Copyright 2010 The New York Sun Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:58:56 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Jazz :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/jazz admin@nysun.net (Seth Lipsky) webmaster@nysun.com en-us WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/jay-leonhart/86902/ Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:00:39 EST Considering that his day job consists of helping other people make their own music – for nearly 50 years he's been one of the busiest bass players in New York – the songs of Jay Leonhart are amazingly personal. Mr. Leonhart has launched what might be his most ambitious venture as a bandleader and star, taking his own trio (with trumpeter Michael Leonhart, and his son, pianist Ted Rosenthal) into the Metropolitan Room for a month of Wednesdays. Writing from what lyricist Dory Previn referred to... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/jazz-dvds-invite-you-to-watch-and-learn/86768/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The godfather of jazz on film was not a performer or a producer but a collector and archivist named David Chertok. Decades before YouTube, DVDs, or even videotapes, Chertok (1922-88) offered 16 mm footage of jazz's canonical figures in a long-running series of concert-like shows at the New School and, eventually, all over the world. From clips of Louis Armstrong displaying his radiance in 1930s Hollywood features to Charlie Parker receiving an award from Earl Wilson to Thelonious Monk doing his... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/kerns-killer-soprano/86635/ Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST In the music of Jerome Kern, which is currently being celebrated at the Oak Room by the marvelous singer K.T. Sullivan (until October 11), the term "crossover" holds multiple meanings. The most important one is completely literal: When Kern (1885-1945) was establishing himself in the opening years of the 20th century, no distinctly American style of music had yet reached Broadway. Many of the producers at the time relied on imported shows and songs from Europe, principally English and German... STEVE DOLLAR http://www.nysun.com/arts/eri-yamamoto-finds-the-keys-to-the-city/86651/ Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Manhattan's landscape can change in a flash, yet even near the busiest thoroughfares, a half-forgotten pocket exists where time stands still and only the escalating beer prices alert a patron to the approximate decade. Straddle a barstool inside the musty, West Village cocoon that is Arthur's Tavern and marvel. Balloons dangle from the ceiling, slowly deflating, their candy-shop hues faded with the years. The tobacco-brown wall paneling is dotted with ratty decorations that celebrate every... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/ahmad-jamal-strikes-up-the-orchestra/86285/ Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Can this really be the fifth season of Jazz at Lincoln Center at Rose Hall? Already there are young people filling seats at the Rose Theater who probably feel that JaLC has been around forever, and even take it for granted. They'd probably be amazed to hear that listeners in the 1940s thought it was a big deal whenever jazz made it to one of the major concert halls, like Carnegie or Town Hall, and probably couldn't imagine a world in which American music was accorded the same respect as... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/raising-jazzs-unimpeachable-spirit/86171/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Louis Armstrong's position in jazz may be, in Dizzy Gillespie's famous phrase, "unimpeachable," but there was a moment when, in the radical 1960s, Armstrong was actually denounced by some younger musicians — not for his music, but for his comedy and crowd-pleasing stage antics. The trumpeter Jimmy Owens, however, was one contemporary jazzman smart enough to see through the act. Once, at a concert during this period, my father commended Mr. Owens for his pro-Satchmo position, and the musician... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-world-of-jazz/85960/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The JVC Jazz Festival, held at the beginning of every summer, attempts to represent the whole of the jazz world (and a lot of pop and world music besides). But the two major festivals that have become institutions of the fall are more specific in their scope: One addresses an instrument, the other a gender. The Festival of New Trumpet Music began, appropriately, with a three-horn salute to the man who virtually invented the jazz trumpet, Louis Armstrong, at the man's own house in Queens. That... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/singing-in-the-city/85970/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Far from being a specific, clearly defined term, "cabaret" has evolved into a catch-all category covering everything from singers interpreting the Great American Songbook with an emphasis on show tunes to Barb Jungr singing Bob Dylan, Anna Bergman singing Franz Lehar, or Paula West doing Johnny Cash. The main difference between cabaret and Broadway is that the former is geared toward intimate, single-performer shows; the main difference between cabaret and jazz is that cabaret is primarily a... