Ornette Coleman

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Desk job

Phillipe and Jorge believe it was thoughtful during this holiday season for the US government to clue in the Great Unwashed on how to survive a possible nuclear bomb strike. Their message, as reported by the New York Times on December 15: "Do not flee
Duck and cover redux; the best Congress money can buy; the Cabrals to the rescue!
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | December 24, 2010

Chucho, Mike, and Lina

Anyone who has doubts about the musical supremacy of Chucho Valdés — or wants an introduction to it — need only listen to "Danzón," the second track from the new Chucho's Steps.
Havana, Chicago, and a dash of Toronto
By JON GARELICK | October 15, 2010

One night, one jazz trifecta

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.
Taylor Eigsti, the October Trio, and the BC Quintet
By JON GARELICK | July 02, 2010

Complete control

Let’s put aside for now the philosophical questions about a player/composer’s need for control, and whether there’s any qualitative difference between the music said player/composer writes for himself and what he writes for himself with other people, or
Pat Metheny, live at the Orpheum Theatre, May 20, 2010
By JON GARELICK | May 21, 2010

The onliest Sonny

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.
Rollins looks at 80
By JON GARELICK | April 09, 2010

The music man

Forty years after a half-million hippies descended on a sprawling dairy farm in upstate New York, Woodstock has become shorthand for an entire epoch.
George Wein, the father of American music festivals, reflects on bringing world-class folk and jazz (and more) to Newport
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | August 07, 2009

Inside out

Charlie Kohlhase's love affair with jazz began with the avant-garde. As a high-school kid in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he found that it was Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago who rocked his world.
Charlie Kohlhase's Explorer's Club, Lee Konitz + Minsarah, and Steve Swallow recanting
By JON GARELICK | July 03, 2009

Trail of tunes

The best summer music festivals take something from the season: the smell of the surf, the sight of the mountains, fireworks, lawn seating — or, at least, fried dough.
Music al fresco at summer fests
By CLEA SIMON | June 12, 2009

Mixed messages

Given the sound of its first track (which is also the title of the album), you'd have every reason to think that 3play+'s debut CD is about to plunge you into Bill Frisell–style Americana.
3play+ do what they wanna; Melody Gardot follows her instincts
By JON GARELICK | June 05, 2009

Museum pieces and other pieces

It's Jazz Week time again — that time when the Boston jazz community looks to expand its minority-appeal music to a larger public.
Jazz Week returns, the Jazz Hall of Fame inducts, Ron Gill says bye
By JON GARELICK | April 24, 2009

Fourth quarter earnings

Times a-wastin' on 2008, so before it's too late, here's a handful of discs that have caught my ear over the past few months.
Haden, Hunter, Rollins, Mela, Bley, and e.s.t.
By JON GARELICK | December 16, 2008

Mixed grill

Dave Bryant stood among the folding chairs in the audience before Scarecrow Mobius's gig at Outpost 186 a week ago Monday night, looked at his two-deck keyboard rig, and mused, "Not pretty, but I guess it will do. I had more room at rehearsal."
Scarecrow Mobius, Monique, and Morley
By JON GARELICK | December 01, 2008

Cinematic

Talking with Nathaniel Facey, the alto-saxophonist in the London band Empirical, you find it difficult at first to pin down where and how the quintet developed their unusual compositional style.
Empirical go to the movies, plus the Hot 8
By JON GARELICK | July 28, 2008

School days

Fred Woodard graduated from Berklee in 1983 — and that’s when he really started to go to school.
Fred Woodard’s post-grad life, plus ‘KGBG’ at the Lily Pad
By JON GARELICK | June 17, 2008

Boston music news: April 25, 2008

“As far as I know,” says saxophonist Ken Field, “ Forked Tongue is the only CD ever released to include songs by both Ornette Coleman and Billy Idol.”

Notes on Revolutionary Snake Ensemble and the Unseen

By JIM SULLIVAN | April 22, 2008

Hearts of glass

In the photo it is night, and two women in cocktail dresses sit — perhaps chatting while jazz plays in the background — in a spare modern living room.
California cool at the Addison Gallery
By GREG COOK | March 19, 2008

The long view

Bob Blumenthal’s first book is out, and the wonder is that we didn’t get it sooner.
Bob Blumenthal’s history of jazz
By JON GARELICK | January 29, 2008

Marc Ribot

If you know Ribot only through his brilliant sidemanning with Burnett and Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, you don’t really know Ribot.
Asmodeus: Book of Angels Volume 7 — Marc Ribot Plays Masada Book Two | Tzadik
By TED DROZDOWSKI | November 27, 2007

Standards

For much of his life, no one played Thelonious Monk pieces except Thelonious Monk.
Julius Hemphill at the Gardner, Cyrus Plays Elvis
By JON GARELICK | October 23, 2007

Holy spirit of the saxophone

John Coltrane died 40 years ago this past July at the age of 40 of liver cancer.
The John Coltrane Memorial Concert and Ben Ratliff’s Coltrane: The Story of a Sound
By JON GARELICK | September 12, 2007

Francisco Mela

The ?rst tune,“John Ramsay” (named for theBoston drummer), begins with the maze of Lionel Loueke’s acoustic-guitar patterns.
Melao | Ayva
By JON GARELICK | August 09, 2007

Sam Yahel Trio

Sam Yahel’s expressive approach to the Hammond B3 organ has made him one of the most sought-after sidemen in jazz.
Truth and Beauty | Origin
By ADAM GOLD | June 27, 2007

James Blood Ulmer

This time Ulmer was in a brooding mood.
Bad Blood in the City: The Piety Street Sessions | Hyena
By TED DROZDOWSKI | May 08, 2007

Fathers and son

It must be daunting to have Joshua Redman’s talent.
Joshua Redman goes East
By JON GARELICK | May 01, 2007

Tango talk

Argentine tango has a strong tradition. Which is both good and bad news for Bernardo Monk.
Bernardo Monk steps out
By JON GARELICK | January 23, 2007

The roots of rock

In 1939 Arthur Goldberg went to Hollywood and crowned himself Art Rupe, a suitably slick moniker for an entrepreneur in the booming post-war culture industry.
Concord unearths the Specialty catalog
By WAYNE MARSHALL | January 02, 2007

Guest lists

What small, private lists like this remind us is that big, honking institutional lists are largely fictions, mirages of a consensus that no longer exists, if it ever really did in the first place.
What 30 of the Phoenix 's music critics liked this year
By PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | January 02, 2007

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