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Jazz

Plainville, James Farm, and the Infrared Band

Old and new dreams
When Antoine Batiste is looking for a guitarist, the one thing he doesn't want to hear is "white boys with bad hair playin' them cowboy keys."

By: JON GARELICK | May 26, 2011

Playing pretty at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

Anthems and praise songs
An accordion blasted a few bars of a two-step and then stopped. "That's the only Cajun music you'll hear on this stage," said Colin Meloy. The Decemberists were making their New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival debut on the Fais Do-Do stage, which is typically reserved for Cajun, zydeco, and other indigenous Louisiana music.

By: JON GARELICK | May 12, 2011

JCA orchestra performs during Jazz week in Boston

Eric Jackson and Jazz Week

Good waves
When he headed for BU from his home town of Camden, New Jersey, in 1968, Eric Jackson thought his ultimate destination was medical school and a career in psychiatry. But as a jazz fan from an early age — and the son of a fairly renowned jazz DJ — he found himself on the closed-circuit BU student station, WTBU.

By: JON GARELICK | April 26, 2011

Floating heavyweights

Club d'Elf, Julian Lage, Jérôme Sabbagh, and Michael Feinberg
Club d'Elf, Julian Lage, Jérôme Sabbagh, and Michael Feinberg

By: JON GARELICK | April 13, 2011

Ilona Kudina, Gretchen Parlato, and Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet

Magic flute and more
Although Ilona Kudina is a flutist, I'm hesitant to call her new Nothing But Illusion a wonderful jazz-flute CD, because it's really just a wonderful jazz album.

By: JON GARELICK | March 30, 2011

Getting it live: Boston's Spring jazz preview

Singing and more in the clubs
Two of the most adventurous and enduring of Boston bands, both coming off banner years in which they celebrated their 25th anniversaries, are pushing hard into spring.

By: JON GARELICK | March 14, 2011

Brad Mehldau, Fred Hersch, Dan Tepfer, Jason Palmer, and Donny McCaslin front a busy week

Pleasures, simple and otherwise
Brad Mehldau, Fred Hersch, Dan Tepfer, Jason Palmer, and Donny McCaslin front a busy week

By: JON GARELICK | March 02, 2011

Young and not so old

Noah Preminger is effin great; plus, dynamic duos live
Noah Preminger is 25 years old. But close your eyes when he's playing - or talking - and you might think you're hearing a gruff jazz sage with 40 years on the road.

By: JON GARELICK | February 16, 2011

The David Wax Museum and Tierney Sutton bridge tradition with the here and now

Border crossings
"Is that the jawbone of an ass?", I ask Suz Slezak in the lobby of the Paradise, giving the question my best Biblical inflection. She'd been playing the strange percussion instrument with her band the David Wax Museum in their opening set for the Carolina Chocolate Drops. "Yes!" she says brightly. "You can get them on eBay!

By: JON GARELICK | February 01, 2011

The education of Grace Kelly

Hat tricks
Legendary 79-year-old alto-saxophonist Phil Woods laughs indignantly when I ask him how he knew 18-year-old alto-saxophonist Grace Kelly was special. "Come on, when you hear it, you know what it is! I've been doing this for 65 years!" Pressed for particulars, he at first says, "Her maturity." Then he demurs. "It's not any one thing. She's got the whole kit."

By: JON GARELICK | January 19, 2011

After the rain with Charles Lloyd

Tenderness sutras
The voice — a rolling, unhurried drawl with a laugh in it — is that of Charles Lloyd, 72 years old, saxophonist, early career star, temporary recluse, lifelong mystic seeker.

By: JON GARELICK | January 04, 2011

Ten live jazz gigs to catch in early 2011

All flavors of great jazz
Next week we'll tell you all about the tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd, who brings his great band with Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers, and Eric Harland to the Regattabar January 21-22. In the meantime, here are 10 other primo jazz acts to catch live this winter.

By: JON GARELICK | December 29, 2010

The Top 10 Jazz Stories of 2010

Ten long-players
Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite things from among the people, CDs, and concerts I wrote about this year.

By: JON GARELICK | December 23, 2010

Henry Threadgill's untrackable journey

Impractical genius
The new The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) is an impractical monster.

By: JON GARELICK | December 07, 2010

Electronic Havana

Another side of Cuba, another side of Berklee; plus Jason Stein and the Dymaxion Quartet
If you were to hear that a group of Berklee students were spending a week in Cuba, you probably wouldn't be too surprised.

By: JON GARELICK | November 23, 2010

Flesh and blood: Phil Wilson's Miles and Gil

Plus Benny Sharoni's hard bop and Ben Powell's fiddle magic
When I first put on Benny Sharoni's new Eternal Elixir (Papaya), there was, as a composer friend of mine likes to say, "nothing wrong with it." That is, it seemed no better or worse than a zillion other straight-ahead tenor-saxophone discs.

By: JON GARELICK | November 09, 2010