by Seth Rogovoy (GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., February 22, 2002) – Steven Bernstein’s quartet, Sex Mob, usually gets lumped in with the downtown-jazz avant-garde. This is in part because Bernstein and his Sex Mob bandmates are stalwarts of that scene, often found playing in avant-garde nightclubs like the Knitting Factory and Tonic, and because they incorporate…
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) — Grace Kelly, Phil Woods, Armen Donelian, Gregory Caputo, and the Berkshires Jazz Youth Ensemble will be among the performers at the 2011 Pittsfield CityJazz Festival, October 7-20. Now in its seventh year, the festival comprises some two dozen concerts and events throughout downtown Pittsfield. In addition to headline concerts on Oct. 14-15,…
(LENOX, Mass.) – This year’s Tanglewood Jazz Festival is highlighted by Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalists Dianne Reeves and Angélique Kidjo, genre-defying vocalist Lizz Wright, NEA Jazz Masters Jimmy Cobb and Gunther Schuller, Judy Carmichael of NPR’s Jazz Inspired, Hollywood actress and vocalist Blythe Danner, the legacy-bearing Mingus Orchestra, Afro-Latin percussionist John Santos with the John…
TANGLEWOOD Ozawa Hall Brad Mehldau Thursday, August 25, 2011 Review by Seth Rogovoy (LENOX, Mass.) – Roll over, Cole Porter, tell Richard Rodgers the news. The last page has finally been turned on the so-called Great American Songbook. And good riddance to it once and for all. I base this observation on Brad Mehldau’s solo…
(LENOX, Mass.) – Brad Mehldau, widely regarded as the most innovative and virtuosic jazz pianist of his generation, performs solo at Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall on Thursday, August 25, at 8 p.m. Mehldau, who turned 41 on Tuesday this week and who grew up in nearby West Hartford, Conn., is considered one of the rare jazz…
(CUMMINGTON, Mass.) – Jazz greats Charles Neville and Avery Sharpe will headline a musical fundraiser for the Old Creamery Cooperative on Friday, August 26 at 7 p.m. in the Plainfield Congregational Church. Local gypsy-jazz band Swing Caravan will open. The Old Creamery in Cummington, the general store and cultural and social center for the central…
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Guitar virtuoso Frank Vignola and his band, the Hot Club Trio, will give a concert at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on Friday August 19, at 8, that melds gypsy jazz, bluegrass, swing, and front-porch picking into an eclectic, upbeat sound all their own. Vignola is noted for his eclecticism and…
TANGLEWOOD Steely Dan Tuesday, July 26, 2011 Review by Seth Rogovoy (LENOX, Mass.) – It’s hard to believe we had to wait until the year 2011 to see Steely Dan at Tanglewood, but it was worth it, because it was perfect. Which isn’t any surprise, because Steely Dan is all about perfection. If…
COPENHAGEN JAZZ FESTIVAL Gretchen Parlato, Jakob Bro, Sleep Party People Copenhagen, Denmark July 8-10 Review by Seth Rogovoy (COPENHAGEN) – The final three concerts I saw at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival on Friday and Saturday partly serve as a model for the eclectic nature of the festival – ranging from Sleep Party People’s electronica-laced indie-rock to the…
COPENHAGEN JAZZ FESTIVAL July 5-7, 2011 Review by Seth Rogovoy (COPENHAGEN, Denmark) – The storybook city of Hans Christian Andersen, so picturesque at times it seems impossibly like a movie set, and you’re waiting for a director to yell “strike the set” and down will come the charmingly false facades, is in the midst of…
