It was a double-bill last night at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center with the Whispers and Gladys Knight performing at the venue’s Prudential Hall. Celebrating 52 years in the business and still going strong, the three remaining founding members of the group, the Scott twins Walter and Wallace and Leaveil Degree, took us on…
A Rhodes keyboard and a Hohner D6 Clavinet is all it takes to make me happy. And of course someone who is able to play them. Nicholas Payton was introducing music from his forthcoming release “Afro-Caribbean Mixtape” (out on February 10th) at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola on Thursday night. And the continuous groove, sometimes swampy…
Pianist Kevin Hays has taken a break from his Rhodes and Wurlitzer sounds on his album “New Day” (see review on these pages from Oct 12, 2015) and recorded in acoustic trio format for “North”, his latest release. Music from the album was the main thing at Kitano on Thursday night, where I attended the…
When singer Bilal was invited up on stage on Wednesday night at the Blue Note, the whole concept of trumpeter Keyon Harrold‘s show took on a new direction, and a pretty unorthodox and cool one. With a set heavily reminding me of Bitches Brew material, but not at all copying it, here was another example…
There were a lot of expectations yesterday before going to the Jazz Standard to see legendary singer Carol Sloane. After all, she hadn’t performed in the city for many years and seemed to be a bit off the radar. So it came as a bit of a surprise to see her name popping up during…
A mixture of traditional folk and free jazz isn’t what you normally indulge when going out on a freezing Monday night, but it’s what was part of this year’s Winter Jazzfest at Le Poisson Rouge on Bleecker Street. The Sam Amidon Extended and its 11-piece ensemble played music from “I See The Sign”, a monstrous…
So APAP madness continued on Sunday with a million artists showcasing for 25-minute sets. Only a few of those I saw stood out: singer and composer Peter Eldridge, one of the founding members of the New York Voices, played music from his recently-released “Disappearing Day” album. Opening his set with the very cool, groove-bending “Mind…
Cuban singer Dayme Arocena released a brilliant album last year on the UK-based Brownswood Recordings. Her irresistible mix of jazz, latin , and something like Cuban neo-soul is pretty unique and ecstatic. Listen to her six-track “One Takes” and you hopefully get the drift. At only 24 years old, Daymé is also part of Jane…
Among the panels I went to on Friday was one moderated by Yvonne Ervin from the Tucson Jazz Festival. Presenters were discussing the theme of sharing ideas through networks and other coalitions and also talking about visiting other festivals and how and what they check out when they’re visiting other festivals. Panelists included Tim Jackson…
It is funny but there is this prejudice or rumor that traveling to the US is like a nightmare with hours and hours waiting in line at the airport to enter the country. Once again on Wednesday, I was out of terminal 8, cleared immigration and customs only 45 minutes after the plane touched down…