Category Archives: In Other Words

Esperanza Spalding, Fred Hersch, Jazz and the Art of Solidarity

01 Monday Jun 2020

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Esperanza Spalding and Fred Hersch

Singer, bassist, and songwriter Esperanza Spalding and pianist and composer Fred Hersch are releasing a five-song EP recorded live at Village Vanguard, with all proceeds benefitting the Jazz Foundation of America. The performances, selected from a weekend run at the Vanguard in October 2018 and offered as rough mixes, with no edits, are a reminder of what jazz can be – creative, daring, subversive, and yes, fun. These are two superior artists working at a high level, often suggesting dancers changing roles on the fly, now leading, now following, challenging, and teasing each other while tiptoeing and turning on a ledge. The results are often spellbinding.

The EP will be sold exclusively for download through Bandcamp, with all proceeds benefitting the Jazz Foundation of America and the organization’s efforts to assist members of the jazz community impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be available only through June for a minimum of $17, with additional donations encouraged on a pay-what-you-wish basis.
The EP can be purchased at https://esperanzaspaldingfredhersch.bandcamp.com

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Jazz at Lincoln Center Going Global Tonight

15 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by in Home, In Other Words, Jazz, Latin Jazz, On Music

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Jazz at Lincoln Center is turning its annual Spring Gala into a free digital broadcast with a global accent. The event tonight will feature the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and performances by musicians around the world including pianists Chucho Valdés and Chano Dominguez; flutist Baqir Abbas, singer Cécile McLorin Salvant with pianist Sullivan Fortner; pianist Nduduzo Makhathini; mandolinist Hamilton de Holanda, the WDR Big Band; accordionist Richard Galliano, singer Dianne Reeves and saxophonists Stefano DiBattista and Igor Buttman.

The event starts at 7:30PM EST.

You can watch by clicking on the graphic or by clicking on these links: Livestream, Youtube, or Facebook Live 

 

Andy González, Bassist Extraordinaire and Latin Music Champion, Dies at 69.

12 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by in Home, In Other Words, Jazz, Latin Jazz, On Music

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li0hlQxlRyw

Andy González, for the past half-century, one of the premier bass players in Latin music, died in the Bronx, New York, Thursday. According to his sister, Eileen González-Altomari, quoted by The New York Times, the causes were pneumonia and complications of diabetes. He was 69.

González had long made his mark as a key member of The Fort Apache Band, a group he founded with his late brother, trumpeter and conguero Jerry Gonzalez; and also Conjunto Libre, a stellar dance-music band led by timbalero Manny Oquendo but which González helped found and direct.

“The Fort Apache Band is the most important ensemble in the history of Latin Jazz,” said multi-Grammy winning pianist, composer and bandleader Arturo O’Farrill, founder and director of the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. “They could stop a groove and turn around on a dime. They could go from an Art Blakey swing to a guaguancó on a dime, and it was as authentic as if you had two different bands. Nobody in the history of this music had as much respect for both traditions as these guys.”

And yet, Gonzalez’s influence is broader and more profound than that.

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