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/cue-the-violins/85793/ Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST It is said that when the composer W.C. Handy heard his most celebrated work, the "St. Louis Blues," being played by a symphony orchestra, he was struck by the mental image of a farmer plowing his field in a full-dress dinner jacket and tailcoat. Some 30 years later, when someone had the nerve to ask Miles Davis his opinion about the use of classical form and formalism in the Modern Jazz Quartet, he likened the effect to a great boxer stepping into the ring in a tuxedo. Despite the contradiction... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/you-dont-know-jack-jones/85682/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The biggest disclosure announced at Apple's press conference on Tuesday had nothing to do with software (the new edition of iTunes) or hardware (the new line of iPods). Rather, it was Steve Jobs's admission that he listens to Dean Martin, even if he seemed somewhat self-conscious about it. "I didn't really want to tell you that I had Dean Martin on my iPod," he told the crowd in San Francisco. Embarrassed or not, it was pleasing to hear that the company that pioneered the modern system of... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/louis-armstrong-home-and-away/85307/ Mon, 8 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST At first glance, the two discs that make up "Rudy Vallee's Fleischmann's Yeast Show & Louis' Home-Recorded Tapes" may seem like two batches of material thrown together for no apparent reason, other than that both feature previously unissued private recordings excavated from Louis Armstrong's own collection. Either disc, particularly the one with live radio performances from 1937, could be described as the most important Armstrong discovery to be released since his death in 1971. Yet taken... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/kenny-burrell-guitar-hero/85221/ Fri, 5 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Let's talk about the difference between minimal and maximal: Duke Ellington was noted for his soaring, exquisite, and gloriously idiosyncratic melodies, but once in a while the Maestro came up with songs such as "C-Jam Blues" or "Mainstem," which almost seem like exercises in building supremely catchy tunes out of the smallest possible number of notes. Lest we forget, in the opening of his Fifth Symphony (in the same key as "C-Jam Blues"), which might be called the greatest hook in history... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/50-years-and-miles-left-to-go/84958/ Tue, 2 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST When is the blues not the blues? The answer is: a lot of the time. The blues is, in fact, an inherently deceptive music. When David Rose writes a song called "Our Waltz," it has no choice but to be in 3/4 time; when Frankie Yankovic plays the "Too-Fat Polka," you know it's got to be a genuine polka. A mambo is a mambo and a march is always a march. But Harold Arlen can write "Blues in the Night," and it isn't an authentic 12-bar blues at all. Duke Ellington's simply (but deceptively) titled... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/jazz-goes-to-the-movies/84868/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST If the great songwriters of the golden age of cinema scores are less celebrated than their Broadway counterparts, they have only themselves to blame. If their goal was to create audio imagery that would be an inseparable counterpart to on-screen visuals and narrative action, they succeeded so well that it's traditionally been difficult to appreciate — and reinterpret — their work. To paraphrase Andrι Previn, composers who worked in the movie business, even tremendous talents such as Henry... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/charlie-parker-jazz-festival-cool-jazz-in-harlem/84500/ Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST There are always plenty of people to thank at free outdoor concerts such as Saturday's 16th annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival — producers, sponsors, press partners (in this case the City Parks Foundation, Bloomberg, Time Warner, and WBGO-FM). But only one entity deserves credit for the success of this year's event, and that's the Big Weather Guy in the Sky, who saw to it that the temperature in Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park was bearable and the humidity was low. In fact, this was the first... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/terrell-stafford-takes-center-stage/84387/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST In 1963, DownBeat magazine began using the phrase "Talent Deserving Wider Recognition" in its annual jazz poll. It was a useful idea, if a bit relative. Are there any important living jazz (or even classical) musicians who don't deserve wider recognition? In contemporary American culture, it seems the only way an artist can truly become "widely recognized" is to appear on a reality television show, be chewed out by Simon Cowell, or arrange to be adopted by Madonna. In jazz, as in classical... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-genius-of-jeff-healey/84045/ Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Any discussion of blind idols in the movies would probably start with the comic book hero "Daredevil," move to the fictional Frank Slade (portrayed to Oscar-winning effect by Al Pacino) in "Scent of a Woman," and arrive at the very real Ray Charles (Jamie Foxx, also an Oscar winner for the role) in "Ray." But to me, the greatest of them all was the real-life guitarist and trumpeter Jeff Healey in 1989's "Road House," because his was the only such character played by an actual sightless superman... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/from-herbie-to-herwig-and-back-again/83917/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST It's little wonder that one of Herbie Hancock's most famous tunes is called "Chameleon": Any newcomer who listens to one of his more abstract piano solos with Eric Dolphy, then to one of his complex compositions of the mid-'60s, which incorporate elements of modal jazz and free jazz, and then to "Headhunters" or another of his funky fusion works of the 1970s (including "Chameleon") will swear that he is listening to the work of two or three different and equally ingenious musicians. Mr. Hancock... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/where-shel-silverstein-begins/83551/ Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST As my favorite rock band, Spinal Tap, famously said, "There's a thin line between being clever and being stupid." As the Tap themselves also established, there's an equally thin line in pop culture between satire and that which is being satirized. There are those of us, for example, who feel that Mel Brooks's "Spaceballs" is one of cinema's great science fiction movies. Never mind that it's a comedy — it's a much more enjoyable extension of the "Star Wars" franchise than any of the three recent... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/walton-is-solid-as-cedar/83437/ Fri, 8 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Like many jazz musicians, Cedar Walton, who is appearing with his quintet this week at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, has an appetite for puns on his own name, and he has titled his new album "Seasoned Wood." It's a joke, but for the highly regarded 74-year-old pianist, composer, and bandleader, it's also a serious reflection on who he is and where he is artistically. The cover of the album is adorned with a photo of the wooden guts of a piano. Mr. Walton is perhaps implying that his special affinity... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/sonny-rollinss-endless-summer/83137/ Mon, 4 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST September and October will see the release of two new DVDs starring the tenor saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins. As with everything else in this mighty musician's career, timing is everything, and these particular releases indicate something of a disconnect from what we've come to expect. Summer is the time you want to see and hear Mr. Rollins, which is why he usually gives his annual concerts in New York in the dog days of August. Thus, even though the two DVDs (both of which feature him... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-hearing-of-shearing-at-the-92nd-street-y/83011/ Fri, 1 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST A few years back, at a Piano Jazz concert at the 92nd Street Y, Bill Charlap played a particularly strong solo, one which so obviously thrilled the gentleman sitting next to me that he responded with delighted laughter and a strong cry of "Yeah!" It was then that I noticed his thick South London accent and closed eyes (he wasn't wearing his trademark Ray-Bans) and realized I was one seat away from George Shearing, a living legend of the jazz piano if ever there was one. His lifelong blindness... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/newport-festivals-easy-to-catch/83014/ Fri, 1 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST This weekend and next will be hot — outside and on the radio. New England's two major music festivals, the Newport Folk Festival (Friday through Sunday) and its big brother, the JVC Jazz Festival Newport (August 8-10), will offer streaming Webcasts on the Internet and radio broadcasts on two NPR stations in the New York area, WFUV and WBG0. Newport Folk Festival, founded by George Wein in 1959 (five years after he introduced the jazz festival), is struggling with the issue of whether or not to... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/arts/npr-to-stream-newport-festival/82910/ Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Music fans unable to attend the Newport folk and jazz festivals will be able to listen to some of the concerts online. NPR Music, part of National Public Radio, plans to stream select performances from both festivals. The Webcasts also will be archived and available on-demand. This is the first time NPR Music is Webcasting the Newport, R.I., festivals. The folk festival runs Friday through Sunday, and the jazz festival is next weekend. Bob Boilen, host of the NPR Music show "All Songs... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/arts/jazz-guitarist-joe-beck-dies/82743/ Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Joe Beck, a jazz guitarist who collaborated with artists such as Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, and James Brown, has died at a Connecticut hospice after battling lung cancer. He was 62. Beck was a prolific studio and session performer, arranger, and producer, with an identifiable harmonic and rhythmic sound. He was honored five times by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences as a "Most Valuable Player." Beck got his start as a teenager in the 1960s playing in a jazz trio in New York... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/every-day-is-vjo-day/82692/ Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Bill Charlap, the brilliant pianist and artistic director of the 92nd Street Y's Jazz in July concert series, is a modest man, almost to a fault. He leans much closer to understatement than to exaggeration. So when he makes a bold, sweeping claim, such as describing the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, whom he presented in concert on Thursday, as "the foremost large jazz ensemble in the world," we should be inclined to take him very seriously. The VJO, which has played at the Village Vanguard nearly... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/at-the-92nd-street-y-jazz-for-all/82608/ Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST One evening in the early '60s, the bassist Charlie Haden was playing at the Village Vanguard as a member of the Ornette Coleman Quartet. He was in the middle of a particularly intense solo, and he decided to close his eyes. When he opened them at the end of the solo, he was surprised to see a distinguished-looking gentleman kneeling in front of the bass, almost pressing his ear into the bridge, as if he didn't want to miss a single note. Startled, Mr. Haden turned to Mr. Coleman, who informed... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/on-trumpet-and-vocals-unclassifiable-talent/82257/ Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST The music industry may be preoccupied with charts and categories, but some musicians defy classification. Trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and singer Norma Winstone, both of whom have new releases out, are two examples of talents that resist all manner of charts, graphs, lists — and even maps. In the case of Kenny Wheeler, it is difficult to say what kind of jazzman he is — bopper, avant-gardesman, big band player. And it is equally difficult to classify him in terms of nationality. Mr. Wheeler was born... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/touring-america-via-jazz-tunes/81776/ Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST If Nelson Riddle (1921-85) were alive, it would surely make his day to hear his name mentioned in the same breath as George Gershwin and Duke Ellington, who were his idols. It would also please him to believe that his most ambitious extended composition, "Cross Country Suite," merits comparison with Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and Ellington's "Black, Brown, and Beige." Recorded in 1958 and recently reissued, Riddle's "Cross Country Suite" employs pop, jazz, and a wide variety of classical... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/person-malone-make-summer-cooler/81660/ Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Ever since March, when the veteran tenor saxophonist Houston Person and the dynamic guitarist Russell Malone threw sparks during a few tunes together at a Highlights in Jazz concert, I've been anxious to hear the two in a full-length collaboration. So far it hasn't happened, but on Wednesday evening, I created my own de facto Person-Malone matchup by catching Mr. Person at Jazzmobile and then hustling down to Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, where Mr. Malone is playing all week. There was some doubt as... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/obituaries/bobby-durham-71-jazz-drummer-toured-with-greats/81609/ Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Bobby Durham, a jazz drummer known for his energetic, propulsive style, as well as for the high-flying musical company that he kept, died in Italy on Monday. He was 71, and had been ill with lung cancer and emphysema, a singer who had toured with him in Europe in recent years, Shawnn Monteiro, said. Durham was practically the only contemporary drummer who worked with Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, and, most famously, Oscar Peterson, four legendary bandleaders who were famous... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/marsalis-nelson-meet-in-a-bluesy-middle/81277/ Mon, 7 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST To jazz fans of my father's generation, the 1930 recording of "Blue Yodel No. 9" by Jimmie Rodgers was a remarkable mystery: Here was the legendary singing brakeman, accompanied by a trumpet player who sounded remarkably like Louis Armstrong. At that time, a contingent of jazz purists refused to believe that Armstrong, who was even then the most famous figure in jazz, would sully himself by playing on a hillbilly yodeling record. But other jazz fans who also loved country and folk music were... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/tis-the-season-for-big-bands/81186/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Many people think of "big-band jazz" as if it were a style unto itself, like Dixieland or bebop. The truth is that the term "big band" connotes an instrumental format, employed in a wide variety of styles. Even though big bands are associated most with the swing era, they can be as different from one another as Earl Hines is from Cecil Taylor, to name two piano-centric institutions. Summer is traditionally a good time for big bands in New York; they tend to be presented outdoors in the... