IMN

Esperanza Spalding and Wayne Shorter Help Celebrate Herbie Hancock's 70th Birthday

IMN

September 3rd, 2010 – IMN Update:

On Wednesday night, Esperanza Spalding and Wayne Shorter helped ring in Herbie Hancock’s 70th Birthday at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Chris Barton at the LA Times remarked about Esperanza, “it was Spalding who wowed the crowd with an acrobatic, joyful duel with Hancock that knocked around the song’s edges, showing she could more than hold her own with the veteran masters.”

Enjoy these pictures from the star-studded event!

Angelique Kidjo to Debut at Carnegie Hall

IMN

September 3rd, 2010 – IMN Update:

Angélique Kidjo will make her Headlining Debut At Carnegie Hall on November 11, 2010 For “Around The Globe” Concert Series. Special Guests To Include Dianne Reeves, Omara Portuondo, Youssou N’Dour and more…

Kidjo will present “The Sound of the Drum,” a tribute to the African roots of the music of the Americas.

Tickets are available for sale here

REVIEW Esperanza Spalding's "Chamber Music Society"

IMN

September 1st, 2010 – IMN Update:

from guardian.co.uk

As a former classical violinist, jazz bass-player and pop-savvy vocalist, Esperanza Spalding has a lot on her side. This unusual venture joins two trios representing different aspects of her past: a jazz one featuring Herbie Hancockish pianist Leo Genovese and drum star Terri Lyne Carrington, and a classical strings group. Wistful reveries spun by Spalding’s airy voice are balanced by bluesier tracks (the shrewd touch of producer Gil Goldstein is apparent). The ballad Apple Blossom finds Spalding duetting with Milton Nascimento, and some superb whispery scat shared by the leader and Gretchen Parlato make Winter Sun and Jobim’s Inútil Paisagem the standout tracks. The jazzy exchanges between Spalding, Genovese and Carrington on Short and Sweet suggest that a little more straight trio playing would have been welcome, but the way the strings scythe in under Spalding’s rising voice on Knowledge of Good and Evil, or canter in unison with her on Genovese’s Latin swinger Chacarera, reinforce this album’s sense of relaxed, cross-idiom balance.

To read the review on The Guardian website and read other Guardian reviews of IMN artists click here

Jazz Records for Hip-Hop Heads

IMN

September 1st, 2010 – IMN Update:

from npr.org

NPR’s Jazz blog “A Blog Supreme” recently posted a list of 5 jazz records for fans of hip hop. Among the 5 featured, alongside Charlier Parker and Miles Davis, was McCoy Tyner’s “Impressions”.

To see whole list and some great videos click here

REVIEW: Ad Hoc Quartet With Common Roots

IMN

August 31st, 2010 – IMN Update:

from the New York Times

Ad Hoc Quartet With Common Roots
By Nate Chinen

MARLBORO, N.Y. — A few songs into a jazz summit meeting at the Falcon here on Saturday night, the all-stars went through an unannounced lineup rotation. John Scofield had just started into his guitar solo on “Hacksensack,” a Thelonious Monk tune, backed by the drummer Jack DeJohnette and the bassist Larry Grenadier. That was when the saxophonist Joe Lovano lumbered around the drum kit, grabbed a pair of sticks and took over, without breaking the chug-a-lug on a ride cymbal. Mr. DeJohnette sidled over to a piano to stab at some Monkish chords. The scene suggested the madcap grace and giddiness of a Marx Brothers routine.

Mr. DeJohnette was leading this ad hoc quartet as part of his annual benefit for the Queens Galley, a nonprofit food outreach and soup kitchen in Kingston, N.Y. By design, all the musicians were residents of the Hudson Valley. (The same group will perform next month at the Culinary Institute of America, with proceeds going to the same place.) Their camaraderie was loose — the instrument swap took place several more times — but hardly nonchalant. They played for two hours and seemed reluctant to stop.

Read the entire review here

Jack DeJohnette, John Scofield and Joe Lovano, from right, performed with Larry Grenadier (and swapped instruments a few times) at Falcon in Marlboro, N.Y. The concert was a benefit for the Queens Galley.

Brad Mehldau Premiere Among NY Mag's "Most Anticipated Events of the Fall"

IMN

August 31st, 2010 – IMN Update:

from Nonesuch

When Brad Mehldau performs in New York City this fall, it will be as holder of the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall. “For the first time, Carnegie gives its composer’s chair to a jazzman,” says New York, “and not just any cat—a pianist with broad influences and a cerebral style.”

