51st Annual Monterey Jazz Festival Presented By Verizon September 19 - 21, 2008 Features Groundbreaking And Legendary Artists On 9 Stages For 3 Days Of Nonstop Jazz Entertainment Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Cassandra Wilson, Nancy Wilson, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Maceo Parker, Kurt Elling, Ledisi, And More Appear At MJF/51 Vocalists Jamie Cullum, Ryan Shaw, Cassandra Wilson, Jamie Davis; Instrumentalists Maraca, The Derek Trucks Band & More In MJF Debut Clint Eastwood In Conversation With Jamie Cullum Commission Artist Maria Schneider Returns To MJF To Premiere New Work Artist-In Residence Christian McBride Performs With Acoustic And Electric Groups, Next  read more »

This is a brief look at Lennie Tristano's most famous students.  (The Tristano post should be read first.) It has been a real pleasure to get to know Warne Marsh's and Lee Konitz's discographies a little better.  Marsh and Konitz will always be linked to Tristano, but the more I listen the more I notice the differences, not the similarities. e Warne Marsh Of the three major musicians of the Tristano school, Lee Konitz was the only one destined to be a jazz star.  Warne Marsh is just as hard as is Tristano to get a proper handle on.  Dave King poked around in these books a bit too and offered up the analysis that Marsh was a brilliant, eventually underachieving rich kid right out of The Royal Tenenbaums .  While naturally not the whole story, Daves insight feels correct.  Even more than with Tristano, there is an argument that posterity is denied the real Warne Marsh. Not long ago I wandered into Ben Streets apartment when he was blasting Its You Or No One from Release Record, Send Tape .  Good God!  read more »

Alfred Hause - Best Of (Pid )
Aquiles Baez - Patilla (Cacao Music )
Armen Donelian - Oasis (Sunny Side )
Armen Donelian Trio - Oasis (Sunny Side )
Berardi Jazz Connection - Do It! (Family Affair Distribution SRL )
Bill McHenry / John McNeil - Rediscovery (Sunny Side )
Brian Blade - Seasons Of Change (Verve )
British Core Lovers - British Core Lovers (Phantom Sound & Vision )
Cafres - Barrilete/Hombre Simple (Machete Music )  read more »

51st Annual Monterey Jazz Festival Monterey, California September 19-21, 2008

Youth had its day, but seniority made its mark at the 51st Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, held Sept. 19-21 at the Monterey California Fairgrounds.

Young tenor-sax star Joshua Redman opened the festival Friday night outside on the large Jimmy Lyons Stage arena with a rousing trio set, hearkening back to the Sonny Rollins' trio recordings from the late fifties. With great help from Matt Penman on bass and Brian Blade on drums, Redman took the standards "Surrey With the Fringe on Top" and "East of the Sun," got under the melodies and on to improvisational heights to reveal hidden nuances in the old standards. The group was equally impressive with Redman originals...

A week or so ago, in my post about the
proposed cuts to municipal arts funding, I ended with a disclosure:
I'm a City of Ottawa 2008 grant recipient.

This summer, I received a $4,000 grant
from a city program for emerging artists that is on the chopping
block for 2009's budget. The money I received was allocated to fund
(as much as possible) the recording of my first CD. Given that this
blog very often tries to lift the lid on a jazz musician's artistic
process and perspectives, I suppose it's fitting for me to elaborate
on the considerations I've been weighing as my late December
recording date nears.  read more »

Over at his Jazz Chronicles blog, my fellow Ottawan and jazz writer James Hale this week posted a provisional list for his Top 10 CDs of 2008. They include:

1. Mary Halvorson Trio – Dragon’s
Head (Firehouse 12)
2. Anthony Braxton – Quartet (Moscow) 2008
(Leo)
3. Donny McCaslin Trio – Recommended Tools (Greenleaf)
4.
Vijay Iyer – Tragicomic (Sunnyside)
5. Bennie Maupin Quartet –
Early Reflections (Cryptogramophone)
6. Anthony Braxton – Trio
(Victoriaville) 2007 (Victo)
7. Manuel Mengis Gruppe 6 – The
Pond (hatOLOGY)  read more »

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Brian Blade Fellowship 3-CD Discography giveaway contest starting today. We'll select one lucky winner at the conclusion of the contest on October 27th.

Click here to enter the contest

All contestants will join the Brian Blade @ AAJ fan network and one winner will be chosen from that list...

Brian Blade and The Fellowship Band Season Of Changes Verve Music Group 2008

It's been eight years since drummer Brian Blade released the outstanding Perceptual (Blue Note, 2000), his last release with his Fellowship band. While much has changed, from the first notes of Season Of Changes' opener, the potent, mid-tempo groover "Rubylou's Lullaby," it's also clear that what gave Fellowship its immediately recognizable sound has remained intact...

Season of Changes is the third album and first Verve release by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, the visionary ensemble that matches renowned drummer/composer Blade with the formidable talents of pianist and composer Jon Cowherd, Kurt Rosenwinkel (guitar), Chris Thomas (bass), Myron Walden (alto...