Jazz From 1974
I know we’re in the middle of year-end list season, but this is better than that. What follows is a list 50 jazz albums, all of which turn 50 this year. The list is alphabetical, and you’re gonna get...
View ArticleWillie Jones III
In the introduction to his 1985 book Rhythm-a-Ning, Gary Giddins writes, “When we talk about a renaissance in jazz, we are talking about a wealth of interesting music, not a broad-scaled awakening of...
View ArticleThe Shell Game @ 20
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, saxophonist Tim Berne had led the bands Bloodcount and Caos Totale, as well as other groups featuring a pool of players like Bill Frisell, Hank Roberts, Tom Rainey,...
View ArticleBheki Mseleku
Pianist Bheki Mseleku was a crucial figure in South African jazz, even if his name doesn’t ring out like that of Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Abdullah Ibrahim, or Chris McGregor. Born in Durban in...
View ArticleThe Tone World: Part 1
Bassist William Parker has a fairly epic box out this week. Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World is a 10CD set, with each disc featuring a different ensemble, many of which do not...
View ArticleCharles Lloyd
Saxophonist Charles Lloyd has had a remarkable career. He joined drummer Chico Hamilton‘s group in 1960, quickly becoming its de facto leader: he wrote almost all the music for Passin’ Thru, A...
View ArticleDave Douglas
Trumpeter Dave Douglas has led a lot of groups since emerging onto the global jazz scene in the late 1980s, including the Tiny Bell Trio; a quintet that included violin, cello, bass, and drums; a...
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MND FLO
MND FLO (pronounced “mind flow”) are a quartet of Berklee students—pianist Sharik Hasan, vibraphonist Simon Moullier, bassist Alexander L.J. Tóth and drummer Anthony A. Tóth (yes, they’re brothers)....
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McCoy Tyner In The ’70s: Part 4
by Phil Freeman All this week, we’re reviewing every album pianist McCoy Tyner recorded between 1970 and 1979. (There were 19 of them.) Here’s Part 1 of our overview; here’s Part 2; and here’s Part 3....
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McCoy Tyner In The ’70s: Part 2
by Phil Freeman This week, we’re exploring the 19 albums McCoy Tyner released between 1970 and 1979, all but two of them on the Milestone label. Here’s Part 1 of our rundown, in case you missed it....
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Joe Sanders
by Phil Freeman Joe Sanders is a bassist who’s been quietly making a name for himself over the last 15 years or so. He can be heard on albums by trumpeters Ambrose Akinmusire, Theo Croker, and...
View ArticleKeith Jarrett In The 70s
by Phil Freeman Considering the size of his discography and his prominence in the world of jazz, I haven’t really spent very much time at all listening to Keith Jarrett. I reviewed one of his solo...
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Miles Davis In 1970
Is it weird that 1970 has become the most documented year of Miles Davis’s life? At the time, that wasn’t the case at all. He only released two albums that year—Bitches Brew, recorded the previous...
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Jazz For Hippies: The Charles Lloyd Quartet In 1968
Between 1998 and 2003, I interviewed the late saxophonist David S. Ware several times. He had made his debut on Columbia in 1998 with Go See The World, and I visited him and his group in the studio...
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Interview And Gallery: Gaetano Pezzella
Gaetano Pezzella (on Flickr, on Tumblr) is a photographer from Rome, Italy. Pezzella’s work involves a vast amount of travel; from the places he visits, he includes fragments of children at play,...
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Bob Reynolds
Saxophonist Bob Reynolds‘ second studio album and fifth full-length overall, Somewhere in Between, comes out tomorrow. He’s previously released 2003′s Live at the Jazz Corner, 2006′s Can’t Wait for...
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Eric Revis
by Phil Freeman Bassist Eric Revis‘s second album for the Portuguese Clean Feed label, City of Asylum, was recently released. It’s a follow-up of sorts to Parallax, an album featuring saxophonist Ken...
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Miles Davis Live In 1971
Photo: Anthony Barboza Here’s some amazing video of Miles Davis live in Oslo on November 9, 1971. This is a band that was never documented in the recording studio—Gary Bartz on soprano and alto sax;...
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What’s The Big Idea?: Rez Abbasi
Many jazz albums are just collections of tunes, and that’s fine. But others are more conceptually unified than that—they may represent the exploration of a musician’s compositional theories, attempts...
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The 50 Greatest Saxophonists…EVER!!!: 50-41
Welcome to the official Burning Ambulance countdown of the 50 Greatest Saxophonists Ever. The list was determined by means we shall not disclose, though a number of jazz critics and musicians offered...
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