Thinking back to his early days as a curious young musician, Eddie Palmieri remembers hours of close listening to records. The Cuban bands of the ’50s held a particular fascination for the percussionist-turned-pianist; he’d dissect every detail of the music to learn how the various parts worked together and, ideally, how to play with them.…Read More
Lots of jazz artists and presenters like to talk about reaching a younger audience. But few go as far as clarinetist and saxophonist Oran Etkin, who regularly teaches and plays music to infants. Etkin created his Timbalooloo teaching method in order to reach potential music students before life, language, and thinking get in the way.…Read More
JazzTimes is pleased to present the premiere of trumpeter Brian Newman’s “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” featuring Lady Gaga. This moody version of the Bennie Benjamin/Horace Ott/Sol Marcus classic, first made famous by Nina Simone and the Animals, is available on Newman’s debut album for Verve, Showboat, released Nov. 16. The players on this track,…Read More
One of the most impressive things about Adam Nussbaum is the stylistic range of the music he’s made. He played with James Moody for many years, with George Gruntz and Michael Brecker each for a few, and continues to work in various different groups led by Dave Liebman. He’s been with Gil Evans, John Scofield…Read More
A college degree is no guarantee. It’s a cliché, but it only becomes truer as time goes on. It’s truer still in the music world, and perhaps in the jazz world most of all. “There’s this kind of fallacy that you get a jazz degree and all of a sudden you’re supposed to be gifted…Read More
The 2000s were a particularly diverse decade for jazz. To name just three major factors in the music of that era, the influence of rock and hip-hop grew increasingly prominent, big bands experienced a resurgence, and the ever-creative Wayne Shorter began a valiant stylistic transformation. Here’s a look at 10 of the decade’s best albums.…Read More
“I was kind of worried that the first set would be underattended,” Eliot Zigmund deadpanned to a packed room at Smalls, the basement jazz club in the West Village, on a temperate evening in early July. “Reminds me of the Village Vanguard when I used to play there, too many years ago to tell you.”…Read More
Like many in the jazz community, Monifa Brown was deeply saddened by the death of Roy Hargrove on Nov. 2 at age 49. In the days following the trumpeter’s passing, Brown—who has hosted the “Saturday Afternoon Jazz” program on Newark, N.J.’s WBGO for more than 20 years—felt moved to write the following words of tribute, which JazzTimes…Read More
These days, the name for what I teach is either Non-Performance Studies or Emergent Media. When I started teaching, only 15 years ago, it was simply Music History and Criticism. A big part of the challenge and the fun—if one cares to look at it that way—of being a music instructor is riding the waves…Read More
JazzTimes is honored to premiere the video for singer Ann Hampton Callaway’s “Thoughts and Prayers.” The song, which was written by Callaway, does not appear on her latest album, the recently released Jazz Goes to the Movies (a review of which will soon be appearing on JazzTimes.com). Instead, it’s a one-off single inspired by recent…Read More
