertory
Themed tribute CDs have become a popular way for modern jazz artists and recording labels to produce more “hits,” at least those of the Internet era’s search-engine variety. For Brooklyn-based drummer George Schuller’s band, Circle Wide, tributes have less...
August 2008 By Michael J. West
Grant Stewart: Young Old Soul
Until about three years ago, Grant Stewart was usually the youngest musician on the bandstand. “I’ve always been drawn to older musicians,” the 36-year-old tenor saxophonist muses. “My first music teacher, Pete Schofield, put me in his big band; there I...
August 2008 By Eric Fine
Dafnis Prieto: Multilingual Rhythms
Dafnis Prieto, an emerging drummer and composer, emigrated from Cuba to New York almost 10 years ago. Given his druthers, though, he would have moved to Paris. Prieto visited New York on two occasions, but the city failed to make an impression, in part because...
August 2008 By Bill Milkowski
Sheryl Bailey: Gone, Not Forgotten
As an aspiring guitar player growing up in Pittsburgh, Sheryl Bailey drew inspiration during her high school years from Emily Remler, the accomplished Wes Montgomery-inspired burner and Concord recording artist. “I remember recording some stuff off the radio...
June 2008 By John Murph
Empirical: British Invasion
In January, launched by the concerted efforts of arts councils and media outlets on both sides of the Atlantic, a platoon of more than 100 U.K. jazz musicians swarmed the 2008 conference for the International Association for Jazz Education in Toronto. Among...
June 2008 By Thomas Conrad
Adam Kolker: True Tenor
Claims made in liner notes can’t always be taken straight to the bank. But Peter Watrous’ proposition in his notes to Adam Kolker’s new Sunnyside CD, Flag Day, is supported by the album’s contents. The former New York Times jazz critic writes that Kolker...
June 2008 By Brian Soergel
Jessy J: Super Saxy
Combining song and sex appeal is an age-old attention-grabber in popular music, as even a passing glance at MTV, magazines and Web sites makes clear. When it comes to jazz, Michael Bublé and Harry Connick Jr. define sexy, but they’re not ripping their shirts...
June 2008 By Mike Shanley
Steven Bernstein: The Mix-Up
No one really knows who I am, but, man, I’m everywhere,” says trumpeter Steven Bernstein. The brass man, often seen blowing a slide trumpet in bands like Sex Mob or the Millennial Territory Orchestra, isn’t bragging, nor is he bemoaning a public that doesn’t...
