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…
Bandleader Brandi Disterheft is set to release her fifth album, Surfboard, on Oct. 30.
(Photo: Joanne K)Bassist-vocalist Brandi Disterheft, a frequent rhythm partner of drummer Joe Farnsworth, drifts through originals and standards on her latest full-length, Surfboard. On the album, she proves to be equally engaging behind the microphone as when her ensemble nails instrumentals like the Jobim-penned title track.
For the bassist’s own “Coup De Foudre,” she propels the band through a descending melody while breathlessly relating a timeless love song. Saxophonist George Coleman narrates the whirlwind encounter in a track that premieres below.
“Between the samba dancers improvising to a waltz and George Coleman’s prowess, I’m very pleased to share this video,” Disterheft wrote in an email to DownBeat. “I’ve always enjoyed George’s prolific ability to trail-blaze intense emotion while sounding relaxed. Inspired by a F. Scott Fitzgerald quote translating to bolts of lightening or love at first sight, the story takes an unexpected turn.”
Surfboard, Disterheft’s fifth leader date, is due out Oct. 30 on Justin Time. DB
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…
“With jazz I thought it must be OK to be Black, for the first time,” says singer Sofia Jernberg.
Jan 2, 2025 10:50 AM
On Musho (Intakt), her recent duo album with pianist Alexander Hawkins, singer Sofia Jernberg interprets traditional…
“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…
