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Fall
2005
- Dave
Douglas & Keystone at SFJAZZ
By Forrest Dylan Bryant
All About Jazz, November 8, 2005
Dave Douglas and his electrified Keystone band merged past and future on the last stop
of their brief American tour, playing for an enthusiastic crowd of hipsters at San Francisco's
Palace of Fine Arts as part of the 23rd annual San Francisco Jazz Festival. The Keystone
project is focused on new scores Douglas has written for the silent films of Roscoe
“Fatty” Arbuckle, a brilliant comedian whose career was ruined in the 1920s
by false accusations of rape and murder.
Read article
- Ornette
Coleman: Music for true-blue jazz lovers
By Jim Harrington, CONTRIBUTOR
Oakland Tribune, Tuesday, November 8, 2005
THE MUSIC of Ornette Coleman separates the men from the boys.That statement isn't to
be taken literally, and it's certainly not intended to say anything about gender or
even age. One doesn't have to be of a certain age — say, older than 40 —
to "get" Coleman. To the contrary, the great jazz critic Gary Giddins once
wrote that Coleman's music reaches "into an unguarded place where we store the
most elemental tunes of childhood."
Read article
- It
took a while, but jazz world finally caught up with saxist Ornette Coleman's unique
genius
By David Rubient, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle, Friday, November 4, 2005
His quartet with Denardo, bassists Greg Cohen and Tony Falanga and the maestro on alto
saxophone and occasional trumpet and violin has been earning similar reviews. "From
the evening's opening selection ... the band created more exquisite strands of melody
than one might have thought possible from four players," critic Howard Reich recently
wrote in the Chicago Tribune. Read
article
- Free
style. The noise began back in 1959, in the mind and music of Ornette Coleman
By Weasel Walter
San Francisco Bay Guardian, Friday, November 2, 2005
For proof of the theory that avant-garde culture can become accepted and assimilated
into the mainstream, look no further than the career of 75-year-old Ornette Coleman.
The native Texan first turned the music world on its collective ear in 1959, when he
arrived in New York City, white plastic alto saxophone in hand, leading a classic quartet
featuring Don Cherry, Billy Higgins, and Charlie Haden. This extremely controversial
group revealed a then-radical concept that freed the jazz idiom from the straitjacket
of preset chord progressions in order to spontaneously create a music incorporating
intensely swinging polyrhythms and startling new tonal colors.
Read article
- Benin
Brass Band
By j. poet, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, October 30, 2005
When Benin's Gangbe Brass Band starts playing, it's impossible to stay in your seat.
The merry sounds of tubas, trumpets and trombones swoop and dart through the air like
drunken hummingbirds, while the drums lay down a foundation of percolating percussion
that puts heart, soul and feet in motion. The rhythms sound familiar: echoes of Nigeria's
juju, Cuba's son and Trinidad's calypso float through the mix. The cheery horn lines
bring to mind circuses, carnivals and New Orleans second-line rumba -- it's all a giddy
mixture of Africa, Europe and the United States.
Read article
- The
man who discovered world music
By Andrew Gilbert, Times Correspondent
San Jose Mercury News, October 28, 2005
Curiosity has been the driving force behind Yusef Lateef's remarkable, globe-spanning
career, one of the great creative journeys in contemporary music. Though Lateef made
classic jazz recordings as a tenor saxophonist with Charles Mingus and Cannonball Adderley,
he had a far wider influence as one of the first artists involved in jazz to explore
Asian and Middle Eastern cadences, innovations that influenced fellow seekers such as
John Coltrane. Read
article
- Drummer
Watts defies expectations: QUARTET'S BALANCED SOUND SURPRISES LEADER'S FANS
By Yoshi Kato, Special Correspondent
San Jose Mercury News, October 28, 2005
Drummer Jeff "Tain"' Watts can tear up a bandstand with his fierce, polyrhythmic
solos. Best known as a member of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he has also performed
on recordings by everyone from Harry Connick Jr. and Betty Carter to McCoy Tyner and
Alice Coltrane. In addition, he's a respected composer whose music is played by Marsalis
and Michael Brecker's groups, among others.
Read article
- Classic
tunes get jazz makeovers in tributes
By Yoshi Kato, Times Correspondent
Contra Costa Times, October 28, 2005
Guitarist John Scofield performs the music of Ray Charles tonight at the Palace of Fine
Arts Theatre in San Francisco as part of the 23rd annual San Francisco Jazz Festival.
He'll be playing the last show of a national tour in support of his latest album, "That's
What I Say: John Scofield Plays the Music of Ray Charles," which was released June
7 by the Verve label.
Read article
- Mose
and his muse
By j. poet, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, October 23, 2005
Mose Allison can be summed up in two words: Mose Allison. He's one of American music's
most singular talents, a musician who's carved out his own niche. You could call him
a bluesman, jazz piano player, song stylist, singer-songwriter, composer, bandleader
or traveling philosopher without missing the mark, but Allison encompasses and transcends
any easy classification. He also refuses to classify himself.
Read article
- Giving
Fatty his due
By David Rubien, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, October 23, 2005
It's fitting that a major creative effort to resurrect the legacy of silent-film star
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle is set to occur in San Francisco. This is, after all,
the city that destroyed him. Read
article
- From
Cuba to avant-garde
By Andrew Gilbert, Times Correspondent
San Jose Mercury News, October 21, 2005
Jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas couldn't resist returning to the scene of the crime. Presenting
his new project Keystone on Wednesday night at San Francisco's Palace of the Fine Arts
Theater as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Douglas performs his recently composed
scores for several classic silent films of Fatty Arbuckle. Read
article
- Lalah
Hathaway grateful for her father's gifts
By Shelah Moody, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle, October 20, 2005
Lalah Hathaway barely knew her father, who died in a fall from a New York City hotel
room at age 33 in 1979. But the 36-year-old singer-songwriter shares Donny Hathaway's
warm vocal tone, his extensive knowledge of music and his strong work ethic, which she
has parlayed into a successful musical career of her own.
Read article
- Jazz
fest maintains a world view
By Andrew Gilbert, Times Correspondent
Contra Costa Times, October 16, 2005
While the San Francisco Jazz Festival continues to look far beyond the nation's borders,
presenting a globe-spanning array of artists, it hasn't forgotten that charity begins
at home. Reflecting the increasingly international nature of jazz, the 23rd annual edition
of the West Coast's pre-eminent jazz festival features artists from Cuba, Peru, Chile,
Brazil, Benin, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Kyrgyzstan and Congo, as well as the
United States. Read
article
- S.F.
jazz fest has wide reach: WORLD SAXOPHONE QUARTET TO TACKLE HENDRIX TUNES
By Andrew Gilbert, Times Correspondent
San Jose Mercury News, October 14, 2005
While the San Francisco Jazz Festival continues to look for talent far beyond the nation's
borders, presenting a globe-spanning array of artists, it hasn't forgotten that charity
begins at home.
Read article
- Autumn
means great music from SFJazz and Yoshi's
By Jim Harrington, Times Correspondent
Oakland Tribune, October 14, 2005
THE FALL is always a good time to be a jazz fan in the Bay Area.
The increasingly impressive San Francisco Jazz Festival, now in its 23rd year, kicks
off next week with a performance by the great Abbey Lincoln at the intimate Herbst Theatre
on Wednesday.
Read article
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