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/arts/ernestine-anderson-avoids-foreclose/81066/ Wed, 2 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Jazz vocalist Ernestine Anderson's home has been saved from foreclosure — for now, thanks, in part, to music legend Quincy Jones and contemporary jazz artist Diane Schuur. More than $43,000 poured in — including donations from Mr. Jones and Ms. Schuur — after recent news stories about the Seattle jazz legend's financial woes, Carmen Gayton, a friend of Ms. Anderson's family, said. The money to stop the foreclosure was delivered Monday, Ms. Gayton added. She declined to say how much Mr. Jones... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/jvc-festival-finishes-up-on-an-eclectic-note/80901/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The 2008 JVC Jazz Festival finished up this weekend, and the homestretch featured a variety of engaging performers. Wednesday evening's program showcased two worldly-wise young female instrumentalists: the singer and bassist Esperanza Spalding and multi-reed player Anat Cohen. The rapidly rising Ms. Spalding is an exuberant player who was born in Colorado, but specializes in Latin-style jazz and sings mostly in Spanish. Though she has plenty of pop-electronic trappings on her new self-titled... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/at-jvc-hancock-straddles-two-musical-worlds/80799/ Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Some musical auteurs keep each of their feet in different aesthetic worlds; Herbie Hancock does this with his hands. At this week's JVC Jazz Festival concert at Carnegie Hall, he had a smaller electronic keyboard mounted on top of his Fazioli F278 concert grand (as well as a fuller-sized electric piano), and he often played the electric in the treble clef with his right hand while keeping his left on the acoustic instrument in the bass clef. Mr. Hancock is a man in two worlds at once, and, at... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/nights-at-the-red-steinway/80444/ Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Now, about that red piano: Charles Bourgeois, the longtime integral member of George Wein's Festival Productions, which produces the ongoing JVC Jazz Festival, told The New York Sun that the company simply requested a standard 9-foot concert grand, but was surprised as anyone when the instrument that was delivered turned out to be encased in bright red enamel, with a bright red bench to match. Little did anyone suspect that this was actually a magical piano, with the power to transform itself... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/ravi-coltrane-honors-his-musical-and-personal/80356/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The saxophonist Ravi Coltrane began the tribute concert he had organized to his late mother, the pianist Alice Coltrane, on Tuesday night, with a touching testimonial describing her lifelong quest for an all-encompassing belief system that included everything important to her, be it on a musical, personal, or spiritual level. He touched on her upbringing in Detroit, her study of both classical piano and bebop (with Bud Powell in Paris), her work with the vibraphone giant Terry Gibbs, her... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/arts/pianist-esbjorn-svensson-dies/80083/ Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Swedish jazz pianist Esbjorn Svensson, whose fusion of lyrical melodies and rock-inspired electronics broke fresh ground in modern jazz, has died in a diving accident, his manager said Monday. He was 44. Svensson died Saturday in a diving accident off a small island near Stockholm, said Burkhard Hopper, manager of the musician's band, the Esbjorn Svensson Trio. Police will conduct a routine investigation of the accident, he said. Svensson and his band won worldwide critical acclaim and several... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-jvc-jazz-festival-is-wired-for-sound/80020/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST In a funny way, I didn't fully appreciate the JVC Jazz Festival until I began sampling similar events in different cities around the world. Much as I love Montreal (and have heard great things about Umbria and NorthSea), there's nothing quite like the JVC. Other festivals offer big names in big concerts, but the major legacy of Festival Productions founder George Wein, who pioneered the concept of corporate-sponsored jazz festivals and presents the JVC fest in such cities as New York, Los... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/kidd-jordan-makes-the-vision-festival-his-own/79918/ Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST In New Orleans, there's a venerated tradition of nicknaming younger, hot-shot musicians "kid" — sort of like Western gunslingers. The name often sticks, which is why it's no big deal to address an elder statesman as "Kid" in the Crescent City. Two of the best known of these were actually named Edward: the pioneering trombonist Kid Ory (1886-1973) and Kidd Jordan, who is being celebrated this week at the 13th annual Vision Festival at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center on the Lower East Side... STEVE DOLLAR http://www.nysun.com/arts/kidd-stays-in-the-picture/79617/ Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Even people who aren't sure they've heard of Kidd Jordan have probably heard him. Now 73, the tenor saxophonist has been playing since the early 1950s. And since Mr. Jordan's spirited adolescence coincided with the dawn of rock 'n' roll and the explosion of new sounds coming out of New Orleans's fertile rhythm-and-blues scene, the Crescent City native was at the right place at the right time. Mr. Jordan was barely out of his teens when he began gigging with the Hawkettes, a band featuring... