Latest posts
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Paul Chambers and the Bass Lines That Held Modern Jazz Together
The Man You Hear Before You Notice Him There is a peculiar injustice built into the role of the jazz bassist. When the instrument is doing its job exceptionally well, listeners may feel its influence before consciously noticing who is responsible. The horn commands the melody. The pianist supplies recognizable harmony. The drummer creates obvious…
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Jaco Pastorius: The 1976 Debut That Reinvented the Electric Bass
When Jaco Pastorius released his self-titled debut album in 1976, the electric bass had already transformed popular music. Motown had James Jamerson. Rock had produced Jack Bruce and John Entwistle. Funk had Larry Graham. Jazz had increasingly accepted the electric instrument as amplification, fusion and new rhythmic languages changed the architecture of ensembles. Jaco Pastorius…
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Dave Brubeck and the Jazz That Refused to Count Normally
The Pianist Who Made the Difficult Sound Natural There is a peculiar contradiction at the center of Dave Brubeck’s reputation. Few jazz musicians of the 1950s became more recognizable to the general public, yet few achieved that popularity while pursuing ideas that could be structurally unusual, rhythmically demanding, and occasionally stubbornly resistant to the conventions…
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Paul Desmond and the Alto Saxophone That Never Needed to Raise Its Voice
The Sound That Seemed to Float Paul Desmond once described the sound he wanted from his alto saxophone with an image that became almost as famous as the music itself: a dry martini. The phrase was characteristically Desmond—elegant, funny, precise, and just detached enough to conceal how seriously he thought about sound. It also provides…
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Antonio Sánchez and Birdman: How a Solo Drum Score Changed the Sound of Cinema
There is something almost absurd about the premise of the music for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). A major feature film starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and Zach Galifianakis would move through Broadway dressing rooms, corridors, streets and stages with much of its dramatic momentum supplied not by an…
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Thandi Ntuli: The Pianist Shaping the New Sound of South African Jazz
A New South African Jazz Language Something remarkable has happened in South African jazz during the twenty-first century. A generation of musicians has emerged that understands the country’s extraordinary musical history not as a repertoire to preserve but as a living language capable of absorbing new experiences, political realities and global influences. Within that movement,…
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Javier Malosetti: The Bass Master Who Connected Argentine Jazz and Rock
Growing Up Inside Argentine Jazz Some musicians discover jazz as outsiders, encountering records that gradually open the door toward an unfamiliar world. Javier Malosetti experienced something very different. Jazz was already inside the house. Born in Buenos Aires in 1965, he was the son of guitarist Walter Malosetti, one of the central figures in Argentine…
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Tete Montoliu: The Barcelona Pianist Who Became a European Jazz Legend
Barcelona, Bebop and the Making of a European Original There was a period when European jazz musicians were routinely judged according to a frustrating question: how closely could they reproduce American jazz? The assumption behind it was rarely stated explicitly, but it shaped criticism for decades. Jazz had been created in the United States, and…
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The Saxophonist Who Turned New York, Istanbul and the World into One Jazz Language
A Musician Between Cities Some musicians belong unmistakably to a place. İlhan Erşahin belongs to movement between places. Stockholm gave him one part of his identity. Istanbul provided another. New York transformed both. Brazil later entered the conversation, along with dub, reggae, electronic music, funk and the countless musicians who passed through the small East…