Solange Knowles took the lead on this year’s curated music series at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Saint Heron. The series, titled Eldorado Ballroom, is comprised of seven shows showcasing themes derived from the historic Black music hall it’s named after.
Eldorado Ballroom was a performance space for blues, jazz, R&b, and pop musicians in Houston’s Third Ward, where Solange is from and where she learned the art of performance.
“I approach my work as an artist and my reentering the curatorial space through Saint...
Eldorado Ballroom was a performance space for blues, jazz, R&b, and pop musicians in Houston’s Third Ward, where Solange is from and where she learned the art of performance.
“I approach my work as an artist and my reentering the curatorial space through Saint...
- 2/16/2023
- by Larisha Paul
- Rollingstone.com
There are great artists, and then there are artists of such titanic power that they literally change the world. I’m thinking of Shakespeare, Leonardo, Dostoevsky, Picasso. Louis Armstrong is on that Olympian plane. Yet he’s the rare example of an artist whose very fame, image, and media mythology can actually obscure his revolutionary grandeur as a creator. When he first came to prominence, in the ’20s and early ’30s, you heard the Armstrong revolution in every note he played or sang. He blasted the trumpet into an incandescent upper register, hitting high Cs audiences would talk about for days, yet it’s not as if this was some feat of musical mountain-climbing. He was in his own stratosphere, playing from the heavens. Each note vibrated like a shimmering pearl lit from within. No one had sounded like that; no one had commanded like that.
“Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,...
“Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,...
- 11/1/2022
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
“Can we go deep into the obscure, or do we need to stay mainstream?”
When Matt Groening asks that question, the invitation is tantalizing to consider. In this case, Groening is talking about jazz, and specifically about his new partnership with Quincy Jones’ music-video hub, Qwest TV. His mission for Qwest was a curated video playlist revealing the jazz influences crucial to Groening — personally, professionally and to “The Simpsons,” most famously in sax-playing characters such as Bleeding Gums Murphy and Homer’s precocious daughter, Lisa Simpson.
Jones’ streaming channel offers a wealth of rarely seen concerts, documentaries, interviews and music-related archival films. Groening’s playlist ranges from “mainstream” names such as Ray Charles, Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus to the “avant-garde” likes of saxophonists Moondog and Archie Shepp and pianist Carla Bley.
“When I was invited to do this, the first thing I did was make half of my list...
When Matt Groening asks that question, the invitation is tantalizing to consider. In this case, Groening is talking about jazz, and specifically about his new partnership with Quincy Jones’ music-video hub, Qwest TV. His mission for Qwest was a curated video playlist revealing the jazz influences crucial to Groening — personally, professionally and to “The Simpsons,” most famously in sax-playing characters such as Bleeding Gums Murphy and Homer’s precocious daughter, Lisa Simpson.
Jones’ streaming channel offers a wealth of rarely seen concerts, documentaries, interviews and music-related archival films. Groening’s playlist ranges from “mainstream” names such as Ray Charles, Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus to the “avant-garde” likes of saxophonists Moondog and Archie Shepp and pianist Carla Bley.
“When I was invited to do this, the first thing I did was make half of my list...
- 10/26/2021
- by A.D. Amorosi
- Variety Film + TV
After more than a year in lockdown, little in the music industry is certain. But in the near-absence of live shows, Bandcamp Friday has become a rare constant. The monthly tradition — a digital holiday of sorts, during which Bandcamp waives its revenue share, channeling all proceeds directly to artists and labels who sell their music through the service — brought in a whopping $40 million for creators throughout 2020. It continued in February and March, and is scheduled to run through May. In honor of today’s edition, here are a bunch of...
- 4/2/2021
- by Jonathan Bernstein, Rick Carp , Jon Dolan, Jon Freeman, Joseph Hudak, Rob Sheffield, Hank Shteamer and Simon Vozick-Levinson
- Rollingstone.com
In June of 1965, two young saxophonists, Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp, gathered at New Jersey’s famed Van Gelder Studio as part of an 11-piece band convened by John Coltrane. At the time, Coltrane was leading his so-called classic quartet, one of the most celebrated bands in jazz, but he was looking toward a wilder, more expansive sound. And he’d enlisted a crew of hungry up-and-comers to help him get there. Joining fellow new faces like Marion Brown and John Tchicai on the date — the results of which came...
- 3/24/2021
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
Julio Perez IV’s music exploration works in reverse with his age. When he was a young teenager in the mid-‘80s, he was discovering the funk of the early ‘70s. When he was a college student in the ‘90s, he was getting exposed to ‘60s surf rock and ‘50s jazz. Current or classic, the film editor’s music obsession has stood him in good stead as his extensive knowledge comes into play on every project on which he works. This includes his most recent film, Sam Levinson’s “Malcolm & Marie,” starring Zendaya and John David Washington (read Variety‘s review here), which is now streaming on Netflix.
For “Malcolm & Marie,” Perez worked with his “Euphoria” music team, which includes music supervisor Jen Malone, composer (and hit singer-songwriter) Labrinth, and cinematographer Marcell Rev in addition to writer/director Levinson. From soul to funk, jazz, hip hop and R&b,...
