Singing bassist Nicki Parrott's trio walked on to the stage at the Harriet Himmel Theater in West Palm Beach on Tuesday while still getting used to dry land. Parrott, Italian pianist Rossano Sportiello and drummer Ed Metz Jr. had just exited a Crystal Cruise line ship earlier in the day after playing a 10-day jazz-themed sail from Fort Lauderdale to the Caribbean. And while a … [Read more...]
Jazz singer Milman favors craft over image
The recording industry has always been more image- than music-driven, a fact that's been made worse by TV since the 1950s and MTV since the 1980s. The latest example is American Idol, on which youthful toothpaste models-turned-singers recruit text-messaged votes from teenaged fans to springboard toward celebrity. Vocalist Sophie Milman wants nothing to do with the … [Read more...]
Jazz phenom Eldar charts course of steady growth
At the age of 23, most jazz musicians are still figuratively getting their feet wet in both their art and their lives. Which puts young pianist Eldar Djangirov at least up to his waist by comparison. Going by only his first name since starting his recording career nine years ago, Eldar (eldarjazz.com) released Virtue, his sixth CD overall and fourth for Sony Masterworks, last … [Read more...]
Jazz world remembers pianist Higgins
Drummer Art Blakey (1919-1990) took many a young, future jazz star on the road for seasoning with his group The Jazz Messengers between the 1950s and the 1980s. The list included Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Keith Jarrett, Jackie McLean, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Joanne Brackeen, Benny Golson, Chuck Mangione and Cedar Walton. It might have also included … [Read more...]
Jazz educators keep the beat alive
"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 and future Weather Report drummer Chester Thompson. That was 36 … [Read more...]
Jazz DJ keeps the flame alive in WXEL show
For someone who isn't a professional musician, jazz deejay Stu Grant sure sounds like he's crafting a restaurant gig set list -- rather than a radio playlist -- for his Jazz Impressions show on WXEL 90.7 FM. "I look at the first hour of the show as the dinner hour, and keep it lighter," he says of the weekly Saturday evening broadcast. "As the evening goes along, we get … [Read more...]