Reviews

The 38th annual Atlanta Jazz Festival (AJF) kicked off on a beautiful Memorial Day weekend in Piedmont Park. If I could name one constant that people have come to expect from the AJF, it would have to be the eclectic sounds that fuse jazz elements with every genre known to …

Mimi Jones Quartet New Buffalo, MI—Building on the success of the first jazz festival in Harbor Country last year, iRock Jazz Fest 2015 is expanding to deliver more performances on more sites, and is adding a variety of innovative and entertaining activities for family members of all ages. This year’s …

Modernity has prescribed a certain mode of discourse when engaging this thing we call “jazz.” Tangible dissections of sound are cast aside for more abstract debates around authenticity and contextualization. Wherever you stand on the political spectrum, if you’ve at all discussed jazz in the present, you’ve most certainly discussed …

NEW BUFFALO, MI — The Veteran’s Day weekend this year will be hotter than ever in New Buffalo, as iRock Jazz brings some of the finest local, national and internationally known jazz musicians to town for its first-ever iRock Jazz Fest. The one-day music fest on Saturday, November 8 will …

Join producer Stephen Hendel for the VIP screening of “Finding Fela” at the iRock Jazz Festival Friday November 7. http://irockjazz.com/festival/purchase-tickets/ $20 VIP tickets to the Friday evening film screening of Finding Fela include: Tabor Hill Winery VIP meet and greet at 7 p.m. “Finding Fela” film screening at 8 p.m. Q …

San Jose, one of the most advanced tech hubs in the world—home to tech giants like eBay, PayPal, and Cisco—usually marches to the beat of 0’s and 1’s, but August 8th-10th, the heart of Silicon Valley beat with the pulse of the harmonic melodies, venerable voices and musicians, and the …

“Who’s that walkin’ ’round here?” remarks Fats Waller. “Sounds like baby patter…baby elephant patter, that’s what I call it.” Taken from the opening measures of “Your Feet’s Too Big,” I, like many, I’m sure, assumed that this was another colorful entry in the Fats Waller songbook. In reality, the song …

The most difficult part of discussing Dr. John is deciding where to start. It’s hard to track a man that has lived more than most. And when I say that, I don’t mean years; I mean experience. When you think of Dr. John, what comes to mind? Voodoo? Drug addiction? …

The last time iRock Jazz spoke to Harvey Mason, he was headed to Japan to tour with his Chameleon band to promote his new CD Chameleon.  Since then, Mason’s Chameleon CD has opened to rave reviews worldwide on April 29th.  To celebrate and show its support for one of the …

My earliest memories of Bobby Hutcherson begin around 2003. At the time, I was familiar with jazz, but my native tongue found its origins in a place known as the “Boogie Down.” With hip-hop being such an expansive form, I took it upon myself to master every variance in dialect …

While much of the world was just beginning to enjoy summer, the Caribbean island of St. Lucia said goodbye to its sunshine season with the “2014 St. Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival.” This was the second year of the festival under a new rebranding structure following its first 22 years. …

Depending on whom you ask, the term “folk music,” can elicit several different reactions. From Robert Johnson to Robert Zimmerman, folk music’s long reach is only matched by that of jazz. But what happens when the two come together? What happens when the vestiges of folk find themselves being translated …