Mehldau’s first concert as such will be in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall on November 9, for the New York premiere of his Highway Rider. Performing with Mehldau will be the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, led by Scott Yoo, along with the artists featured on the Nonesuch recording of the piece: his trio mates Jeff Ballard (percussion) and Larry Grenadier (bass), label mate Joshua Redman on saxophone, and percussionist Matt Chamberlain. The world premiere performance of Highway Rider takes place just days earlier at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis; following the Zankel performance, the featured performers head to Europe to tour with the piece. For tickets to the New York performance and more on Mehldau’s season at Carnegie Hall, head to carnegiehall.org.

To read more of New York’s Fall Preview, pick up the latest issue, at newsstands now, or visit nymag.com.

REVIEW Dave Douglas - Spark of Being: Expand

IMN

August 27th, 2010 – IMN Update:

from the Washington City Paper

New jazz records that are adventurous, genre-hopping, and conversational
By Geoffrey Himes

Douglas has recorded a tribute album to Joni Mitchell and has worked with cello, accordion, and tabla. Keystone, his current band, features tenor saxophonist Marcus Strickland, bassist Brad Jones, drummer Gene Lake, electric keyboardist Adam Benjamin, and turntablist DJ Olive. Douglas has found ways to integrate these electric and acoustic instruments so the former don’t overwhelm the latter but engage in an equal back-and-forth. That balance is perfect for a soundtrack about Frankenstein, the tale of decaying nature jolted back to life by a mad scientist’s voltage, and Spark of Being does, in fact, stem from the score for Bill Morrison’s experimental Frankenstein film of the same title. The newly released version of Spark of Being: Expand is not the Morrison soundtrack, but rather a jazz exploration and expansion of seven themes from that film score. (On Sept. 21, though, Douglas will release a three-CD box set that will include this album, the actual movie soundtrack, and a third CD of music composed for the movie but not used.

Read the entire review here

Esperanza Spalding Tops the Charts with "Chamber Music Society"

IMN

August 25th, 2010 – IMN Update:

Press Release

Released last week, Esperanza Spalding’s Chamber Music Society is topping charts left and right:

Chamber Music Society debuted as the #1 Jazz Album on iTunes and has remained at #1 for 7 days since release, #65 iTunes Top 200 (Peak #46).

The album also debut on Amazon as the #1 Jazz Album, #25 in Top 100 Music (Peak #23), #29 Pop.

Chamber Music Society debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Heatseeker Chart, #2 on it’s Contemporary Jazz chart, and #3 Current Jazz Albums Chart, just behind Brian Wilson’s new Gershwin CD.

Chamber Music Society debuted at #1 on the CMJ Jazz chart

For more information on Esperanza Spalding click here

Happy 77th Birthday to Wayne Shorter

IMN

August 25th, 2010 – IMN Update:

IMN Wishes Wayne Shorter a Happy 77th Birthday!

Enjoy some classic clips of Wayne Shorter through the years…

Dianne Reeves to perform at 2010 Shanghai Jazz Festival

IMN

August 25th, 2010 – IMN Update:

The 2010 Shanghai Jazz Festival (Shanghai, China) starts on October 1, a 3 week indoor and outdoor festival that takes place all around Shanghai, this year’s theme is “Love in Music”.

ShanghaiDaily.com recently announced some of the highlights of the festival which will include IMN’s own Dianne Reeves. Dianne will perform on Saturday October 16.

To read the full article click here

REVIEW Anat Cohen's "Clarinetwork"

IMN

August 23rd, 2010 – IMN Update:

From All About Jazz

Anat Cohen: Clarinetwork Live at the Village Vanguard
By Raul d’Gama Rose

Anat Cohen can make the clarinet sing—literally and figuratively. On Clarinetwork Live at the Village Vanguard her wonderful, flowing melodic lines swoop and soar like arias placating the most high. It is as if—in that spiritualised state of grace—Cohen, in her singular, burnished or blushing tone, is voicing the murmurings of the soul set free by the music. Cohen is an anomaly in contemporary music. She is not bound by metaphor and idiom, genre or species. Her home is where her heart is, be that the gentle, wistful shuffle of Brasilian choro or the wild abandon of swing or bebop. On Clarinetwork, she is entrenched in recasting the era that was glorified by Benny Goodman. In fact, as 2009 was a Benny Goodman centennial, this album was recorded as a deeply felt homage to one of a handful of legendary practitioners of the clarinet.

As a homage to Goodman, this album is by far one of the finest tributes made to that musician. However, it is impossible not to be continuously under the spell of Cohen herself. Her technique is impossibly refined and she can glide from altissimo through clarino to chalumeau seemingly effortlessly. How she is able to play microtonal intervals and the resultant quarter notes at breakneck speeds is a mystery best left unsolved, because on this album it is a joy to hear her duel with that other virtuoso, pianist Benny Green. Cohen’s technique is so supple that she plays some wild and wonderful trills at the conclusion of her phrases, as effortlessly as she might usher in a new phrase after a barely discernable vibrato is employed to close a preceding one. And she appears to have an endless stream of improvisational ideas issuing forth from her clarinet.

