Author: TKA

REVIEW: Organist Joey DeFrancesco at Full Throttle at Jazz Showcase

Howard Reich for the CHICAGO TRIBUNE –

Leonine organist Joey DeFrancesco packed about three programs worth of music into his first set Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase — not in terms of duration but of content.

 

Had he played just the organ, or only the trumpet, or if he simply had sung, he would have given the crowded house a great deal to ponder. But he did all of that, his repertoire proving comparably wide ranging, from edgy new music to vigorous transformations of jazz standards.

One hastens to note, though, that DeFrancesco’s sovereignty at the organ is the reason music lovers queue up to hear him. At 45, he has dominated the instrument and the field as no one of his generation has.

But the innate musicality of his trumpet playing and the increasing finesse of his vocals were enhancements to the main attraction, rather than the minor distractions of years ago.

Still, it was DeFrancesco’s hyper-virtuosity and musical imagination at the organ that drove the proceedings, much of the music drawn from his newest release, “Trip Mode.”

(12/6/16)

Read the full review at the Chicago Tribune

Joey DeFrancesco on TKA

 

FEATURE: Harold López-Nussa Discusses Fidel Castro’s Legacy with NPR

Betto Arcos for NPR –

You can hear Harold Lopez-Nussa’s training when he plays. The 33-year-old pianist is reluctant to admit the classical influence on his jazz playing, but he’s quick to acknowledge that he, like many other great Cuban pianists, was classically trained. “This is the school that we have to learn music in Cuba; it’s classical,” he says. “I did all my stuff there from 8 years old to 25.”

Ned Sublette, author of the book Cuba and Its Music, From the First Drums to the Mambo, says the education Lopez-Nussa received in Cuban conservatories was unique. “He had a level of training that it’s really hard to get anywhere else,” he says.

 

Sublette explains that the Cuban Revolution in 1959 led to more investment in music education. “The new revolutionary government made culture a priority,” he says. He also points out that this robust system of conservatories is still operating. “You will meet Cuban musicians who have been trained from childhood to be competitive professional musicians — and most of them have a conservatory background,” he says.

But music school isn’t the only part of a musician’s education. Sublette, quoting British musicologist Geoff Baker, says Cuban musicians have four main streams of influence: “family, conservatory, street and religion.”

Harold Lopez-Nussa certainly draws on the first two. His grandparents were musicians, his father is a respected drummer and music educator and his mother was a piano teacher. “I have the music in my body and my blood,” Lopez-Nussa says. “Eighty percent of what I’m doing today and why I’m a musician is because of my family.”

(12/1/16)

Read the full article at NPR

Harold López-Nussa on TKA

TOUR: Béla Fleck & Chick Corea Announce Dual Bill Tour

CELEBRITY ACCESS — Jazz legend Chick Corea and the Elektric Band are teaming up with Béla Fleck & the Flecktones for a rare dual bill tour of North America next year.

The tour will hit the road with dates starting on August 5th and running through August 21st.

Both groups are touring in their original configurations, with the Flecktones consisting of Victor and Roy “Futureman” Wooten on Bass and Drumitar respectively, as well as Howard Levy on the mouth harp and keyboards.

Chick Corea will be supported with his entire classic Elektroband quintet on stage: John Patitucci (Bass), Frank Gambale (Guitar), Eric Marienthal (Saxophone), and Dave Weckl (Drums).

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Stay tuned to this space for future announcements and news about this incredible, once-in-a-lifetime tour!

Chick Corea on TKA

Béla Fleck on TKA

FEATURE: NPR Music Celebrates Chick Corea’s 75th Birthday!

 At 75, Chick Corea Still Has That Magic Touch

Tom Vitale for NPR –

Jazz pianist Chick Corea is celebrating his 75th birthday this year with a marathon of live performances. He was on the road all summer and has finally settled into an eight-week run at the Blue Note Club in Greenwich Village in New York. The birthday bash features 15 different bands, playing music from every phase of Corea’s long career.

