Reviews

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center is proud to present Jazz Meets Sports, a special event connecting jazz artistry and athletic performance created by Artistic Advisor and GRAMMY® Award-winning bassist Christian McBride. This special one night only program will take place on Sunday, March 2 at 7:00PM in NJPAC’s Victoria Theater. McBride is set to perform …

One of the preeminent female jazz vocalists in the world, Dianne Reeves, is set to release her Concord Records debut, Beautiful Life, on February 11, 2014. The album showcases Reeves’ sublime gifts by melding elements of R&B, Latin and pop within the framework of 21st Century jazz. “At its essence,” …

At the outset, let me admit my appreciation for Robert Glasper’s Black Radio 2. Ostensibly, the album serves as a continuation of the artist’s postmodern movement through sound. So, if you liked the first as much as I did, you, too, will certainly enjoy his latest serving. I do believe, …

Wynton Marsalis’ orchestra and choir blew the roof off of Boston Symphony Hall on Sunday night. A stirring ensemble of forty female and thirty male vocalists gave a rousing gospel invocation with “The House of The Lord,” while the orchestra swung back and forth over belting vocals and blaring horn …

The proposal to put elements from Brazilian Music, the creativity of Jazz, and the energy of Rock, is challenging.  However, it’s real and is present in the work of pianist Marilia Giller. Marilia Giller was born in Paraná, south of Brazil. She had lived in Montreux in the 1990’s where …

In a career spanning three decades, Kenny Garrett has attained such a renowned status that he is now considered the most innovative and influential alto player of his generation. Garrett, who started his career playing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and was Miles Davis’s last reedman, has developed a playing …

When jazz musicians perform and record “tributes” to the music of another renowned artist, the result is usually prosaic. The player paying “homage” usually performs to the standards the honoree is famous for delivering.  However, when Afro-Cuban pianist Omar Sosa received a commission to take the music of the Miles …

Esperanza Spalding – We Are America from ESP Media on Vimeo. “We Are America” shines a light on human rights and calls for closing the detention camp. Esperanza Spalding says she was motivated by nagging concerns that grew as she was on tour with her band. “It was the first time …

Pianist Michele Rosewoman is considered one of the most versatile players in modern jazz. For over 30 years, Rosewoman made a name for herself as an active exponent of Afro-Cuban music and culture, studying traditional Yoruba rhythms and incorporating them into her personal work.  She worked with the late great …

  “Occasionally I hear the wind blow, And I find that just hearing the wind blow makes it worth having been born .” The quotation of the Fernando Pessoa‘s poem can illustrate what is to be adrift, listening to the wind, not necessarily in silence, but to be in an introspective …

Drummer/percussionist Francisco Mora Catlett made some serious noise in New York jazz circles with the release of his ground-breaking Afro-Horn MX, a wildly eclectic mix of Afro-Cuban ritual, avant-garde jazz, and Latin American surrealism. Fans and critics alike were enthralled with the thematic direction of the music, which was inspired …

  It is on the stage that we find a performer at his or her most vulnerable. There is no “take 2,” no “let’s run that back.” Stripped of all the technological crutches found in a proper studio, here the artist stands completely naked before an eager public. For this …