JAZZ NOS FUNDOS CLUB, Sao Paulo — Most bass players live in the background, literally and figuratively. They add immensely to the beat and rhythm of a band, but they aren’t the stars, the entertainers, or the “wowee” soloists. Zerró Santos is all of those, and much more. Zerró is a one-man high-wattage power plant…
A toy sax and rugby launched Carpio Brothers
THE FOXGLOVE, HONG KONG — One brother started playing a toy sax at the age of one and a half. Seriously. The other nearly gave up piano after two rugby-related shoulder surgeries. Today, the Carpio Brothers are rocking Hong Kong with some of the best, most creative jazz in the world. [WATCH THE VIDEO HERE]…
Herb Scott started with a pencil sax
MR. HENRY’S. — If you’re willing to start learning the saxophone on a pencil, you’re one driven musical son of a bitch! But that’s exactly how Herb Scott, one of Washington D.C.’s favorite saxophone players and the founder of the weekly Capitol Hill Jazz Jam at Mr. Henry’s, got started. Over his career, Herb has performed…
Ian Trewhella’s first solo was an ambush
OSLO, NORWAY — Ian Trewhella learned how to play a saxophone solo the hard way: He was ambushed. Ian was 14 years old and playing second tenor saxophone in a big band. His teacher, Sid Warren, was playing first saxophone. “It was very sneaky what Sid did, to be honest,” Ian told me. “He told…
My 30 favorite jazz photos – a video tour
I have been filming, photographing, and interviewing jazz musicians since 2016. Over that time, I have been privileged to meet: More than 50 musicians In 17 cities In 11 countries On five continents Here is a video presentation of just 30 photos out of more than 3,000 photos I’ve taken. These are my favorites. #jazz…
Cumbia music? You’ve got to try it!
THE JAZZ CAFE, LONDON — If you’ve never heard (or even heard of) cumbia music, do yourself a favor and watch the video with this post! La Yegros ratchets up traditional cumbia music several notches into wild, driving rhythms and sounds that stir the soul and the body. But before you watch the video of…
Playing riots, jam sessions to save a city
THE TABOR, BALTIMORE — Every member of the Clarence Ward III Jam Sessions band said basically the same thing: The music saved their lives. “I would probably be in trouble honestly; I’d probably be running the streets if I didn’t have music at an early age,” said saxophonist Sam King, who was headed to college…
Why do what’s already been done?
Mathias Eick’s unusual style of jazz is both haunting and rocking, meditative and mesmerising. And his story about how he came to it is the essence of jazz: He rejected his father’s classical jazz style and struck out to create something new!
No congas at midnight? Something is wrong!
When Bobby Sanabria was growing up in the South Bronx in the Sixties,. if you didn’t hear conga drums in the parks and basketball courts at midnight…something was wrong. GRANT’S TOMB, NYC — Bobby Sanabria grew up with music in his blood. “I grew up in the South Bronx during a time period in the…
“I thought improv was impossible”
THE BLACK CAT, SAN FRANCISCO — What do you do when you’re only 11 years old, you think improvisation is impossible, and your teacher tells everyone in the class to stop playing until you do a solo. It was a make-or-break moment for young Irwin Hall, but it set him on the course to become…
Saving lives with his music
ANDY’S JAZZ CLUB, Chicago — Marques Carroll uses his trumpet to make music and to make change. Hundreds of young men in Chicago have found new lives through Marques and the music program he started in one of the toughest sections of the city. “What I’m seeing with the music is that it’s saving a…
If Sting married Roberta Flack & had an affair with Rickie Lee Jones …
THE 55 BAR, NYC — “I call my music ‘urban folk and jazz’. And when people ask ‘What’s that?’, I say if Sting married Roberta Flack and had an affair with Rickie Lee Jones, I’d write the music,” jazz singer extraordinaire KJ Denhert told me. “That’s the music that I write. “I first picked up a…
Outrageous, explosive, pounding piano
THE ZINC BAR, NYC — Eric Lewis opens by obscenely dissing jazz great Keith Jarrett. Then he reaches INSIDE the piano to bang, scrape, and pluck the strings. Lewis opens with a shocker: “The thing about Keith Jarrett is that, like a lot of those other guys, they do a lot of creative stuff, but…
Chuck Brown Band’s rockin’ Go Go sound
If you’ve never heard Go Go Music (and I am NOT talking about 70’s disco), you’re in for a treat. Relentless, driving, fun, lively, and irresistibly participatory, it gets audiences on their feet from the first song. And, as its name suggests, a Go Go band doesn’t stop until a full set is over.
