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…
John Pizzarelli celebrates the 40th anniversary of his recording career with a nod to musicals of film and Broadway.
(Photo: Jaci Berkopec)Guitarist and vocalist John Pizzarelli will be hitting the road this summer with his terrific trio and a brand new album, Stage And Screen, celebrating the 40th anniversary of his recording debut. The album features 12 great tunes from the American songbook that happened to be associated with Broadway musicals and/or their film counterparts.
Catch Pizzarelli at a venue near you, including a July 8 date at Le Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. Just to get into the spirit, here’s a premiere of ‘You’re All The World To Me,’ from the 1951 film Royal Wedding starring Fred Astaire. Pizzarelli is joined here by bassist Mike Karn and pianist Isaiah J. Thompson, recent winner of the American Pianists Awards.
“The idea of taking these songs out of the context of their shows or movies was interesting to me,” Pizzarelli says. “With a new arrangement you can change the meaning of a song. That’s what we’ve been doing all of our lives as jazz musicians — trying to figure out how to make these classic songs different, whether it’s a songbook standard or a Beatles hit. It’s always a lot of fun.” 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.’”
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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…
