Aug 31, 2020
After nearly 50 years of playing music together, going back to their days as students at the University of Miami through their years of touring and recording as members of the original Pat Metheny Group, with the Gil Evans Monday Night Orchestra, exploring new tones and textures with their band Elements and heading...
Aug 28, 2020
August 29 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Charles Parker, Jr., best known to music fans as Charlie Parker, or simply "Bird." From his birth in Kansas City, Kansas to his untimely death at the age of 35, Parkerwas insgtrumental in re-creainge and establishing the music we call jazz. Regrettably, his early...
Aug 27, 2020
When bandleader/composer/arranger John Beasley began to reimagine the music of Thelonious through the vehicle of his inventive, versatile MONK’estra, it might have been easy to assume that he had created a continuing homage to one of jazz’s singular talents. Perhaps it would morph into something like the Mingus...
Aug 25, 2020
Gregg August’s latest work could not be more timely. It’s entitled Dialogues on Race, Volume 1 and quite frankly, is there a more important topic for the world to be having a conversation about today? Using his experience as a classical musician, and modern classical composer, he has taken a broad subject and used...
Aug 22, 2020
David Gilmore’s second album for Criss Cross, From Here to Here, is just his sixth release as a bandleader. This seems to be a criminal lack of material, as Gilmore has spent the past 35 years as a key member of performances and recording sessions with the likes of Steve Coleman, Randy Brecker, Christian McBride,...