Latest posts
-
Al Neil The Pianist Who Walked Out of Jazz and Into the Avant-Garde
Before the Piano Became Something Else Long before Al Neil became one of the strangest and most important figures in Canada’s experimental arts, he was a jazz pianist trying to understand the implications of bebop from a city thousands of miles from New York. That geographical fact matters. Vancouver in the late 1940s and 1950s…
-
David S. Ware: The Tenor Colossus Who Carried the Fire Into Another Century
Before the Sound Became Monumental There are tenor saxophonists whose identity can be recognized through a phrase, and others whose identity seems to arrive before the phrase itself. David S. Ware belonged to the second category. At full force, his tenor could feel less like an instrument producing notes than a physical body occupying the…
-
François Tusques: The Pianist Who Freed French Jazz — Then Asked What Freedom Was For
Buy Amazon Before French Free Jazz Had a Name When François Tusques recorded an album simply titled Free Jazz in Paris in 1965, the title was more than a stylistic description. It sounded almost like a declaration of independence. Ornette Coleman had already transformed the vocabulary of American jazz, Cecil Taylor was dismantling conventional assumptions…
-
Brother Ah The French Horn Visionary Who Turned Jazz Into a Spiritual Journey
Before Brother Ah, There Was Robert Northern Long before he became Brother Ah, Robert Northern had already lived several musical lives. He had been a conservatory-trained French horn player, worked inside classical orchestras, played Broadway and nightclub jobs, and entered recording studios with some of the most important figures in modern jazz. His credits would…
-
Stan Kenton & Bill Holman: When a Powerful Orchestra Met an Arranger Who Knew How to Make It Swing
A Different Kind of Power Few American big bands projected power as unmistakably as Stan Kenton’s orchestra. From the 1940s onward, Kenton built an identity around scale, dramatic brass, ambitious arrangements and a willingness to push the big-band format beyond the conventions of dance music. His orchestras could sound monumental. They could also divide listeners.…
-
Yo-Yo Ma: The Cellist Who Made Musical Borders Feel Unnecessary
Before the Borders Disappeared There is an obvious problem with placing Yo-Yo Ma inside a publication devoted primarily to jazz: he is not a jazz musician. His central tradition is Western classical music, his instrument is the cello, and much of his reputation was built through Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák and the major concerto repertoire…
-
Vertigo Records: The Swirl Label Where British Jazz, Progressive Rock and Experimentation Collided
Before Progressive Music Had a Name When Vertigo Records appeared in Britain in 1969, the record industry was confronting a problem created by its own success. Rock music had evolved faster than the categories designed to sell it. Psychedelia was mutating into progressive rock, blues musicians were incorporating jazz improvisation, jazz musicians were experimenting with…
-
Black Jazz Records: The Independent Label That Gave 1970s Black Jazz Its Own Space
A Label for a Changing America When Black Jazz Records emerged at the beginning of the 1970s, jazz was experiencing a crisis that was simultaneously commercial, cultural and generational. Rock had transformed the record industry, soul and funk had become dominant forces in Black popular music, and many major labels increasingly treated acoustic jazz as…
-
Jef Gilson: The French Visionary Who Heard Jazz Beyond Its Borders
Before French Jazz Learned to Stop Imitating There is something almost contradictory about Jef Gilson. He became one of the great restless experimenters of French jazz, yet his musical life began inside a revival movement looking backward. He would eventually work with free improvisation, bitonality, changing meters, African musicians, electric instruments and independent recording, but…