New York
On J.D. Allen
My preview of J.D. Allen’s trio at the Village Vanguard (Aug. 11-16), in the current Time Out New York.
On Bill Carrothers
My preview of pianist Bill Carrothers at the Village Vanguard (now through Sunday), in the current Time Out New York. [Correction: Drummer Dre Pallemaerts is Belgian, not Danish. I regret the error.]
New York @ Night: July 2009
This month in All About Jazz-New York: reviews of Bill Mobley and the Smoke Big Band, and Jane Ira Bloom at the Tea Lounge (as part of June’s Bloom Festival).
On Steve Kuhn
My preview of Steve Kuhn at Birdland (Tues., July 7), in the current Time Out New York.
Clarinets
I’ll make a point of going to hear Israeli clarinet whiz Anat Cohen during her ambitious two-week stand at the Vanguard, June 23-28 and then June 30-July 5. The 3 Cohens band is really nice but I’ll have to prioritize and hear Anat next week with Benny Green on piano (saw him with Blakey at Sweet Basil’s in the mid-’80s),
Amir ElSaffar-Hafez Modirzadeh
With Iranian culture and diaspora much in the news, it was a good time to hear Bay Area tenor saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh (right) in a collaboration with New York-based Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar (left), last Friday at Alwan for the Arts. (Note: photo is from an earlier gig, elsewhere.) The two have developed an extraordinary language that draws on Iraqi
Live music in brief
A quick word about Jason Kao Hwang‘s outstanding Spontaneous River premiere, which kicked off the final night of the Vision Festival on Monday. Over 25 string players, including a battalion of unplugged acoustic guitars and six double bassists, plus drums. Sort of a Messiaen-meets-Bitches Brew affair, with truly funky passages but lots of slow, strangely mutating and shimmering harmony, as
On Dave Douglas
My preview of Dave Douglas & Brass Ecstasy (Jazz Standard, June 18-21), in the current Time Out New York.