Playing jazz through apartheid
THE CRYPT, CAPE TOWN — Jazz musicians say you must suffer to truly play jazz. Few can say they’ve suffered like any older, non-white jazz musician in South Africa. “We were not allowed to play because of the color of our skin,” Spencer Mbadu told me. “During apartheid days, it was difficult for black musicians,…
Berlin big band blows folks out of their seats
B-FLAT JAZZ CLUB, BERLIN — When you can hear a band playing from a block away, you know you’re in for body-shaking evening. And this band was playing in a basement! In the winter. The Open Source Orchestra blows listeners away not only with their big sound but also with their joie de vivre — they…
Can Italians play the blues? You bet!
LONDON — Blindfolded listeners might swear they were listening to vintage American blues. Opening their eyes, they’d see Emanuele “Manny” Fizzotti, an exquisite Italian blues guitarist wowing blues-loving crowds all around London. The only thing that might have given Manny away as Italian at the Ain’t Nothin’ But Blues Bar in London May 9 would have…
Bobby Bryan’s prison days, blues nights
TERRA BLUES, NYC — Bobby Bryan counsels convicted teenage felons at the Rikers Island prison during the day. At night, he sings the blues. Makes sense, right? But Bobby’s blues have a decided upbeat vibe because Bobby’s outlook on life, despite what he deals with every day, is decidedly upbeat. And it’s clear he’s having a…
Prince Lengoasa’s ‘soul shower’
THE ORBIT, Johannesburg — Performing exquisitely is one thing; performing exquisitely while also inspiring is another, very special thing altogether. Many jazz musicians are magnificently talented “technically” and amaze audiences with their dexterity and the mastery of their instrument. But jazz artists who possess that technical skill AND leave the audience feeling as if they’ve…
Stunning, soaring solos from Ant Law
THE VORTEX, London — We’re talking solos that leave the audience slack-jawed in amazement, only to quickly recover and roar with applause. The Ant Law Quintet is awesome together and but monstrously mind-boggling in their solos. When I got to the Vortex, one of Downbeat magazine’s top 150 jazz venues in the world, a flea could not…
Matt Pavolka’s super intense Horn Band
SMALLS JAZZ CLUB, NYC — For a very mild-mannered guy, Matt Pavolka writes some pretty intense music. And his band members, also very easy-going between sets, play with equal intensity and passion, producing sounds that provoked lots of audible “wows” in the audience. When these guys play, they command the complete attention of their audience. Matt’s…
Quintessential blues guitarist SaRon Crenshaw
TERRA BLUES, NYC — Half of the crowd at Terra Blues usually listens to the musicians, and half the crowd, the chatty folks around the bar, don’t. Not for SaRon Crenshaw. When SaRon played, everyone listened. The man is a genius. He is the quintessential blues guitarist: deep, soulful voice; exquisite guitar-picking skills; insightful, often funny…
Misha Piatigorsky’s kinetic jazz piano
ZINC BAR, NYC — When the pianist explodes off his bench, punctuating the air with his fist, rocks back and forth, tosses his head, rockets over the keyboard, and grins from ear to ear at his band members, it’s a safe bet you’re in for a visual and musical treat. And all that happened during the…
Chris Norton’s shtick is sizzling horn & swiveling body
ROXY BAR, NYC — I’ve rarely seen anyone who puts his entire body into the performance of jazz the way Chris Norton does. Beyond his exquisite and expressive horn play, Chris swings and twists his body to emphasize every word and bring the joy of musical expression alive. He clearly enjoys entertaining and feels every…
Indian slum, or Gaana, music is as intense as the setting
CHENNAI, INDIA — Nothing can possibly prepare a Westerner for the sights, sounds, smells, and citizens of the slums of Chennai. It is all a completely overwhelming, fascinating, intense, absorbing, totally out-of-our-background experience in every possible way. First of all, the people of Chennai are among the most welcoming in the world. They start with…
Stan Rubin’s Tigertown 5 w/Barry Bryson rock Dixieland
ZINC BAR, NYC — The New York City music scene really can be a small place. When I walked into the Zinc Bar, the band leader and I looked at each other as if we knew each other. And we did! Barry Bryson, the electrifying trumpet player and Louis Armstrong “channeler” extraordinaire, had welcomed me to…
Robert Powers, a blues legend, shows why at Terra Blues
TERRA BLUES, NYC — Playing the blues has to come from the soul. There is no room for artifice or ego or flamboyance. It’s story-telling, sorrow, humor, hard-times and good times. It can be imitated, but fakers just don’t resonate. Robert Powers is the real thing, and it’s clear his many Grammy nominations have been well-earned….
GLOBAL RHYTHMS 