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Terri Lyne Carrington, seen here in New York at Power Station at BerkleeNYC, is the first female instrumentalist to top the Jazz Artist category in the DownBeat Critics Poll.

(Photo: Jimmy & Dena Jatz)

Terri Lyne Carrington Runs On Determination

The global protests following the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis might yet herald important social change. But the demonstrations are, in a sense, only the latest reaction to an unchanging problem: police slayings of…

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Chris Dingman Wants To Help Others Find ‘Peace’

As Joe Dingman lay dying from a rare heart condition at home, his son decided to try and ease his father’s acute physical and mental pain.

Chris Dingman brought his…

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Antonio Adolfo Explores The Compositions Of Milton Nascimento

Two young musicians in Rio De Janeiro became friends and, briefly, collaborators back in 1967.

Antonio Adolfo, a 20-year-old pianist and Rio native, was leading a pioneering…

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Bettye LaVette Embodies Every Lyric On ‘Blackbirds’

Bettye LaVette loathed Billie Holiday’s famous protest song, “Strange Fruit,” when she first heard it. She thought the Abel Meeropol-penned lyric, depicting the lynching of…

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What To Stream This Week

As performers look to replace income from lost gigs and regain a sense of community amid the coronavirus pandemic, a number of musicians are using online streaming services to…

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REVIEWS // EDITORS’ PICKS
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1 BY Ed Enright
Conrad Herwig, The Latin Side Of Horace Silver
(Savant)

Trombonist Conrad Herwig has been building his acclaimed Latin Side series of recordings for 25 years, starting with The Latin Side Of John Coltrane in 1996. Now comes the eighth installment in the series, The Latin Side Of Horace Silver, a live recording on…

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1 BY Dave Cantor
Jacám Manricks, Samadhi
(Manricks Music)

The approach multi-reedist Jacám Manricks takes on Samadhi—and his life spanning the globe, moving from Australia to the States for school in the early 2000s—seems to encompass a multiplicity of settings and ideas.

Even without a prodigious catalog to…

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1 BY Dave Cantor
Tomoko Omura, Branches Vol. 1
(Outside In)

There’s a promise inherent in contemporary music, and it goes something like this: With people from various backgrounds—culturally, ideologically, religiously, aesthetically—creating art, everyone can benefit from the exposure to new ideas.

Violinist…

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1 BY Dave Cantor
TEST And Roy Campbell, TEST And Roy Campbell
(577)

Multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter and TEST slot into a space where gut-bucket improv and jazz meet, a place that, despite its remove, worked to invigorate rock-related acts interested in exploring something beyond what most expect from guitar, bass and…

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1 BY Bobby Reed
Eric Johanson, Below Sea Level
(Nola Blue)

Twenty years ago, brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson burst onto the national blues scene as members of what was then a blues power trio called the North Mississippi Allstars. Today, that band is still going strong and the siblings continue to find fresh ways…

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1 BY Ed Enright
Marvin Stamm/Mike Holober Quartet, Live @ Maureen’s Jazz Cellar
(Big Miles)

This live album by the working quartet of flugelhornist Marvin Stamm, pianist Mike Holober, bassist Mike McGuirk and drummer Dennis Mackrel documents a late-2019 gig at Maureen’s Jazz Cellar in the Hudson River town of Nyack, New York. Its beauty lies in…

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1 BY Bobby Reed
Radam Schwartz Organ Big Band, Message From Groove And GW
(Arabesque )

It’s not every day you encounter an album that claims to accomplish an unprecedented instrumental feat. In his liner-notes essay to Radam Schwartz’s Message From Groove And GW, Ron Scott writes, “This is the first time an organist has roared thru an…

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1 BY Ed Enright
Glenn Zaleski, The Question
(Sunnyside)

Pianist/composer Glenn Zaleski fronts a traditional-style jazz quintet on this collection of new and old material that has him re-examining his place in the world on the occasion of turning 30. Unlike his previous leader recordings, which featured him in solo…

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1 BY Bobby Reed
Sandeep Das & The HUM Ensemble, Delhi To Damascus
(In A Circle)

For tabla player Sandeep Das, music isn’t merely entertainment: It’s a vehicle for conveying his deeply held beliefs. The liner notes to his new album, Delhi To Damascus, provide a mini-course in history and philosophy, and the 63-minute program…

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JAZZ SCHOOL // TOOLSHED
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Shoebox Bass Cabinet

The Phil Jones Bass C2 is a 200-watt, shoebox-size cabinet with two 5-inch speakers engineered to handle the full spectrum and dynamic range of a bass guitar. The C2 is powerful and clear, with lightning-fast transient ability. It can be used as a standalone cabinet or in combination with other PJB…


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Grand Impression

The DG30 digital piano combines Kawai’s Responsive Hammer III keyboard action with the Shigeru Kawai SK-EX concert grand piano sound to deliver an authentic grand piano playing experience. Structural reinforcements minimize noise and key wobble, and a springless design allows for smooth movement.…


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Custom Dark Alto

JodyJazz has introduced the HR* Custom Dark Alto Saxophone mouthpiece. The premium mouthpiece is made from proprietary Chedeville Rubber, which is softer than regular hard rubber and imparts a beautiful, rich, warm sound.


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Bird in a Box

Hal Leonard has published Charlie Parker: The Complete Scores box set. The collection features a hardcover book with 40 note-for-note transcriptions for all instruments that played on each iconic track, including alto saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass and drums. Tunes include “Anthropology,”…


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Wavetable Support

Sequential has added support for user-created wavetables to its Pro 3 multi-filter mono synthesizer. A hybrid instrument, the Pro 3 features two VCOs plus a third, digital oscillator with 32 permanent factory wavetables. Sequential’s web-based utility Wavetable Generator allows users to convert…


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CLASSIC INTERVIEW
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by DownBeat // July/4/1963
Three In The Afternoon: Basie, Ferguson, Teagarden

The following discussion took place on a Sunday afternoon in Count Basie’s dressing room during the recent Jazz Supports the Symphony concert at Chicago’s Civic Opera House.

The conversation began while Basie and his band were on stage, and Jack Teagarden (who also was featured at the concert), Maynard Ferguson (whose band was playing in…


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