Apr 11, 2023 10:47 AM
Brad Mehldau Tells His Story
At the tail end of 2022, Brad Mehldau took advantage of a New York sojourn to play piano with old friends at Smalls…
On Monday, Feb. 11, Cuban pianist Chucho Valdes will make a guest appearance with the Village Vanguard Orchestra in celebration of the Village Vanguard’s 67th anniversary. This has the makings of a special event, as Valdes loves playing the venerable New York club, demonstrated on his Grammy winning Blue Note album Live At The Village Vanguard.
The Village Vanguard Orchestra started on Feb. 7, 1966, then known as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. It has grown to be one of the most acclaimed and innovative big bands in jazz history. Throughout the last 36 years the orchestra has toured extensively throughout the world and its offspring, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, performs every Monday night at the club.
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra will also be honored at the New York Brass Conference, April 12-13, in New York City. Also scheduled for this year, the club and the orchestra are partnering to bring the “Live at the Village Vanguard World Tour 2002” featuring the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and special guest artists.
“Perhaps that’s a key to what makes me tick — a very strong curiosity, which makes me a perpetual fanboy of whatever I’m discovering,” Mehldau says.
Apr 11, 2023 10:47 AM
At the tail end of 2022, Brad Mehldau took advantage of a New York sojourn to play piano with old friends at Smalls…
Ahmad Jamal (1930–2023) with his trio at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago.
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Pianist-composer Ahmad Jamal passed away April 16 in his home in Ashley Falls, Massachusetts, after battling prostate…
“Remember to be a warrior, not a worrier,” Shorter said, 10 days prior to his passing on March 2.
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Sadly, the formative giants of jazz are passing the torch and joining the ancestors. But such cliché and dwelling on…
“When you play blues-type stuff, the material is pretty obvious; it’s how you do a lot with a little,” Liebman said.
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At 76, soprano and tenor saxophonist Dave Liebman — an alumnus of bands led by Miles Davis and Elvin Jones, leader of…
“When I first emerged on the scene, I was dealing with working with a certain trumpet player who shall remain nameless,” Reed said. “It was very much an indoctrinating, dogmatic point of view, but it was all I knew.”
May 16, 2023 3:15 PM
As a piano-playing prodigy, Philadelphia native Eric Reed performed gospel music in his father’s church at age 5. By…
