38th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival: Jazz Is Its Own Reward
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 …
CD REVIEW: Zara McFarlane – If You Knew Her (Brownswood)
Zara McFarlane performs at Queen Elizabeth Hall Photo by Andy Sheppard British vocalist Zara McFarlane is part of the new-jazz/soul movement which became prominent in the UK during the 90’s. However, while her peers followed in the steps of such Brit soul/jazz groups as Brand New Heavies and Incognito, McFarlane …
iRock Jazz LIVE! with Bassist Robert Hurst
When Robert Hurst was growing up in Detroit, so many kinds of great music tugged at him, he could easily have gone in a different direction than jazz. Motown influences abounded: Marvin Gaye lived in his neighborhood, his father was boyhood friends with two of the Temptations, and the music …
Jaimeo Brown: Transcending Music
Percussionist, producer and composer Jaimeo Brown began his musical career with his father bassist, Dartanyan Brown, his mother Marcia Miget, a pianist and woodwind specialist as well as his drum teacher Sly Randolph at the tender age of sixteen. The California native studied at William Paterson University where he received …