For “Malcolm & Marie,” Perez worked with his “Euphoria” music team, which includes music supervisor Jen Malone, composer (and hit singer-songwriter) Labrinth, and cinematographer Marcell Rev in addition to writer/director Levinson. From soul to funk, jazz, hip hop and R&b,...
- 2/5/2021
- by Lily Moayeri
- Variety Film + TV
Starting in March, when the Covid-19 crisis flattened the livelihoods of many in the music business, Bandcamp has held a monthly holiday in which it waives its full revenue share on all sales. The idea was an immediate hit. Bandcamp Friday, which falls on June 5th this month, has successfully directed millions of fans’ dollars to the artists who rely on income from merch and music to pay their bills at a time of acute economic distress.
Today, there’s another reason to pick up that record or T-shirt you...
Today, there’s another reason to pick up that record or T-shirt you...
- 6/5/2020
- by Jonathan Bernstein, David Browne, Reed Dunlea, Jon Freeman, Jerry Portwood, Claire Shaffer, Hank Shteamer and Simon Vozick-Levinson
- Rollingstone.com
Frank Zappa may be the only rock star as prolific in death as he was in life. And that’s saying a lot, considering he released 62 albums in his 52 years on this planet. Since his death in 1993, his estate has put out nearly 60 releases, making it even harder to navigate his labyrinthine catalogue and making most of these posthumous releases jewels waiting to be discovered. The latest is The Hot Rats Sessions — a six-disc, exhaustive deep dive into the main Mother of Invention’s first solo masterpiece, Hot Rats, which...
- 12/26/2019
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
“‘Is jazz dead?’ is a stupid question,” says drummer and bandleader Makaya McCraven over beers at a Lower East Side bar that is, fittingly, playing a selection of 1930s and ’40s-era jazz cuts. “If you have to ask the same question for 50 years, it becomes a rhetorical question. When did it die?”
Those who know McCraven’s work would likely reach a similar conclusion. Critically acclaimed releases like In the Moment (2015) and Highly Rare (2017) — both made up entirely of live material — put the heat and vitality of an intimate jazz...
Those who know McCraven’s work would likely reach a similar conclusion. Critically acclaimed releases like In the Moment (2015) and Highly Rare (2017) — both made up entirely of live material — put the heat and vitality of an intimate jazz...
- 10/25/2018
- by Natalie Weiner
- Rollingstone.com
Attendees of the 39th annual Montreal International Jazz Festival likely all had a familiar refrain in mind: the heat is on. The fest, which runs June 28 to July 7, faced summer temperatures well into the 90s this week, but jazz fanatics, party people, families and tourists alike are braving the weather to enjoy a wide range of musical entertainment and outdoor spectacles.
High profile performers like Ry Cooder, Seal, Snarky Puppy and saxophone sensation Kamasi Washington brought their big stage shows to appreciative audiences, along with veteran jazz stalwarts like Archie Shepp and guitarist Al Di Meola. Performing American rockers like George Thorogood, Ben Harper and the jam-friendly Bela Fleck and the Flecktones were all honored with great hospitality and presented with official festival awards.
Singer/guitarist Ry Cooder appeared at the Théâtre Maisonneuve on Friday night, showcasing his unique spin on American roots music and playing the blues with style and grace.
High profile performers like Ry Cooder, Seal, Snarky Puppy and saxophone sensation Kamasi Washington brought their big stage shows to appreciative audiences, along with veteran jazz stalwarts like Archie Shepp and guitarist Al Di Meola. Performing American rockers like George Thorogood, Ben Harper and the jam-friendly Bela Fleck and the Flecktones were all honored with great hospitality and presented with official festival awards.
Singer/guitarist Ry Cooder appeared at the Théâtre Maisonneuve on Friday night, showcasing his unique spin on American roots music and playing the blues with style and grace.
- 7/1/2018
- by Mitch Myers
- Variety Film + TV
Mubi is showing William Klein's The Pan-African Festival of Algiers (1969) in many countries around the world from October 25 - November 23, 2016.The colonised is elevated above his jungle status in proportion to his adoption of the mother country's cultural standards. —Frantz Fanon Mubi's William Klein retrospective presents a rare opportunity to watch one of his lesser known films, 1969's Le festival Panafricain d'Alger. Filmed on the occasion of the first edition of the eponymous festival in the Algerian capital which had recently been the set of an historic victory of the anti-colonialist movement, this legendary documentary was produced by the Office national pour le commerce et l'industrie cinématographiques (Oncic). The festival celebrated African culture in its emancipatory passage from passive receptacle of Orientalist projections into a proactive agent of self-representation. Much more than an anti-colonialist Woodstock, Klein's film is an ethnographic piece of internationalist agit-prop that traces the significance of the...
- 11/29/2016
- MUBI
I didn't have enough free time in 2014 to review nearly as many of last year's prolific output of fine jazz albums as I wanted to. Here's a small step toward catching up, plus two 2015 releases (Ligeti/McDonas, The Side Project Saxophone 4tet).