Corea walks one day through the door of the Blue Note on West 3rd Street, greets the staff and walks past the Yamaha grand piano on the stage to the drum set, where he begins to play. He learned to play drums when he was 8, four years after he started playing piano. Back at the keyboard, he says he thinks of his fingers as drumsticks or mallets.

“I think of the piano like that,” Corea says. “Like a great big marimba. Or a percussion instrument. There’s so many possibilities of putting it together when you’ve got 10 mallets and 88 drums.”

Corea’s touch on the piano is what sets him apart, says New York Times music critic Nate Chinen. “It’s almost like his fingers bounce off the keys,” Chinen says.

(11/15/16)

Read the rest of the article at NPR Music

Chick Corea on TKA

INTERVIEW: John Sebastian Sits Down with Epiphone

 

 

Earlier this month, John Sebastian sat down with Epiphone Guitars to discuss his history with the instrument and its influence on his career as a premiere songsmith and instrumentalist.

 

 

 

From Epiphone:

“More than any other American band in the 1960s, the Lovin’ Spoonful best exemplified the musical spirit of The Beatles. Led by songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and singer John Sebastian, the Lovin’ Spoonful’s sound was an original blend of folk, rock n’ roll, R&B and country that defied description. The ‘Spoonful were renown for tight harmonies, clean-toned guitars, and a slightly behind the beat groove inspired by southern R&B. The band’s mastery of the push & pull of American music styles inspired their contemporaries and earned them an induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1965, John Lennon included their single “Daydream” in his portable jukebox and both “I’m Only Sleeping” and “Good Day Sunshine” owe a debt to the ‘Spoonful’s sunny sound. “We were grateful to the Beatles for reminding us of our rock & roll roots,” said Sebastian, “but we wanted to cut out the English middlemen, so to speak, and get down to making this new music as an ‘American band.'””

Read the interview at Epiphone

John Sebastian on TKA

 

KUDOS: TKA Artists strong on the DownBeat Readers Poll!

The DownBeat Magazine Readers Poll announced its list of winners for 2016 and TKA is proud to recognize a number of our artists on their list. Check out our winners below!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

81st ANNUAL DOWNBEAT READERS POLL WINNERS
Big Band: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
Trumpet: Wynton Marsalis
Baritone Saxophone: James Carter
Piano: Chick Corea
Keyboard: Chick Corea
Organ: Joey DeFrancesco
Guitar: Pat Metheny
Vibraphone: Gary Burton
Miscellaneous Instrument: Béla Fleck (banjo)

Find the full list at DownBeat Magazine

FEATURE: The Village Voice on Béla Fleck and the Future of the Banjo

Lindsey Rhoades for THE VILLAGE VOICE –

No player in the history of the banjo has done more to free the instrument from the confines of bluegrass than New York native Béla Fleck. His innovative playing has melded the banjo with pop, classical, and folk; he’s collaborated with Dave Matthews Band, Phish, and fusion legend Chick Corea, among others. His solo work and long-running progressive bluegrass project the Flecktones have earned him Grammy nominations in more categories than any other instrumentalist. Now he’s brought his wide-ranging practice to Symphony Space for a series of live banjo performances that culminate in a roundtable with four other players on October 23. All of them came to the instrument in roundabout, surprising ways.

 

Fleck received his first banjo at the age of fifteen, his interest in its sound piqued by Appalachian banjo legend Earl Scruggs’s performance of the Beverly Hillbillies theme song. “It was an existential crisis for me, being an Upper West Side New York kid learning to play the banjo, because it didn’t make sense to anybody around me,” Fleck says with a laugh. “It didn’t even make sense to me!” As a teenager, he sought the expertise of fellow Tri-Stater Tony Trischka, who had just released an influential solo debut, Bluegrass Light, after years of playing in country music ensembles.

“Béla was pretty unforgettable,” Trischka says. “He was sixteen and could already play bluegrass and fiddle tunes. He was interested in some of the weirder stuff I was doing,” which included introducing Middle Eastern–inspired modes and jazz improvisation to traditional bluegrass. Trischka had begun playing banjo in 1963, quickly becoming accustomed to the mocking cries of “Yee-haw!” that followed him whenever he carried his instrument around New York. He’d been honing his craft for nearly a decade when he took Fleck on as a student. “I would jam out on a traditional tune, and he would come back the next week having learned every note. After a few months, it was obvious that he didn’t need lessons.”

