SFJazz Collective: Live 2009
While there is no disputing the hegemony of New York City as jazz’s artistic epicenter, some of the music’s stronger enabling forces have bases far … Read More “SFJazz Collective: Live 2009”
Josef Woodard
Charlie Haden Family & Friends
The legendary bassist gets back to his Rambling Boy roots at L.A.’s Disney Hall
Live Review: JazzFest Berlin 2009
Blue Note tributes, European masters impress at this Nils Landgren-programmed fest
Ben Allison: Think Free
Josef Woodard looks at how Ben Allison’s newest combines pop and jazz sensibilities.
Roy Hargrove: Emergence
Roy Hargrove thinks big (band) on latest. Critic Josef Woodard approves.
Miguel Zenon: Esta Plena
Fresh off of garnering his mantelpiece-polishing Guggenheim and MacArthur awards, alto saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón gets back down to the business of making some … Read More “Miguel Zenon: Esta Plena”
Big-Band Bash at the Hollywood Bowl
Roberta Gambarini shines at all-star L.A. show
Monterey Jazz Festival
Versatile programming (and a surprise Sco-Lo set) at the world’s oldest continuous jazz fest
Stefon Harris & Blackout: Urbanus
Stefon Harris and his group Blackout keep their jazz muse on while exploring a contemporary groove.
Angel City Jazz Festival
“West Coast jazz” means musical daring at this L.A. fest
Wynton Marsalis: He and She
Music trumps poetry on his latest thematic project
Monk: Peter Bernstein Trio
A guitarist rescues the Monk songbook from predictability
The Blue Note 7: Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records
Venerable old Blue Note Records, one of the last “major” jazz labels standing, has assembled in-house/road-show projects in the past, but this year’s “Blue Note … Read More “The Blue Note 7: Mosaic: A Celebration of Blue Note Records”
Richard Bona : Bona Makes You Sweat
The Cameroon-born Bona has become one of the most expressive bassists in jazz.
Anat Cohen: Notes From the Village
Josef Woodard reviews the latest recording from Anat Cohen, the clarinetist and saxophonist orginally from Israel.
Randy Brecker : Randy in Brasil
Brazilian music has been in the public ear more than usual during this past year, given the 50th birthday of bossa nova and its multiple … Read More “Randy Brecker : Randy in Brasil”
Estoril & Allgarve Jazz Festival
Jazz has a faithful friend and source of support in Portugal, as it does in most European countries. But Portugal’s jazz love and jazz lore … Read More “Estoril & Allgarve Jazz Festival”
Solo: Westward Expansion: Monterey at 50
When it comes to jazz legacy, that oft-used and misused l-word, the Monterey Jazz Festival has an unusually bountiful supply. That fact rang clearly in … Read More “Solo: Westward Expansion: Monterey at 50”
Various Artists: Viva Carlos!
Carlos Santana’s guitar style has been one of those instantly identifiable sounds on the musical horizon for close to four decades. Cross-generational listeners with access … Read More “Various Artists: Viva Carlos!”
Myra Melford, Hammer Museum, Westwood, Calif.
Pianist-composer Myra Melford has long managed to defy easy descriptors, working both inside and out and pushing her music into terrain with musical vocabulary both … Read More “Myra Melford, Hammer Museum, Westwood, Calif.”
Pritchard Jade Dagger Amplifier
A single multifaceted guitar amp is, like a great sampled grand piano sound, one of those elusive ideals in the world of music equipment. While … Read More “Pritchard Jade Dagger Amplifier”
Eric Alexander: It’s All In the Game
The sharp-toned and sharpminded tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander stretches into a few different directions on his latest album but never loses his sure personal voice. … Read More “Eric Alexander: It’s All In the Game”
John Ellis: By a Thread
Saxophonist John Ellis first made his name as the sax foil in Charlie Hunter’s band, from which he has gained some fine ideas about how … Read More “John Ellis: By a Thread”
Duke Robillard: Guitar Groove-a-Rama
Smack dab in the middle of his latest album, Guitar Groove-a-Rama, the chameleonic blues-guitar hero Duke Robillard takes the opportunity to pay respects to an … Read More “Duke Robillard: Guitar Groove-a-Rama”
Jaco Pastorius: Word ‘Em Up
The amazing bassist was also a great big band leader. Josef Woodard reports.
Various Artists: Ziriguiboom: The Now Sound of Brazil 2
Although “Simplesmente,” a svelte Bebel Gilberto remix, kicks off this electro-bubbly and hip new Brazilian compilation, the goods herein are anything but your father’s (or … Read More “Various Artists: Ziriguiboom: The Now Sound of Brazil 2”
Vincent Gardner Quintet: Elbow Room
The standard jazz-quintet paradigm, as cemented by Art Blakey’s various Jazz Messengers and the classic mid-’60s Miles Davis quintet, has long been an enduring staple … Read More “Vincent Gardner Quintet: Elbow Room”
Kip Hanrahan: Pinero
Kip Hanrahan’s evocative and hard-to-classify albums have always occupied some dimensional netherworld, just left of jazz or any easy idiomatic address, closer to the realm … Read More “Kip Hanrahan: Pinero”
Wes Montgomery: The Softer Side of Genius
The 1950s and early 1960s recordings by Wes Montgomery are among the greatest in jazz-guitar history. But what of the mid-to-late ’60s albums that Montgomery cut for Verve and A&M that led to his greatest popular successes-and the loudest critiques from the jazz world? Josef Woodard gives us an indepth look at the commercial apex of
Montgomery’s career.
Wadada Leo Smith: Dreaming on the Outskirts
To reach the township of Piru, head east out of the megalopolis of Los Angeles. Turn left after the amusement park known as Magic Mountain … Read More “Wadada Leo Smith: Dreaming on the Outskirts”