On paper it looked a winning formula: two of the most admired and influential jazz pianists of the last half century, two grand pianos and a wide musical sky. The possible blot was that Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock have clocked up…
Maximum Ink: You are getting a lot of attention for this current project, how does it feel to be recognized for your music? Sonny: It feels great! I am hanging out, jammin’ with cats half my age, and I love…
Callaway’s voice has such range and flexibility that she can use it to imitate every instrument in her (non-existent) band, an eerie experience because it is a trick I have never heard anyone else able to do. This New York based singer…
The singer and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello, the painter and sculptor Edouard Duval-Carrié, the filmmakers Ryan White and Ben Cotner and the artist Wangechi Mutu are among 34 people who have been awarded $50,000 and named U.S.A. fellows for 2014. The…
Ann Hampton Callaway will be celebrating the music of a living legend—and her personal musical heroine—Barbra Streisand. Callaway will be performing many of her idol’s signature classics, delivered, of course, with Callaway’s own unique, personal style. She first debuted this concept concert with…
Whether it’s publically acknowledged or not, Meshell Ndegeocello’s sound is everywhere. You can hear it in the licks of Miguel, in the so-drunk-on-good-sex harmonies of Kelela, and even the witchy glitches of Flying Lotus. When I mention this to Ndegeocello,…
At 73, it is inevitable that Chick Corea would be moving ever higher on the forever shifting list of Greatest Living Jazz Musicians. Of course, such a definitive list doesn’t exist, except in the minds of individual jazz fans and musicians.…
Ever since guitarist John McLaughlin formed the 4th Dimension—his first electric fusion band in a decade—fans have been hoping he’d dig a little further into his back catalog. The wait is over with The Boston Record, a live album recorded…
“It’s a project. It’s not a band,” González says of his group. “I bring together really great musicians from different generations. I rehearse for about 15 days, and then we go on tour.” While the All Stars employ elements of…
Blues legend Taj Mahal doesn’t use the word “genius” lightly. But that’s the title he gave Bassekou Kouyaté, the Malian virtuoso of the ngoni lute. And he earns it every time he takes the stage, and with each release by his…