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Jazz

Sonic DNA: Stanton Moore and Anthony Brown

They know where music comes from
Music is mystery, maybe, but for some of us that conceit is a provocation for deep-nerdy investigation.

By: JON GARELICK | September 14, 2010

Fall Jazz Preview: Blindfold test

Trying new flavors in the new season
A search for this fall’s must-see jazz revealed a lot of overlapping personnel — Jim Hobbs, Allan Chase, Joe Morris, Taylor Ho Bynum. Hey, you wanted to know what’s good , right?

By: JON GARELICK | September 16, 2010

Giant Steps: Ted Rosenthal, Danilo Pérez, and Vijay Iyer

Pianos plus
The sound was maddeningly familiar.

By: JON GARELICK | September 01, 2010

Giant Steps: Goodies from Berklee's Beantown Jazz Festival

Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival has grown from a one-day street fair to 10 days of activities that encompass club gigs as well as the signature afternoon multi-stage event in the South End. Here are some highlights.

By: JON GARELICK | September 01, 2010

ArtsEmerson taps Hirsch as music booker

Dan's the Man
The theater district's ArtsEmerson project keeps getting more and more interesting.

By: JON GARELICK | July 28, 2010

A Newport sampler

Six on the side
The Newport Jazz Festival (August 6-8) has plenty of big guns worth your attention on the main Fort Stage — from Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Ahmad Jamal, and Wynton Marsalis with Dave Brubeck to the Maria Schneider Orchestra and Arturo O'Farrill's Latin Jazz Orchestra.

By: JON GARELICK | July 27, 2010

Secret master

David Binney's many faces
Scratch below the surface of any number of hard-playing jazz musicians these days and you hear a common refrain: "I hardly ever listen to jazz."

By: JON GARELICK | July 27, 2010

Time travelers

The Either/Orchestra go to Groovy World, plus Ameranouche and Shelley Neill dig their Gypsy souls
Trumpeter Tom Halter is wearing one of his snazzy mariachi outfits (black vest and pants with white embroidery). Russ Gershon is retouching his own make-up to get some of the green out (“I don’t look so much like a corpse now”).

By: JON GARELICK | July 19, 2010

One night, one jazz trifecta

Taylor Eigsti, the October Trio, and the BC Quintet
True, there aren't enough paying gigs for musicians, but the live music is out there — and last Wednesday, I had to scramble to make three promising shows.

By: JON GARELICK | June 29, 2010

Tony Cennamo (1933-2010)

Boston jazz loses a great
Tony Cennamo is synonymous with jazz radio in Boston. A fixture on WBUR from the early '70s to his last late-night show in 1997, Cennamo — who died on June 8 — was lively, outspoken, even outrageous. But his depth of knowledge was irreproachable.

By: JON GARELICK | June 16, 2010

Guitaristic

Ben Monder's unique space
As guitar heroes go — even jazz guitar heroes — Ben Monder flies under the radar.

By: JON GARELICK | June 18, 2010

Does jazz have a melody problem?

Phil Sargent and Daniel Bennett try a new approach
It seems lately that every other jazz musician I talk to under 40 wants to talk about melody — how it’s the thing they all care about.

By: JON GARELICK | June 02, 2010

Covering Lacy

A jazz master’s legacy finds traction
For Josh Sinton, Steve Lacy stood out almost from the beginning.

By: JON GARELICK | May 24, 2010

Amazing grace

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival carries on
The morning after I get back from the 41st annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, an oil executive is on the radio: “We’re throwing everything we have at it.” Meaning the exploded BP-leased well in the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana.

By: JON GARELICK | May 04, 2010

Pardon the interruption

Quartet of Happiness, Jerry Leake, and Jazz Week
Maybe it was when saxophonist Kelly Roberge, instrument in hand, leapt off the Cambridge YMCA Theatre stage in the middle of a performance by the Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra and fled the auditorium — as if in extreme gastro-intestinal distress.

By: JON GARELICK | April 22, 2010

Extremeties

Dave Holland and Tomasz Stanko come to town
You can experience jazz at two different extremes at the Regattabar this month, in visits from the quintets of Dave Holland and Tomasz Stanko.

By: JON GARELICK | April 16, 2010

The onliest Sonny

Rollins looks at 80
Sonny Rollins has held the unofficial title of world’s greatest living improviser at least since the early ’70s, following the death of John Coltrane and the second of two extended Rollins sabbaticals from public performance.

By: JON GARELICK | April 15, 2010

Making it sing

Dee Dee does Billie, plus John Stein & Ron Gill
If you come to Dee Dee Bridgewater’s new Billie Holiday tribute disc — or to her two Holiday shows at the Paramount Theatre this weekend — expecting a reverent impersonation, you could be in for a shock. Bridgewater has transformed the music and persona of the jazz icon.

By: JON GARELICK | March 25, 2010

Message points

Christian Scott's political science, Anita Coelho's connections
Instrumental music isn't very dependable at conveying specific non-musical subject matter.

By: JON GARELICK | March 09, 2010

Sonny, Pat, and all the cats

Names you know and names you should
The primo jazz event of the spring will be SONNY ROLLINS 's concert at Symphony Hall on April 18 (bso.org). The great master saxophonist and peerless improviser often hits town in April, and this time it's to kick off his 80th-birthday tour. Whew.

By: JON GARELICK | March 09, 2010

Jew note

First Annual Boston Jewish Music Festival, plus the Klezmatics
Defining "Jewish" music is pretty much a fool's task — not much easier than defining jazz.

By: JON GARELICK | February 25, 2010

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