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Charles Tolliver: Right Now... And Then
by Andrew Schinder
While jazz fusion dominated the commercial jazz scene during the 1970s, beneath the surface many musicians eschewed current market trends, and continued to develop and push forward the hard bop, modal, and spiritual sounds established during the previous decade. Many of those artists recorded for Strata-East Records, the now-seminal label co-founded by trumpeter Charles Tolliver and pianist Stanley Cowell in 1970. Before co-founding Strata-East, Tolliver had established himself in the New York scene as a strong and intense horn player, ...
Continue ReadingAlan Shorter: Mephistopholes to Orgasm Revisited
by Stefano Merighi
In questo CD dedicato ad Alan Shorter (tromba, flicorno, composizione) si ripropongono le sedute integrali di Orgasm (1968), precedute però da “Mephistopheles," di tre anni precedente, che figurava nella scaletta di The All Seeing Eye, del più celebre fratello Wayne. È un pezzo di una cupezza angosciante, sostenuto da un pedale ritmico minaccioso, dalle cui spire fioriscono severi interventi dei fiati e delle percussioni. Con i due fratelli Shorter, suonano James Spaulding (alto), Freddie Hubbard (tromba), Grachan Moncur III (trombone), ...
Continue ReadingOnilu: Estuary Stew
by Carl Medsker
The trio Onilu (which means drummers in the Yoruba language) utilizes a dizzying array of percussion instruments. Shekere, mbira, congas, batá drums, cajóns, alfaia, clave, clay drums, tympani, various idiophones, guagua, tongue drum, vibraphone, marimba and both electro-acoustic and standard drum kits are employed. Although used sparingly, a piano is also embraced as a valid member. Joe Chambers, Kevin Diehl and Chad Taylor blend their considerable talents and expert knowledge of Afro-Cuban and West African cultures and traditions ...
Continue ReadingAlan Shorter: Mephistopholes To Orgasm Revisited
by Chris May
It is often said of a musician, be they alive or no longer with us, that they deserve to be better known. This is emphatically true of the wayward trumpeter and composer Alan Shorter, who was overshadowed during his lifetime by his brother, Wayne Shorter, and who continues to be passed over today in 2024. Some responsibility for his obscurity lies with Alan Shorter himself. Known as Doc Strange to his teenage schoolmates in Newark, New Jersey, ...
Continue ReadingA Conversation with Joe Chambers
by AAJ Staff
This interview was first published at All About Jazz on February 1999. We have always been quite puzzled as to why a musician that has worked alongside Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson, Sam Rivers, Wayne Shorter, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Tommy Flanagan, Charles Mingus, and Chick Corea would only have a handful of recordings available as a leader. So when we got the opportunity to speak to Joe Chambers about his new Blue ...
Continue ReadingJoe Chambers: Moving Pictures Orchestra: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola
by John Kelman
It's one thing to have an established `place in the jazz pantheon, another to continue redefining that position, long after others might be content to rest on their laurels. Joe Chambers' work behind the drum kit with artists including Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, and McCoy Tyner has already ensured a prominent place in jazz history. His output as a leader may be small, but he's delivered two outstanding Savant recordings in 2006's The Outlaw ...
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