Trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard has come further in a sense than any of the 1980s Art Blakey alumni. While Wynton and Branford Marsalis may have higher profiles, Blanchard is the player who has most improved as both a soloist and an ensemble player. He is an excellent bandleader…
Six years in the pop music world is a long time. In fact, for many artists, it’s a lifetime or two. Suzanne Vega has been away from recording for a long time, but it isn’t because she hasn’t been working. She is the subject of Some Journey, a documentary film by…
Arias and lieder are forms strongly associated with classical music, yet clarinetist Don Byron defines them in a newly expansive way for this remarkable project. To Byron, arias and lieder belong not only to classical figures, but also to writers as diverse as Ornette Coleman, Roy Orbison, Stevie Wonder,…
With Romance With the Unseen, Don Byron decides to not focus on a particular musical style, as he has done for most of his albums. Instead, he chooses to craft an album of songs that live up to the record’s title; these are songs that feel romantic, but aren’t…
In the spirit of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew (and his late work in hip-hop rhythms like Tutu), Tim Hagans created this stew of trumpet lines over a bass and drum backbone. Some listeners may get turned off by Hagans’ super-hot blowing, but the album offers some nice grooves. The…
Trumpeter Tim Hagans’ fascination with the Electric Miles Davis Era continues on this 2000 release titled Re-Animation: Live. A follow-up to his teaming with saxophonist Bob Belden on the 1998 studio release Animation – Imagination, the music from this offering is culled from a 1999 performance at the Montreal…
Hub Songs not only functions as a heartfelt, loving tribute to Freddie Hubbard, one of the greatest trumpeters in bop history, but it’s a dynamic, engaging session in its own right. Both Tim Hagans and Marcus Printup had established themselves as two of the finest hard bop trumpeters of…
Yeah, Cassandra Wilson is a jazz singer, but she’s a 21st century jazz singer, mixing elements of jazz, pop, rock, Delta blues, and light funk into her performances, expanding what a jazz vocalist can be in a contemporary world with her horn player phrasing, smoky texture, and a voice…
Part of the reason Jeff Bridges was so convincing in his Oscar-winning role as Bad Blake in 2009’s Crazy Heart is that he’s so comfortable in his own skin he lends a casual authority to whatever he does. He stood behind the microphone as if he belonged, a stance…
