Keith Jarrett Trio at Carnegie Hall (plus: Jazz Festival!)
Keith Jarrett’s “Standards Trio” played Carnegie Hall Thursday night, to predictable glories.
Fred Kaplan
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Jazz Awards, 2009-10
The Jazz Journalists Association held its 2010 awards bash at City Winery, a warm, spacious eatery (with an excellent wine list) in the SoHo section of New York this evening. Below are most of the winners, followed by the musicians for whom I cast my ballot. The awards covered the period from April 15, 2009, to April 15, 2010.
Stan Getz & Kenny Barron
A trend of sorts has taken hold the past few years: albums (in most cases, multi-disc boxed sets) capturing not just the highlights of a jazz concert but the whole concert—or a whole week’s worth of concerts, the entire run of a gig at a nightclub—every note of it.
Advertisement for Myself: The paperback edition
As I’ve mused before (though only twice), what’s the point of having a blog if you can’t indulge in a little self-promotion?
Geri Allen's Flying Toward the Sound
Geri Allen’s new album, Flying Toward the Sound (Motema Music), is a stunner. She calls it “a solo piano excursion inspired by Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock.” In jazz pianists’ lingo, this is like Babe Ruth pointing to a spot in right-center field. And she slugs the ball out of the park.
Keith Jarrett & Charlie Haden duets
Let’s put the main point up front. The new duet album by Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden, Jasmine (on ECM), is a gorgeous piece of work: all standards, mainly ballads, nothing fancy (not overtly anyway), but such poignance and quiet passion; it’s a glimpse into the intimacy of the act of making art.
John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet
I’m late in coming to the drummer-composer John Hollenbeck. (These things happen: so many records, so little time…) It wasn’t until a few months ago that I stumbled upon Eternal Interlude (on the Sunnyside label), the latest CD by his 20-piece Large Ensemble, which, had I heard it earlier, would have made it on http://blog.stereophile.com/fredkaplan/best_jazz_of_the_year_and_the_de… >my 2009 Best 10 list. (Ditto, just to set the record straight, for http://blog.stereophile.com/fredkaplan/darcy_james_argues_secret_societ… >Infernal Machines by Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, that other wondrous big band that escaped my attention.)
Hank Jones, R.I.P.
The pianist Hank Jones died on Sunday at age 91, ending one of the great jazz dynasties (his brothers were the drummer Elvin and the trumpeter-composer Thad) and taking out one more survivor of the generation that founded post-war jazz.
Corea-Gomez-Motian Play Evans (sort of)
Some risky business is going on at the Blue Note, the posh jazz club on West 3rd Street in Manhattan.
Jazz Musician-Bloggers
The Jazz Review was one of the most fascinating journals in the history of music-writing. Its editors were Nat Hentoff and Martin Williams, two of the most insightful critics of its day (the late 1950s and early ’60s). But its main distinction was that it consisted almost entirely of jazz musicians, writing articles and reviews about other jazz musicians.