Read the full article at The Village Voice

Béla Fleck on TKA 

KUDOS: Joey DeFrancesco Added to the Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame!

TKA is proud to announce that Joey DeFrancesco has been added to the Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame in honor of his exemplary career and indelible influence. From the press release:

“For the first time in its 30-year history, the Philadelphia Music Alliance (PMA) will go “All Jazz” with the additions this month of Joey DeFrancesco, Benny Golson, Christian McBride, Jaco Pastorius, and WRTI air personality Bob Perkins to the Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame as members of its Class of 2016.

The new honorees will be formally inducted together Wednesday, October 19, 2016 during afternoon ceremonies along the Avenue of the Arts, highlighted by the unveiling of their freshly installed bronze plaques. Anthony Checchia, founding artistic director of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, whose induction was announced in March, also will see his plaque unveiled as part of the ceremony. The Walk of Fame induction, which starts at noon and will be preceded by an 11 a.m. press conference, will launch a two-day live music celebration in the city and suburbs, beginning that evening.

Joey DeFrancesco emerged in the 1980s to become the new-age proponent of jazz organ, an instrument that had been pushed aside in favor of the growing technology. Quoted as the Master of the Jazz organ, the three-time Grammy® nominee now takes his place with Fats Waller, Wild Bill Davis and Jimmy Smith in the lineage of Jazz Organ.”

Read the rest of the press release at the Philadelphia Music Alliance

Joey DeFrancesco on TKA 

 

 

REVIEW: Béla Fleck & Victor Wooten Tear Up Sanders

Lucy Wang for THE HARVARD CRIMSON –

Stevie Wonder tunes, Latin dances, and jazzy melodies reverberated through Sanders Theatre among snaps and nodding heads as Béla Fleck and Victor Wooten strummed away on Saturday night. Sounds of Fleck’s banjo and Wooten’s bass paired together beautifully throughout the whole concert, sometimes mellow and sometimes bright, but always soulful and deeply engaging.

Long-term partners, Wooten and Fleck were original members of the band “The Flecktones”, which the latter started in 1988. The band has made numerous appearances throughout the years, including on screen with the “Tonight Show”, “Saturday Night Live”, and “Late Night with David Letterman.” Known for its diversified repertoire, the band created original fusions of classical, funk, bluegrass, rock, and world traditions that have won them six Grammy awards and wide acclaim.

 

Saturday’s performance was a manifestation of the band’s eclecticism. The show opener piece was upbeat and funky, and a couple of measures sounded awfully close to the famous opening chords of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. With such delightful surprises, as well as an impressive series of runs from Wooten, the duo established an engaging presence on stage. Their synchronization was precise and skillful, matched only by their movements back and forth on stage.

However, the slow and soulful pieces came across just as well. As Fleck and Wooten sat across from each other, gently strumming their acoustic broken chords on the strings, the music evoked a serene nighttime beach: The beat was rocking water slapping waves across the sand, and the alluring melody was the moonlight glittering over the sea.

(10/19/16)

Read the full review at The Harvard Crimson

Béla Fleck on TKA

VIDEO: Sonny Knight & The Lakers Live in The Current Studios

Last time Sonny Knight and the Lakers stopped by The Current, they performed with legends. This time around — their third performance in our studios — the eight-piece band performed as luminaries themselves.

In support of their new Sooner or Later album, Sonny Knight and the Lakers — Sonny Knight (vocals), Eric Foss (drums), Blair Krivanek (guitar), Nick Salisbury (bass), Sam Harvey-Carlson (keys), Cole Pulice (saxophone), Tony Beaderstadt (trombone) and Riley Helgeson (trumpet) — stopped by The Current to perform live in-studio and to chat with host Andrea Swensson of The Local Show.

(10/19/16)

Read more and watch the in-studio performance at The Current

Sonny Knight & The Lakers on TKA