As leaves begin to fall, we tend to get caught in the nostalgia of summer, but if we only look behind us we end up missing the bounty of great music ahead. Fall is a time of celebration in New England with crisp air, trees engulfed in explosions of color, cups of warm apple […]
This past weekend members of the jazz faithful from across the country packed into their cars and headed toward the grand display that encompasses the annual Newport Jazz Festival. Thousands pack onto the tiny peninsula where the historic Fort Adams resides and which for two weekends each year houses some of the best sounds […]
Anybody who has had the good fortune to attend the Newport Jazz Festival knows it can be a bit overwhelming. Large crowds swarming the grounds, a staggering number of killer musicians, and a cacophony of marvelous sound emanating from every corner of the festival presents a sensory overload to the uninitiated. My first few […]
People who lack interest in jazz music typically cite one main reason: They just don’t understand it. There is something about the music that feels distant, they can’t hear the connections they have to it, or they don’t recognize anything that they can latch on to. Phrases like “there are too many notes” or […]
Ever since I first started listening to jazz, I’ve been on an hopeless quest to define it. I would tear through every album I had trying to decipher the message, get as much into my brain as I could, and figure out how it all connected. When you have such a wide range of musicians […]