To read the full article click here

Joe Lovano and Chris Potter Salute James Moody

IMN

August 23rd, 2010 – IMN Update:

from Jazz Police

Saxophone Summit: A Salute to James Moody with Alexander, Tabackin, Lovano, Heath, Potter 8/24-29
By Ronaldo Oregano

The top saxophonists in jazz today are gathering at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York to pay tribute to saxophone legend James Moody, who is currently recovering from gall bladder surgery. Moody, who played with Dizzy Gillespie’s band for almost 50 years, is known for his classic improvisation “Moody’s Mood for Love.” His band, the James Moody Quartet, will be joined by saxophonists Eric Alexander and Antonio Hart, plus special guests Chris Potter on Tuesday, August 24th Jimmy Heath on Thusday, August 26th, Lew Tabackin on Friday, August 27th, and tenor titan Joe Lovano on Sunday, August 29th.

One of the surviving champions of Dizzy Gillespie’s music, James Moody is an accomplished musician on the tenor and alto saxophones, as well as the flute, despite being born partially deaf. In addition to his instrumental prowess, Moody is an engaging entertainer, captivating audiences with his personal charm and wit.

Although born in Savannah, he was raised in Newark, New Jersey. His interest in jazz was sparked by a trumpet-playing father who gigged in the Tiny Bradshaw band, and he took up the alto sax, a gift from his uncle, at the age of 16. His first musical training came in the Air Force, and after leaving the service in 1946 he joined the Dizzy Gillespie big band, staying until 1948. Gillespie became his musical mentor. In 1949, he moved to Paris for three years, often playing with visiting American musicians, including the Tadd Dameron- Miles Davis band.

Read the entire article here

REVIEW Jason Moran's "Ten" is "full of wonderful moments"

IMN

August 23rd, 2010 – IMN Update:

from http://www.telegraph.co.uk

To say of a jazz pianist that he can play in every style, and embrace a hundred influences beyond jazz, is a backhanded compliment. It could imply that he hasn’t got a personal voice of his own.

The astonishing thing about 35-year-old New York pianist Jason Moran is that he unites both elements. He embraces everything, but is always his own man; indeed you could say he’s never more personal than when he’s inhabiting someone else’s skin.

To read the full review click here

REVIEW Brad Mehldau and John Mayer at the Hollywood Bowl

IMN

August 23rd, 2010 – IMN Update:

from contactmusic.com

Mayer And Mehldau Make Sweet Music Onstage

Rocker JOHN MAYER thrilled fans at a sold-out concert on Sunday (22Aug10) after inviting jazz star BRAD MEHLDAU onstage for a duet set.

The singer took to his Twitter.com page last week and hinted that his concert at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl would be extra special, teasing, “Planning something so beautiful for the Hollywood Bowl show… Stay tuned…”

And Mayer kept his promise – he and pianist Mehldau wowed the crowd with a collaborative set as the sun went down over the outdoor venue.

The duo covered Jimi Hendrix’s The Wind Cries Mary, Can’t Find My Way Home by Blind Faith, and Led Zeppelin’s Going to California, before transitioning into Mayer’s own Stop This Train.

They ended the set with a jazz rendition of The Verve’s 1997 hit Bitter Sweet Symphony.

Read the original article here

Esperanza Spalding on All Things Considered

IMN

August 20th, 2010 – IMN Update:

From NPR

Esperanza Spalding: It Takes A ‘Society’

Esperanza Spalding blends jazz, R&B, Brazilian vocalese and classical music. Her works have proved to have broad appeal at a moment when many in the music industry were fretting that young people were turning away from jazz en masse. She’s managed that rare feat: earning raves from the most discriminating jazz aficionados while also attracting a loyal fan base all over the globe.

It also helps that Spalding has friends in high places. President Obama invited her to perform at the White House twice, as well as at his 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Her new album, Chamber Music Society, harkens back to her classical music training. For Spalding, classical music is “music among friends.”

“You get together [with] like-minded individuals and choose a piece of music,” Spalding says. “You sit together with this music on the stand, and you have to listen so carefully, breathe and be connected so intimately with everyone around you to balance all of the parts involved in bringing this piece to life. Amazingly, I realized through the process of exploring this music, that’s exactly what any ensemble player does in the jazz idiom, too.”

To read the full article and listen to audio clips click here