Reviews

Although only 42-years-old, Touré has been an unfailing appraiser of music and society for nearly 20 years. Whenever media institutions like Rolling Stone Magazine, Vibe Magazine, BET, MTV or FUSE Network needed someone to get an accurate pulse of the modern recording artist, they called upon the Brooklyn-based author/journalist/TV Personality …

Like a counterfeit copy of Sonny’s Crib (Sonny Clark) or Cornbread (Lee Morgan), jazz clubs are filled with performances that often times feel formulaic. The equation goes something like this: A+B+C+A= a diverse and dynamically/emotionally engaging performance A = A real swinger, something to show the audience how fast the …

Big Daddy Kane and Las Supper perform at New York’s Blue Note Jazz Club photo by Chad Batka One of the reasons that Big Daddy Kane is one of hip-hop’s greatest innovators is because he took his cues from soul music greats. His electrifying stage shows were a modern take …

The Public Theater, one of the nation’s first non-profit theater companies, has been producing contemporary works and Shakespeare plays for the past 60 years. A devoted artistic establishment, and a promoter of political, social, and artistic dialogue, The Public runs a distinguished forum that they call Duets. These Duets are …

Prince’s music is like air; so ubiquitous you sometimes forget that it’s there, yet it is essential to all it surrounds. The Roots are like water; they take the form of any container they enter and they are just as essential for survival. No matter what artists tackle the extensive …

Mark de Clive-Lowe Mark de Clive-Lowe is known best as a New Zealand born, body moving DJ whose reputation has spread all over the world. His “Church” residencies in U.S. cities like New York and Los Angeles have become legendary, fusing refined abilities behind the turntables with that of virtuoso …

Robert Glasper Prior to hitting the stage for two highly anticipated concerts, Grammy award winning musician and producer, Robert Glasper, engaged a small, but attentive audience in an enlightening master class session as part of the 2013 San Jose Jazz Winterfest. Glasper, who typically leaves audiences awestruck with his progressive, …

Gerald Clayton (piano), Ben Williams (bass), and Logan Richardson (alto sax) photo by Ernest Gregory The track record of successful “super-groups” in music history is a checkered one. When individual giants of their craft come together to form a behemoth of a collaboration – whether by fate or design – …

Wynton Marsalis conducts the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performing “Blood on the Fields” At its best and most pure, music is three dimensional. Vivaldi proved it with his piece “The Four Seasons.” George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” did as well, along with Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly and Quincy Jones’ Walking …

Chris Dave photo by Bjorn Bergenheim An art form that once coalesced from the underground, from the counter culture, has lost some of its swagger. Sometimes overly intellectualized and distant, jazz can come off as aristocratic, pretentious even. This musical discipline with its rich history seems to get lost in …

A group that is reminiscent of Miles Davis’ second great quintet and six brand new compositions by a saxophonist that is often times considered the greatest composer in jazz history. Are you excited yet? Wayne Shorter, the man who for 50 years has produced countless jazz classics, is back on …

Terri Lyne Carrington Money Jungle If you think that you can’t make a social statement with instrumental music, you are misinformed. When looking throughout the history of American Jazz, there are no shortage of artists who used their ability as musicians and composers to illuminate the events, dreams and aspirations …