JazzTimes March 2022

Exclusive Content For our latest JazzTimes 10 list, Michael J. West combs through the catalog of iconic tenor saxophonist Stan Getz to find 10 standout recordings. Plus photo galleries, album and book reviews, obituaries, and much more. JT News The Playboy Jazz Festival didn’t happen in 2020 or 2021, and now that it’s coming back to the Hollywood Bowl this year, it isn’t the Playboy Jazz Festival anymore. Rebranded as the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival and presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, it’s currently scheduled to take place on June 25-26, 2022. Terri Lyne Carrington (pictured) + Social Science, Gregory Porter, Cory Wong, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, José James, Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, Azar Lawrence, and Gerald Clayton are among the headliners. Audio & Video Curtis Stigers sings and—for the first time on record—plays…

If an unusual thing happens once, most journalists will find it noteworthy. If that unusual thing happens twice, they’ll say it’s a trend. This may not be the most praiseworthy trait of a modern-day journalist, but it’s easily understandable—and the final results of the 2021 JazzTimes Readers’ Poll (which you can see in full on pg. 50)—are making me yield to the same temptation. Regular readers of this magazine may recall that the 2020 Readers’ Poll, in our March 2021 issue, named alto saxophonist Charles McPherson as Artist of the Year. They may also have noticed that a single flip of the page backward from the poll results took them to that issue’s Overdue Ovation feature. Its subject: alto saxophonist Charles McPherson. An odd coincidence indeed, and certainly not one that was…

Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding’s opera …(Iphigenia) begins with a woman dropping dead. Even in opera’s greatest tragedies the bodies don’t usually start piling up quite this soon. As it turns out, though, a body count drives the entire first act of …(Iphigenia). By its end, we’ve seen the killing of five women and two deer—and one of the deer has transformed into a woman who is marked for death. The women, though each is dressed in a different and very bright color, are all named Iphigenia. They’re distinctive and they shine, especially in contrast to the earthtones of Frank Gehry’s set (yes, that Frank Gehry) and the costumes of the Greek soldiers that the males play. In the men’s eyes, though, they are interchangeable, with no purpose other than…

If you haven’t heard of the San Francisco-based trio Charged Particles, you’ve likely heard of the iconic artist that the group salutes on its latest CD: Live at the Baked Potato! (Summit) pays tribute to tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker (1949-2007). The album was recorded in March of 2019 at the famed Los Angeles nightclub, where keyboardist Murray Low, bassist Aaron Germain, and drummer Jon Krosnick, joined by tenor saxophonist Tod Dickow and guest percussionist Omar Ledezma, captured nine favorites from Brecker’s 20-year solo recording career and his work with sibling/trumpeter Randy in their heralded fusion act the Brecker Brothers. Randy, who knew his brother’s music better than anyone, testifies to the disc’s power on its back cover, calling it “smoking and intense from beginning to end.” Dickow first played with Charged…

Paying tribute to Sérgio Mendes with a spirited sound that blends jazz improvisation, Uruguayan candombe, and breezy Airto/Flora-esque pop is never a bad thing. Just ask the six members of Brasuka, whose luscious 2021 debut album A Vida Com Paixão—which translates as A Life with Passion—is a welcome balm of cross-cultural rhythm and righteous, jazzy soul. Brasuka is rooted in a 20-year-old friendship between percussionist Ricardo Bozas and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Rosana Eckert. The twosome worked various gigs together in Dallas, playing Latin jazz, salsa, and tango in bilingual (Spanish/English) church services. “One day before a service, I found Ricardo in his car blasting Mendes’ Brasileiro,” Eckert recalls from Brasuka’s Texan HQ. “When he saw how much I loved it, he asked, ‘Do you want to start a band and play Sérgio Mendes?’…

If Jesse Palter’s brisk, buoyant composition “Spinning ’Round” sounds familiar to you on first listen, there’s a reason for that: Other jazz singers like it a lot. Sara Gazarek recorded it on her Grammy-nominated 2019 album Thirsty Ghost. Cécile McLorin Salvant has performed it at the GroundUP Festival and at New York’s Village Vanguard. “There is nothing more exhilarating than when other artists think enough of my songs to record or sing them live,” Palter says. “It’s the grandest of honors. But it feels so profound to me that people can finally hear my version.” “Finally” is the proper adverb here, as the release of Palter’s own rendition of her song has been a long time coming. She recorded it in 2013 as part of a full-length album, cut with a…