NPR's JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater

Gretchen Parlato, The Cookers On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 13:03:00 +0000

Ninety years ago near the village of Katonah, N.Y., art lovers Walter and Lucie Rosen bought Caramoor, a wooded estate, and built a home for their collection of painting and sculpture. Every room was a gallery, including their favorite, the Music Room; after they lost their only son in World War II, they presented a small concert series there to honor him. So began the transformation of Caramoor from a private home to an arts center and treasure for Westchester County, north of New York City.

Today, every summer from June to August, Caramoor presents chamber music and a resident orchestra.

Billy Childs Quartet On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 21:57:00 +0000

It's New Year's Eve at The Blue Whale, a "live jazz + art space" in the Little Tokyo section of downtown Los Angeles. Founded in 2009 by singer Joon Lee, this is a listening room. There's food at the bar, poetry (Rumi!) on the ceiling, and wall-to-wall people.

Dee Dee Bridgewater On JazzSet

editor — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 17:50:00 +0000

Dee Dee Bridgewater's smile says it all: JazzSet is happily celebrating 20 years of performances every week on NPR. In September, we featured original host Branford Marsalis with his 2012 quartet for our anniversary.

Lewis Nash Quintet, Kurt Elling On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 20:01:00 +0000

There are three stages at the Newport Jazz Festival. At least two are always running simultaneously. Given the surfeit of options, it's rare to hear a complete set. The question begins to nag: Should be we somewhere else? And away you go, leaving a work in progress to make sure you don't miss one getting underway.

But sometimes if you choose a spot on the lawn and stay put, the juxtaposition of two bands delivers a fine festival experience.

John Ellis, Darcy James Argue On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:15:00 +0000

Brooklyn, N.Y., is the current home of John Ellis — raised in North Carolina and once a student in New Orleans — and Darcy James Argue, from Canada and once a student in Boston. They're both on the main stage at the 2012 Newport Jazz Festival.

The son of a preacher in North Carolina, tenor saxophonist Ellis made a pivot in New Orleans to funk with an original twist.

Bill Charlap And Renee Rosnes On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 20:32:00 +0000

From the Family Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., it's Renee Rosnes on the left, Bill Charlap on the right and — in Charlap's words — "a unique sound that is the sum of both of us."

Both Charlap and Rosnes — husband and wife — are renowned bandleaders in their own right. When they started playing piano together at home for fun, they realized they were on to something.

Catherine Russell, Virginia Mayhew On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:54:00 +0000

Catherine Russell is a lady born to music. Her father, Luis Russell (1902-63), was Louis Armstrong's orchestra leader beginning in the mid-1930s. Her mother, Carline Ray, is a bassist, singer, great all-around musician and a member of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, the 1940s all-woman band that swung as hard as the men.

Branford Marsalis Quartet On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:09:00 +0000

From January 1992 to September 2001, Branford Marsalis set the JazzSet pace, hosting 39 new shows a year (now we do 26) from the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band; festivals in Iowa City, Telluride, Pasadena, Mount Hood, Montreal and Brevard, N.C.; the new music festival in Groningen, the Netherlands, and the Havana Jazz Festival in Cuba; clubs from Yoshi's in California to Sculler's and the Regattabar in Boston.

Gabriel Alegria And Gerald Clayton On JazzSet

Becca Pulliam — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:37:00 +0000

The Litchfield Jazz Festival leads off with a weeks-long camp for high-school students and New York's finest musicians on the faculty, then climaxes with a two-day festival. This year it's August 11-12 in Goshen, Conn., but here we have two sets from the 2010 festival, featuring two groups with young leaders.

Gabriel Alegría and his Afro-Peruvian Sextet plant their feet in two cities: New York and Lima. When they play in Peru, they invite New York fans to join the tour.

Chihiro Yamanaka And Jane Bunnett On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:40:00 +0000

In May, JazzSet host Dee Dee Bridgewater emceed three nights of concerts held at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater as part of the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival in Washington, D.C.

Amina Figarova Sextet, Avishai Cohen's Triveni On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 18:12:00 +0000

As a child in Azerbaijan, Amina Figarova loved the piano at first sight. She would arrange all her dolls around her and play for them. "Nobody could stop me," she told an interviewer at All About Jazz. "I would sit and play and play." Figarova studied classical music and heard jazz at home, especially Herbie Hancock.

Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet, Trio Da Paz On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:56:00 +0000

We're in a guitar world, from Pakistan to Brazil and from steel strings to nylon, as the Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet and Trio da Paz play in turn at the Newport Jazz Festival.

Abbasi premiered this group in 2010 at Winterfest in New York. After the set, Newport Jazz Festival impresario George Wein emerged from the audience and told Abbasi how much he liked the music.

Gretchen Parlato, Conrad Herwig On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 17:58:00 +0000

At the Newport Jazz Festival, we're visiting the Quad and Harbor Stages, where the first rows of audience sit snug up to the performer. With her understated style, love of the lyric and freedom, Gretchen Parlato makes that closeness work. Everyone leans in and listens.

She begins with "Doralice," the Brazilian song that João Gilberto sings on the 1963 album Getz/Gilberto.

Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:40:00 +0000

Allison Miller has a jazz portfolio with Dr. Lonnie Smith, Steven Bernstein and a host of others, as well as a pop career with Brandi Carlile, Ani DiFranco and Natalie Merchant. She's a U.S.

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra On JazzSet

editor — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 18:21:00 +0000

It started in 1966 as a three-week agreement among composer and conductor Thad Jones, drummer Mel Lewis and Max Gordon, the proprietor of The Village Vanguard in New York. And it continues, gloriously.