Wandering the grounds of Fort Adams during the Newport Jazz Festival is like cruising through a mixtape that a perceptive pal made for you. The selections are inspired, the change-ups come fast, and surprises await. This year’s three-day event, sponsored by Natixis Investment Managers (shout-out to any entity that dumps loot into the laps of…Read More
JazzTimes is pleased to premiere Nicole Mitchell’s “A Sound,” a track from the flutist/composer’s latest album, Maroon Cloud, out Aug. 10 on FPE Records. maroon cloud by Nicole Mitchell The album comprises an eight-part suite that was recorded live at National Sawdust in Brooklyn on March 29, 2017, as part of John Zorn’s Stone Commissioning…Read More
JazzTimes is proud to premiere “Cheetahs & Gazelles,” the opening track of the Denny Seiwell Trio’s Boomerang album, to be released Sept. 7 on Quarto Valley Records. If you’re a Paul McCartney fan, Denny Seiwell’s name may already be familiar to you. He played drums on Macca’s second solo album Ram in 1971, and then became the…Read More
Steve Cardenas’ recent Newvelle Records LP is called Charlie & Paul—as in Haden and Motian, two of the guitarist’s biggest influences and two musicians who gave his career a boost by hiring him. The lyricism of their compositions is echoed in his two leader albums for Fresh Sounds and two subsequent ones for Sunnyside. Cardenas…Read More
This weekend (Aug. 3-5), 30,000 or so music enthusiasts will converge on a spit of land overlooking Narragansett Bay in Newport, R.I., for the annual Newport Jazz Festival. Since 1954, the festival has been a New England summer tradition (except for the nine years from 1972 to 1981, during which it emigrated from Newport to…Read More
On her new album, Some of That Sunshine, to be released by her own label Kasrecords on Aug. 3, singer Karrin Allyson unveils a skill that many of her listeners may believe is new for her: songwriting. But it turns out that she was already engaged in tunesmithery well before the release of her debut…Read More
When asked if he identifies himself as a composer or an improviser, Brandon Ross chooses neither. “I consider myself a creator,” he says, a comment that nods to wisdom collected from his friend and frequent collaborator Wadada Leo Smith. Ross is also the epitome of the postmodern guitar hero, a fretboard virtuoso who adheres to…Read More
Quick, what do Andy Warhol, Peter Max, and Romare Bearden all have in common? Our headline gives away the answer, of course, because yes, all of them did the artwork for jazz album covers. And in that they were far from alone: The tradition of interesting and creative jazz album covers goes all the way…Read More
These were the most meaningful and significant jazz-guitar tracks for me growing up. I made some discoveries at the public library, where you could take out 10 LPs at a time; others through my early guitar teachers; and still more just from word of mouth and friends who played. It was fun to revisit some…Read More
Arianna Neikrug, the 25-year-old singer who won the Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition in 2015, will release her debut album, Changes, Aug. 24 on Concord Jazz, and JazzTimes is pleased to be premiering the album’s title track here. “I wrote the melody and lyrics to ‘Changes’ a couple months after graduating from college,” Neikrug says.…Read More
