Live Reviews

Bray Jazz Festival Bray, County Wicklow Ireland May 3-5, 2013 For many years, the picturesque town of Bray's main claim to fame has been that it's the oldest inhabited seaside town in Ireland. That is, it was the main claim to fame until Bray local lass Katie Taylor won boxing gold at the ...

Doc Severinsen and the San Miguel 5 Musical Instrument Museum Phoenix, AZ May 1, 2013 Octogenarian bandleader Doc Severinsen has somehow added new fire to his legendary power and vibrancy in a sizzling coalition that melds Latin gusto with jazz zest. The trumpeter, who will be 86 on July 7, 2013, delivered pyrotechnical ...

Daniel Meron Quartet Metropolitan Room New York, NY May 4, 2013 After debuting his first album, Directions, when first moving to New York from Berklee in 2010, Israeli-born pianist Daniel Meron has moved on to new avenues relatively quickly. One of these is focusing on more song-based material (complete with lyrics), which has ...

Denise Donatelli and Geoffrey Keezer Quartet Douglas Beach House aka Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society/ Concert Half Moon Bay, California April 21, 2013 Two-time Grammy nominee Denise Donatelli once again teamed up with master pianist Geoffrey Keezer for the singer's performance at the Bach Dynamite and Dancing Society. Aside from these two ...

Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour 55th Anniversary Mesa Arts Center Mesa, AZ April 26, 2013 Six jazz stars connected to the Monterey Jazz Festival performed a diverse repertoire relating to other musicians associated with its history, with nods to pianist Duke Ellington, singer Billie Holiday and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. The concert included both ...

34th Annual Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland Cleveland, OH April 19-April 27, 2013 There was a determined effort by Tri-C JazzFest Managing Director Terri Pontremoli to give this year's event more of a festival atmosphere than it has perhaps enjoyed in years past. For starters, many of the outlying venues, such as the East Cleveland library, ...

Dana Masters & The Masters of Jazz Island Arts Center Lisburn, Northern Ireland April 26, 2013 Lisburn isn't a name that rolls off the tongue in jazz circles, or most other circles for that matter. The small Northern Irish town of 71,000 souls was granted city status in 2002, when it may have ...

Tribeca Film Festival New York, NY April 17-28, 2013 Celebrating its 12th stellar year, the Tribeca Film Festival showcased the best and brightest films to an ever-increasing number of eager viewers. Founded by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff, the mission of the festival--to enable the international film community and ...

Steven Wilson Club Soda Montreal, Canada April 25, 2013 When currently ex-Porcupine Tree founder/front man last played Montreal in November, 2011--touring in support of his second solo recording, Grace for Drowning (Kscope, 2011)--it was clear by the end of the performance that the next time he came to the Canadian city, the ...

Dave Liebman with the Andy Emler Trio April Jazz Festival Louhisali Tapiola Helsinki, Finland April 24, 2013

Saxophonist Dave Liebman is known to have played the length and breadth of the jazz world, on both sides of the Atlantic, in both hemispheres, and, having done so for nearly 50 years, it ...

Craig Taborn Trio Wexner Center For The Arts Columbus, Ohio April 27, 2013 Traveling to support the release of Chants (ECM, 2013), pianist Craig Taborn's Trio, with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerald Cleaver, made an appearance at The Ohio State University's Wexner Center for The Arts. As label head/producer Manfred Eicher's artists ...

Matthew Bourne, Dave Kane and Steve Davis Rhythm Changes: Rethinking Jazz Cultures Conference Media City UK Salford Quays, Manchester, England April 12, 2013 Watching three improvising musicians perform in front of a hundred or so jazz academics felt a little akin to watching a gallery of chief surgeons observing an unusual operation, ...

Jazzablanca Festival 2013 Casablanca, Morocco March 30--April 4,2013 A chronological scan through the list of artists who have played in jazzablanca Festival for the last seven years reveals a strong wish to improve and position the event as a leading jazz festival in Morocco, beside Tanjazz in Tangiers and jazz au Chellah in Rabat. ...

Kate McGarry and Keith Ganz Duo 55 Bar New York, NY April 20, 2013

Informality and high art don't typically walk hand-in-hand but, every now and then, when the stars align, these two ideals find a happy marriage. Such was the case when vocalist Kate McGarry and guitarist Keith Ganz came into town ...