Like many Western musicians, the Indian rhythmic system known as Konokol has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I’ve heard the seemingly complex rhythmic-pattern language on many recordings, but as interesting as it sounds, the sometimes rapid-fire vocalizations (Takita, Taka Dimi, etc.) have always befuddled me.
Review of Badi Assad and Paulinho Garcia’s performance at the 2010 Chicago Guitar Festival.
Almost by pure coincidence I found myself in Belo Horizonte, Brazil during the first week of August, 2010, just as the city’s annual Savassi Jazz Festival was fully under way.
One of the coolest aspects to being a musician, educator and writer, is that I get to work with and meet countless amazing people during the course of my work week.
On a cool, rainy fall evening in downtown Chicago, the kind of day that painfully reminds the city’s residents that the long, cold winter is fast approaching, the Paulinho Garcia Quartet featuring Art Davis took the stage at the Auditorium Theater and warmed the crowd with two breathtaking sets of Brazilian standards and arrangements of American jazz classics.
Guitarist and composer Fabrizio Sotti released his much anticipated jazz album Inner Dance earlier this year after taking a hiatus from the jazz world. For the past few years Sotti was making a name for himself in the hip hop and rock world, and was keeping himself busy working with well known artists like Dead Prez, Q-Tip, Tupac Shakur, Jennifer Lopez, and Whitney Houston.
This is the debut recording of Croatian guitarist Ratko Zjaca. It is comprised of original material penned by Zjaca and saxophonist Stanislav Mitrovic.
One huge benefit of professionally reviewing jazz guitarists is discovering new voices. There are many fine players today who go largely undiscovered.
Born the grandson of immigrants in 1915, Lester William Polfuss exhibited an inborn Germanic talent for analytical thinking at a precociously early age.
Sending My Love is a laid-back, smooth-jazz album by guitarist Norman Brown. Featuring nine original tracks, with a cover of the Kenny Loggins song “Celebrate Me Home,”
