For most of its history, jazz has been a macho culture. Sexual ambiguity or gay-ness were subjects of derision.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 05:18PMThe Window contains an inspired pairing -- between singer Cécile McLorin Salvant and pianist-organist Sullivan Fortner.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:18AMArts Fuse Jazz critic Steve Provizer responds to Dale Chapman's book The Jazz Bubble: Neoclassical Jazz in a Neoliberal Culture.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:54AMTrumpeter Arturo Sandoval is a big personality and in this performance he was almost as much raconteur, comedian and ringmaster as musician.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:42PMAlthough his choice of material doesn't always work for me, for my money, Kurt Elling is the most important jazz vocalist of the last twenty years.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:18PMThe author of this Sonny Rollins bio promises us “A Journey into his World of Spirituality” -- and that sets high expectations.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:18PMVocalist Allegra Levy is at her strongest when purveying certain specific moods -- melancholy, playful, even lightly ironic.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:54AMLionel Loueke is a unique voice, who has managed to bring a number of influences together without weakening or undermining any of them.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:54AMFor the moment, it is refreshing to see how carefully the music is being recorded and packaged.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:54AMAt this time in the Boston jazz scene, there are no ongoing spaces for big bands and, predictably, the number of such ensembles has shrunk.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:33AMWhile perhaps not more than the sum of its parts -- that would be hard to imagine -- the music on this tribute disc has its own vitality and stands well on its own.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:06PMSinger Allan Harris clearly loves Eddie Jefferson's music and performs it with sincerity and chops.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 03:48PMFor my taste, some of the songs on Kurt Elling's The Questions simply aren’t challenging or interesting enough.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:48AMA listener's response to this album would largely depend on whether or not the sound of Jeff Denson’s voice and the instrumentation strike a chord.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:24PM"It seemed worthwhile to me to think about how the spiritual currents Billie Holiday navigated might have shaped her life and her sound and what she and others made of them."
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:04AMThe players are striking out into the unknown: you may find the journey inspiring and you may sometimes find yourself lost in the woods.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:06AMThe Boston Symphony Chamber Players gave a very satisfying performance of eclectic musical material.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:18PMAs part of its 150th anniversary celebration, NEC commissioned Anthony Coleman to compose a large-scale work he has named Streams.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:18AMThe motto on the Morningside Music Studios web site is “keep the groove in your life.” Words to live by.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:36AMLocal music venues -- especially those with “off” music like jazz -- are caught in a vice, with real estate escalation on one side and corporate-dominated digital technology on the other.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:24AMThe Rosenbergs is small in scope but large in ambition; it is an accomplished and moving opera that demands attention.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:38PMSinger Fred Farell brings an introspective sensibility to this album and has gathered a group of songs that are appropriate for his introverted and quietly aspirational lyrics.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:44PMToward the Unknown is a well-wrought, well-rendered recording — one worthy of serious attention.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:22AMJazz singer Mark Murphy was just too much for most audiences during that period; too intense, too varied, too unpredictable.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 05:55PMThe communication among the group members is at a high level and the playing is flawless.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 07:53PMBob Brookmeyer's great contribution was to make it seem as though anything is possible -- and permissible --in the big band context.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:03AMThe music on Accent's album is lovely and the singers render the arrangements with skill and commitment.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 05:43PMSinger Sara Serpa refracts, bends, suspends, and shifts the sounds and syllables, creating a kind of linguistic limbo.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:29PMThere was an easy depth to the music, if such is possible, as if the musicians were digging in hard, but with the relaxed assurance that comes of a shared vision.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:28AMI’ve never run across music like this and never had even a platonic notion of what such a hybrid would sound like.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:40AM