Tag Archives: gilevans
Miles Davis @ 100: Miles’s Mentors
Miles Davis was one of the most influential musicians and style icons of the 20th century, and a father figure to many. But who influenced him? (A shorter version of this article was published on Everything Jazz.) He was human, all too human, and some of his personal relationships were difficult, and he may not […]
Masabumi Kikuchi: Hanamichi (The Final Studio Recording Vol. II)
How does the well-taught, technically-sound pianist develop his or her voice? Keith Jarrett reportedly took some inspiration from his brother Chris’s teenage assaults on the piano (‘I remember hearing him play some things that affected me greatly. They were highly charged – a direct product, he tells me, of his crises at the time. He […]
Ben Sidran: Talking Jazz (An Oral History)
They say that if you want to understand why an instrumentalist plays the way he or she plays, listen to them speak. That makes total sense when hearing Wayne Shorter or Ornette Coleman being interviewed. And now, courtesy of Ben Sidran, there’s never been a better chance to hear other examples of this. Sidran is […]
Rescued From The Vaults: That’s The Way I Feel Now
Most jazz players don’t really seem to ‘get’ the music of Thelonious Monk. Decent cover versions are hard to come by, of course with some notable exceptions (Steve Khan, Kenny Kirkland, Lynne Arriale, Paul Motian and probably a few more). During the centenary of the genius’s birth, it seems as good a time as any to […]
Rescued From The Vaults: Steely Dan’s Katy Lied
They’re the ‘singer-songwriters who love jazz’, as described by guitarist and occasional collaborator Lee Ritenour. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker AKA Steely Dan have been pushing the musical boundaries for five decades now, marrying jazz chords to funk/R’n’B backbeats, rock guitars and classic pop songcraft. Although sometimes neglected, coming as it does between the ‘Rikki Don’t […]
Sounds Of Surprise 