Tom Varner: Nine Surprises (Tom Varner Music)
Composer and French horn player Tom Varner is indeed full of surprises, and they are not confined to the suite of that name (which, surprisingly, has 15 movements). I was most surprised by the outburst of New Orleans jazz in the last piece on the CD, "Mele," which Varner calls "a Gil Evans-influenced variation on the harmonic structure of a pop Hawaiian Christmas song." In general the music here seems highly composed -- these are not heads with strings of solos -- but still allowing for improvisation. The soloists who make the biggest impression are trombonist David Marriott and, no surprise here,...
Tom Varner: Nine Surprises (Tom Varner Music)
Composer and French horn player Tom Varner is indeed full of surprises, and they are not confined to the suite of that name (which, surprisingly, has 15 movements). I was most surprised by the outburst of New Orleans jazz in the last piece on the CD, "Mele," which Varner calls "a Gil Evans-influenced variation on the harmonic structure of a pop Hawaiian Christmas song." In general the music here seems highly composed -- these are not heads with strings of solos -- but still allowing for improvisation. The soloists who make the biggest impression are trombonist David Marriott and, no surprise here,...
- 2/10/2015
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Complete list of winners and nominees of the 2014 Grammy Awards, held in Los Angeles at the Staples Center on Sunday February 8. Winners will be updated as they're announced during the telecast and pre-telecast. Record Of The Year “Fancy,” Iggy Azalea Featuring Charli Xcx “Chandelier,” Sia **Winner** “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version),” Sam Smith “Shake It Off,” Taylor Swift “All About That Bass,” Meghan Trainor Album Of The Year **Winner** “Morning Phase,” Beck “Beyoncé,” Beyoncé “X,” Ed Sheeran “In The Lonely Hour,” Sam Smith “Girl,” Pharrell Williams Song Of The Year “All About That Bass,” Kevin Kadish & Meghan Trainor, songwriters (Meghan Trainor) “Chandelier,” Sia Furler & Jesse Shatkin, songwriters (Sia) “Shake It Off,” Max Martin, Shellback & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift) **Winner** “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version),” James Napier, William Phillips & Sam Smith, songwriters (Sam Smith) “Take Me To Church,” Andrew Hozier-Byrne, songwriter (Hozier) Best New Artist Iggy Azalea Bastille Brandy Clark...
- 2/8/2015
- by Donna Dickens
- Hitfix
Yusef Lateef, who died on Monday after a bout with prostate cancer, was a devout Muslim who did not like his music to be called jazz because of the supposed indecent origins and connotations of the word (although those origins are still debated). He preferred the self-coined phrase "autophysiopsychic music." Furthermore, his music encompassed an impressively broad range of styles, and the only Grammy he won was in the New Age category -- for a recording of a symphony. Think about those things amid the flood of Lateef obituaries with "jazz" in the headline.
That said, certainly Lateef's own musical origins indisputably revolved around jazz. Growing up in Detroit, a highly fertile musical environment in the 1930s and beyond, Lateef got his first instrument, an $80 Martin alto sax, at age 18. Within a year he was on the road with the 13 Spirits of Swing (arrangements by Milt Buckner).
A Detroit friend,...
That said, certainly Lateef's own musical origins indisputably revolved around jazz. Growing up in Detroit, a highly fertile musical environment in the 1930s and beyond, Lateef got his first instrument, an $80 Martin alto sax, at age 18. Within a year he was on the road with the 13 Spirits of Swing (arrangements by Milt Buckner).
A Detroit friend,...
- 12/25/2013
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Marzette Watts: Marzette Watts & Company (Esp-Disk')
In the brief period when I did a little work for Esp-Disk', this was the album the most people (especially record store owners and musicians) enthusiastically nominated for reissue. And now, here it is!
This album is distinguished by a number of factors, not least the fact that this is its first issue on CD in the U.S. (a few European reissues are in inferior sound). Recorded on December 8, 1966, it was Watts's first session as a leader (though, not released until 1971, it was his second album to appear, following a now-rare Savoy LP). Watts (1938-1998) never made any more albums after those two, alas, nor did he record as a sideman, though he appears in the credits on some albums from the free jazz scene as the engineer.
Watts is heard here on tenor and soprano saxophones and on bass clarinet; Byard Lancaster (b.
In the brief period when I did a little work for Esp-Disk', this was the album the most people (especially record store owners and musicians) enthusiastically nominated for reissue. And now, here it is!
This album is distinguished by a number of factors, not least the fact that this is its first issue on CD in the U.S. (a few European reissues are in inferior sound). Recorded on December 8, 1966, it was Watts's first session as a leader (though, not released until 1971, it was his second album to appear, following a now-rare Savoy LP). Watts (1938-1998) never made any more albums after those two, alas, nor did he record as a sideman, though he appears in the credits on some albums from the free jazz scene as the engineer.
Watts is heard here on tenor and soprano saxophones and on bass clarinet; Byard Lancaster (b.
- 7/12/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
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