Bassist Chuck Bergeron.(Illustration by Pat Crowley) By Bill Meredith"Jazz is not dead," Frank Zappa said in 1973, "it just smells funny."It's documented on the song Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen's Church), from the 1974 live album Roxy & Elsewhere. And the master satirist was playing with one of his jazziest ensembles, which included keyboard-and-vocal icon George Duke … [Read more...]
Music feature: Trumpeter Jones sees academia taking greater role in jazz
Educator, composer and trumpeter Sean Jones.By Bill MeredithIf you ask a jazz educator what shape traditional jazz is in, you might get the proverbial glass-half-full response.But ask Sean Jones, a professor of jazz studies and trumpet at Duquesne University (plus a Mack Avenue recording artist, and trumpeter alongside Wynton Marsalis in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra), … [Read more...]