Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival continued late into the night on Friday, April 29 with a free improvised set by bassist Cecil McBee and alto player, Gary Bartz. Joined by local composer, Hannibal Lokumbe on trumpet and Adonis Rose on drums, McBee and Bartz rounded out their group with percussionist, Alfred Uganda Roberts, who made his mark recording with Allen Toussaint, Professor Longhair and the Wild Magnolias back in the ‘70s. Playing to a small crowd of locals, McBee combined a New Orleans sense of rhythm and blues with odd times that sounded like they were caught somewhere between funk and free jazz.
At the Fairgrounds yesterday, Jamie Cullum played a new composition he said he wrote over the holidays when he was visiting family, looking at old photos. Using just piano and voice, the ballad, “Ordinary Life,” showcased Cullum’s rich rasp well, but some of his usual energy was lost on the big stage. Still, he managed to win back the baking hot audience with his Coldplay cover, “High And Dry.”
Playing a much funkier brand of piano, Henry Butler heated up the blues tent with a few tunes from his new album, “Homeland,” while the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars brought a little rock to their Klezmer swamp-funk with the help of a large dose of guitar feedback. Nicholas Payton joined the Doc Cheatham Tribute, playing traditional classics like Fats Waller’s “What Did I Do To Be So Black and Blue.” While Payton shines among older players, though, he seemed constricted by the formal format of the music and a somewhat predictable order of solos. Payton’s Sonic Trance plays today in the Jazz Tent, where the leader should feel more comfortable letting as loose as he does on the album.
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
Jan 16, 2025 2:02 PM
In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
