The third in our ongoing series of black jazz writers telling their story features the perspectives of Eugene Holley. Back in the early 90s our staff at the former National Jazz Service Organization was blessed with the talents of two then-aspiring jazz journalists. The last installment in this series came from the perspective of John [...]
Just how important is that often overlooked element of your self-produced (or company-produced for that matter) CD packaging referred to as the spine? You know what I’m talking about: that information strip on either edge of your CD packaging that (should) contain the artist name, the release title, the label name, and catalogue numbers. Longtime [...]
User-Friendly Jazz Improvisation "Methods to Finding Yourself as a Soloist" "…Alaadeen is a wise elder in this music we call jazz and young musicians would do well to devour the practical wisdom he lays down in The Rest of the Story." – Willard Jenkins, Journalist / Broadcaster / Producer "(The Rest of the Story) is [...]
Ancient Future, the radio program produced & hosted by Willard Jenkins, airs Thursday mornings on WPFW 89.3FM, Pacifica Radio serving the Washington, DC metro area at 50,000 watts. ARTIST TUNE ALBUM TITLE LABEL (3rd Thursday South African Jazz focus pt. 1 5:00am-6:30) Abdullah Ibrahim African Marketplace African Marketplace Elektra Four Yanks Msenge [...]
The Duke Ellington Jazz Festival, brainchild of the savvy, all-city big-tent philosophy of Charlie Fishman, celebrated its 5th anniversary last week by shifting it’s eleven day event from a previous fall incarnation to the front end of the traditional jazz festival season, the month of June. There was far too much activity for one observer to catch [...]
Modern Music Man JOHN MURPH John Murph has channeled his voracious appetite for modern music — particular that which falls into the creative contemporary category. In his case that includes an encyclopedic sensibility when it comes to modern jazz, the leading edge of hip hop, trip hop, drum ‘n bass, electronica, house, broken beat and assorted other [...]
Jonathan Kaslow Reverses the Sampling Equation I’ve known Jonathan Kaslow since he was a youngster growing up in New Orleans. He comes from a musical family with particularly strong influences from his late mother Allison Minor, one of the founders of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the subsequent foundation of the same [...]
Ancient Future the radio program airs Thursday mornings on WPFW 89.3 FM (www.wpfw.org), Pacifica Radio serving the Washington, DC metro region at 50,000 watts. Here’s the playlist for Thursday, June 11, 2009: ARTIST TUNE ALBUM TITLE LABEL Duke Ellington Blues for New Orleans New Orleans Suite Atlantic Dr. Michael White Dark Sunshine [...]
A residency in South Africa, following a similar stint in Brazil, has given Salim Washington some interesting perspectives on the music of those two culturally-rich nations. Salim Washington in performance I had the pleasure of first meeting the Memphis-born, Detroit-raised saxophonist-flutist-composer-educator Salim Washington in the early 90s while collaborating with the New England [...]
Last Sunday a remarkable concert of new compositions was presented by DC-based drummer-percussionist Nasar Abadey as part of the in-motion Duke Ellington Jazz Festival (now through June 15; check www.dejazzfest.com). Nasar preceded his "Diamond in the Rough" suite, which displayed his first writing for strings along with his superb septet, with a symposium essentially on the evolution [...]