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/cassandra-wilson-sets-brooklyn-ablaze/79545/ Mon, 9 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST E.J. Strickland starts by laying down a funk beat on his drums, into which the percussionist Lekan Babalola interweaves a combination of bongos, congas, cowbells, an African rhythm box, and other implements from all over the world. Meanwhile, bassist Reginald Veal, guitarist Marvin Sewell, and pianist Jonathan Batiste concentrate on one single function, which is to slowly stretch the tension of this rising vamp so that the entrance of the star singer will be even more dramatic. She waits a good... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/nicholas-paytons-modern-trumpet/79434/ Fri, 6 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST To some, jazz is a sound. To others, it's a feeling or a mood. To still others, it's an attitude. To me, jazz is busting my rear to get to a club on time, and then finding that the bandleader himself is 10 minutes late. Still, I am hardly the one to wag my finger and shout, "J'accuse!" since I am far from a paragon of punctuality. Nevertheless, when the trumpeter Nicholas Payton finally appeared for his opening show at Jazz Standard on Wednesday night, the band, even with the last-minute... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/when-basie-was-young-at-heart/79044/ Mon, 2 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The title of "Taxi War Dance," the classic 1939 Count Basie record starring the tenor saxophone icon Lester Young, sounds like something out of "Transformers." But I've always assumed that the title referred not to anthropomorphic automobiles, but to the so-called taxi dancers of the 1920s and '30s who would dance with male patrons in ballrooms for a dime a throw. Dancing was a crucial concept in the music of William "Count" Basie. If his colleague, Duke Ellington, was American music's master... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/passos-latin-all-stars-two-different-ways/78911/ Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Latin America, which covers everything from Baja on down to Cabo de Hornos, is a considerably larger area than English-speaking North America, and it encompasses an incredible amount of countries and cultures. Yet as far as jazz is concerned, you can pretty much boil the entire area down to two distinct locales: Cuba and Brazil. Leaving the Mexican mariachi and Argentine tango for another discussion, it's the Cuban salsa and the Brazilian bossa nova that have made the most profound impacts on... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/peggy-lee-all-aglow-again/77335/ Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Fifty years ago this month, Peggy Lee recorded "Fever." The song was neither her biggest hit nor her own composition, but today it is not just her signature, but one of the most iconic pop records ever made. Now, 50 years later, with a counterintuitiveness Lee would have approved of, her daughter, Nikki Foster, and granddaughter, Holly Foster Wells (working in conjunction with Collectors' Choice Music), are commemorating the golden anniversary of one of the best-known songs of all time by... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/leaping-to-greatness-in-a-single-bound/77347/ Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 EST With Iron Man, Speed Racer, and Indiana Jones in town, not to mention the Hulk and Batman due to arrive shortly, I find myself in a summer action-comic book mood. This is a great season for superheroes, and right now the city is appropriately blessed with two saxophonists of superhuman abilities. James Carter (currently at Birdland) and Scott Robinson (making regular appearances at the Ear Inn) are archetypical postmodern jazzmen who showcase a formidable technique in a range of jazz styles... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/locking-horns-for-woody-shaw/76627/ Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 EST In the heat of a great solo, many trumpet players tend to throw their shoulders back and jab their instruments in the air, like a gangster in an old movie hoisting a machine gun on St. Valentine's Day. Hard-bop trumpeters tend to assume this position more than most, mainly because they play more notes and blast them out faster and louder. The late trumpet icon Woody Shaw often played that way. So it makes sense that Ryan Kisor and Sean Jones, two contemporary stars of the instrument who... WILL FRIEDWALD http://www.nysun.com/arts/three-traditions-one-american-week-of-jazz/76563/ Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Lionel Loueke is every bit as amazing as everyone says. The Benin-born guitarist, who has been a presence on the international jazz scene for the last decade or so, is currently making the leap to headliner status with his first major-label album, "Karibu" (Blue Note), as well as his first starring engagement at a top-shelf New York club, the Blue Note. Mr. Loueke is a dazzling, inventive player who has crafted a fully functional fusion of African music and American jazz. The outer context...