Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Vocalist Sheila Jordan Dies at 96
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
Gilad Hekselman’s forthcoming Ask For Chaos finds the guitarist performing in a pair of separate trios across the album’s 10 tracks.
(Photo: Josh Goleman)Guitarist Gilad Hekselman is set to issue a new disc, Ask For Chaos, his sixth leader date on Sept. 7 through his own Hexophonic Music imprint in cooperation with Motéma Music.
The album’s split between performances by two separate trios supporting the guitarist: gHex Trio (bassist Rick Rosato and drummer Jonathan Pinson) and ZuperOctave (keyboardist Aaron Parks and drummer Kush Abadey), the latter performing on “VBlues.” Portions of the pending release with ZuperOctave hedge a bit closer to fusion territory than Hekselman’s previous work, but tastefully so, meting out the overtly processed gestures to break up offerings by the more tradition-focused trio.
“‘VBlues’ is a tune I wrote dedicated to Victor Baker, the luthier who built my guitar,” Hekselman said. “I was in his shop while he was fixing mine up and this melody, pretty much in it’s entirety, came to my head. So, I recorded it and went home to write it down. I love this take—it’s the same one that made it to the album. It’s interesting to me, and it has happened to me before, that sometimes the best takes are the ones we do when the camera crew is there. I guess we do better playing for an audience, even if it’s just two or three people. Aaron and Kush really capture here what I had in mind for this band. On one hand, an electronic heavy sound; on the other, playing in the moment with attention to detail and to what chaos has to offer.”
For additional information about the album, visit the Motéma website. DB
Jordan was a dyed-in-the-wool bebopper whose formative musical experiences were with Charlie Parker.
Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
“I don’t guess I’m going to excite you; I know I’m going to excite you,” Palmieri said in an August 1994 DownBeat feature.
Aug 12, 2025 10:33 AM
Famed Latin jazz composer, bandleader and pianist Eddie Palmieri passed away in his New Jersey home on Aug. 6. He was…
“What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.
Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
“I love the place that fate or whatever has positioned me in Gil Evans’ life and legacy,” said Ryan Truesdell.
Aug 5, 2025 12:26 PM
“I originally set out to give two years of my life to Gil,” Ryan Truesdell said of his mindset in 2009, when he…
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
