New Yorkers love to talk about today’s popular male vocalists, and how they stack up (or not) against the blessed Sinatra. This no-win comparison is especially common when it comes to the young pianist and singer Tony DeSare, who arrived in New York City at the ripe old age of…
Danish guitarist, composer, and bandleader Pierre Dørge admits that he requires a bit of effort from his audiences when they come to hear his New Jungle Orchestra perform. Not that his troupe (which debuted in 1980) makes experimental music by any definition. Adventurous, yes, but there certainly exist greater challenges…
One great thing about classical music is that it can take the wan populism of Oprah, the decaffeinated blandness of Good Morning America, and the incessant pablum of Jay Leno — and render them all irrelevant. When the Utah sibling piano quintet the 5 Browns appear on these shows (armed…
With power and finesse unrivaled by any jazz singer south of Manhattan, Nicole Henry has become Miami’s worst-kept secret. The sophisticated Japanese jazz community, for one, is on her like green on wasabi. They’ve bestowed her honors such as “Best New Jazz Artist” (2004 HMV/Japan Music Awards) and have proclaimed…
In the video for Of Montreal’s latest single, “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse,” frontman Bryan Poole plays the role of an aggressive dancing bear who loves cowboy hats. Unlike previous installments of Of Montreal’s summery and somewhat detached absurdist oeuvre, these latest developments are in large part a product of…
The Cleveland Orchestra Miami has no pressing need to borrow cultural institutions from smaller cities. On the contrary, classical music fans in Phoenix, Seattle, and San Diego can only dream of seeing an orchestra of New World Symphony’s caliber. But The Cleveland Orchestra happened to have some winter downtime, so…
Mari Rosa There is something inherently retro about a bossa nova/jazz make-out album. Mari Rosa’s debut disc, Honeyspot, feels like the sonic progeny of Martin Denny’s Afro-Desia (1959) and Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz’s Getz Au Go-Go (1964). Like those two classics, songwriter/vocalist Rosa’s disc resists blushing at its own…
For the guys in Maná, taking it on the chin from music critics isn’t just an occupational hazard — it’s a way of life. The band has been called everything from “overly earnest” to “heavily varnished” to plain old “fake.” Ouch. But much of the Maná-bashing can be diffused if…
New World Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas directed the creation of the New World Symphony in 1987, and during its two decades the organization has earned a reputation for bold programming. From attracting guest artists such as cello superstar Yo-Yo Ma, to presenting progressive, twentieth-century works such as Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird…
Ann Hampton Callaway Toward the end of Robert De Niro’s acclaimed 2006 spy thriller The Good Shepherd, the camera lands on a sultry singer in a yellow gown in front of a society band. The credits list the character as “1961 Deer Island Singer,” better known, in real life, as…
Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra perform at 8:00 p.m. Friday, February 9, at the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd, Miami. Tickets cost $15-$62. Call 786-468-2000 or visit www.carnivalcenter.org for more information.
The model of a patient player, Bill Frisell has for decades kept his jazz, country, and fusion guitar work to a minimum. You’ll hear plenty of riffs, swirls, swells, and slides, but nary a moment of noodling. In 1989, Frisell teamed with fellow guitarist Arto Lindsay, drummer Joey Baron, saxophonist…
In 2006 can a child see a musical film and say to herself, That’s what I want to do. I’m going to be a singer, and say it with any conviction? The master manipulators at Disney would surely cite their recent Cheetah Girls series as an affirmative example. But the…
As an antidote to the faux-swing movement of the Nineties (led by the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, et al.), the John Pizzarelli Quartet is most effective. Who would have thought that the more satisfying interpreters of swing would come from the jazz angle rather than from rock…
A true jazz vocalist in the tradition of Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, Dianne Reeves unquestionably possesses the power, tone, phrasing, vibrato, and soulfulness of the classic million-dollar voice. Which is why producers called on her to supply nearly all the music for last year’s Oscar-nominated period piece Good Night,…
The talents of trumpeter Wallace Roney, an alumnus of the latter-day Miles Davis group, have sometimes been obscured by the shadow of that venerable jazz giant. The three-time Grammy winner’s gifts include the fine lyricism and sensitive dynamics he brought to Me’Shell NdegéOcello’s intermittently bombastic opus “Al Falaq 113” from…
As autumn has slowly descended on Greater Miami, so have a number of world-renowned senior musicians. The season has already brought piano maestro Bebo Valdés, master percussionist Candido Camero, and Candido’s Conga Kings cohort Carlos “Patato” Valdés — all of them in their eighties. Now Lou Donaldson, the great alto…
Three master congueros, each with a distinctive style, lend the Conga Kings’ accelerated pulse, but the name is meant to highlight the heart of the group, not describe the entire body. As do all the top percussionists in Latin jazz, this conga drum triumvirate displays a deep sense of context…
“It looks on the first face of it that maybe this isn’t so hip,” admits Andrea Marcovicci, referring to her cabaret show titled Andrea Sings Astaire. “But what’s been happening is that young people come to a performance and then go out and rent every Fred Astaire movie.” Netflix, take…
Octogenarian Cuban musician Candido Camero, who celebrates a birthday with a return engagement in downtown Miami, works today at the same job he has had for the past 65 years: A-list conga player and innovator. He needs no resumé. But if he did, it would read something like this: Previous…
Bebo Valdés, the supremely gifted 87-year-old pianist, master arranger, and star of Miami’s Calle 54 Records, joins the powerful Arturo O’Farrill-directed Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra to perform “Suite Cubana.” Valdés describes his grand, Grammy-winning composition as “the realization of a dream.” Valdés radiates a friendly confidence that carries through to the…
