Allen Morrison - Music Journalist

09/07/2024

This one's been percolating for a long time: DownBeat has just published my short profile of my favorite blues band on the planet, Martha's Vineyard's own Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish. Their new album, "Live at the Fallout Shelter" is due this summer. Based on my seeing them at that venue and some early mixes, I know it's going to be great. Thanks to Frank Alkyer for the space and to John Hoy, Jeremy Berlin, and Delanie Pickering for the time.

It’s a typical Wednesday night in January at The Ritz Café in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, seven miles offshore from Cape Cod. During the busy summer tourist season, the town is the unofficial nightlife capital of the…

12/05/2024

Tonight at Scullers, a fabulous show by the Gabrielle Stravelli Trio. Gabrielle is a true jazz songbird in the best tradition, with unerring pitch and great jazz chops - a big talent. She is blessed to work with my old friend and piano teacher Michael Kanan and Patrick O'Leary on bass - really the best accompanists a singer could wish for. All three are song people. They dive deep into the catalogs of great songwriters and come up with gems, then make them swing like mad. Check out their new CD, "Beautiful Moons Ago" (the title song is written by Nat King Cole).

25/04/2024

The night before I left for a trip to Mauritius and South Africa, I had the joy of seeing Luciana Souza and Trio Corrente live at The Regattabar on the first stop of their current U.S. tour. This combination of Brazilian jazz greats was much anticipated, and their recent joint album, "Cometa" (Sunnyside), was every bit as good as one could hope for. My review.
https://downbeat.com/news/detail/luciana-souza-trio-corrente-bring-cometa-to-vivid-life

12/11/2023

Dear Friends, Links to my articles in JazzTimes are, unfortunately, no longer working. They are currently locked behind a paywall, due to a change in ownership of that publication. I am in the process of uploading those many JT articles and providing new links. Thanks for your patience, and sorry for the inconvenience.

Dear Friends, Links to my articles in JazzTimes are, unfortunately, no longer working. They are currently locked behind a paywall, due to a change in ownership of that publication. I am in the proc…

08/08/2023

“Something for everybody” was the strategy of the Ed Sullivan Show, the most successful variety show in TV history, and the key to its longevity (it couldn’t have been Sullivan, who had all the personality of an actuary, and that’s…

07/07/2023

What a pleasure to hang with the Brazilian master guitarists Romero Lubambo and Chico Pinheiro for this article in TIDAL Magazine! They recently recorded their first album as a duo, "Two Brothers," largely for the same reason that some of the world's leading recording artists hire them: They love being accompanied by each other.

What a pleasure to hang with the Brazilian master guitarists Romero Lubambo and Chico Pinheiro for this article in TIDAL Magazine! They recently recorded their first album as a duo, “Two Brot…

24/03/2023

“In Canada once, a student asked me, ‘How do you reconcile what you want to play with what the audience wants to hear?’ And I said, ‘Man, as I get older, I really want to play music that people want to hear.’ I don’t even understand what the question is.” From my interview with the delightful Delfeayo Marsalis in the March issue of DownBeat Magazine .

“In Canada once, a student asked me, ‘How do you reconcile what you want to play with what the audience wants to hear?’ And I said, ‘Man, as I get older, I really want to play music that people wan…

02/03/2023

Today at 4am, Wayne Shorter peacefully continued on his immense journey into the unknown. He was surrounded by loving family. In his words, “It’s time to go get a new body and come back to continue the mission.” Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

👣👣

13/07/2022

It was an honor to celebrate the innovative pianist/composer on her induction into the DownBeat Magazine Hall of Fame. For this article in the August 2022 issue, I spoke to her manager and close friend, Ora Harris, who generously shared many wonderful stories with me; her collaborator and friend, the masterful drummer and composer Terri Lyne Carrington; and Jana Herzen of Motéma Records, her last label before Geri's untimely passing at age 60. Thanks to DownBeat Editor Frank Alkyer for the assignment.

It was an honor to celebrate the innovative pianist/composer Geri Allen on her induction into the DownBeat Hall of Fame. For this article in the August 2022 issue, I spoke to her manager and close …

29/05/2022

For Charles Mingus's centennial, DownBeat asked me to do a deep dive on the composer, bassist and singular American cultural figure. In this package of three pieces, I explore the place Mingus occupies in the popular imagination, by all accounts well-deserved, as a force of nature, an iconoclastic truth-teller, a volatile, emotional man with a violent streak. But his many friends and fellow musicians, people who knew and loved him, remember a different side: the spiritual seeker, poet, esthete and philosopher; the bandleader who took pains to treat his musicians fairly; and, above all, the artist he was right down to his bone marrow....

http://allenmorrison.com/2022/05/29/charles-mingus-at-100-downbeat-may-2022/

For Charles Mingus’s centennial, DownBeat asked me to do a deep dive on the composer, bassist and singular American cultural figure. In this package of three pieces, I explore the place Mingu…

05/05/2022

Imagine if Sarah Vaughan played saxophone like Dexter Gordon. That's approximately the effect when the 35-year-old singer and tenor saxophonist Camille Thurman performs. She told me about her triumphs over sexism and crippling self-doubt in my interview with her, from the March 2022 .
http://allenmorrison.com/2022/05/05/the-education-of-camille-thurman/

Thurman was the first woman to tour and perform full time with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. (Photo: Courtesy of Camille Thurman) Imagine if Sarah Vaughan played saxopho…

01/03/2022

Charles Mingus - prolific American composer, bass virtuoso, memoirist, poet, notorious truth teller, and all-around badass - would have turned 100 years old this year. I was delighted when DownBeat Magazine asked me to write an appreciation of Mingus and his place in jazz history - delighted, and a bit intimidated. How on earth could I summarize his life and contributions to jazz in six magazine pages, give or take? You can judge how well I did soon. My story will be in the May issue, hitting the streets approximately April 1.

http://allenmorrison.com/2022/03/01/coming-soon-a-mingus-appreciation/

Charles Mingus – prolific American composer, bass virtuoso, memoirist, poet, notorious truth teller, and all-around badass – would have turned 100 years old this year. I was delighted w…

05/11/2021

Nnenna Freelon joins Allen Morrison for a listening session with a vocal focus, featuring tracks by Dinah Washington, Andy Bey, Nancy Wilson, and more.

28/07/2021

On a warm July night in central Rome, Dee Dee Bridgewater, wearing a long, floral print dress and broad-rimmed, dark green hat, stepped onto the outdoor stage of the Casa del Jazz, an estate that includes a luxurious villa and a six-acre…

14/06/2021

More than a gifted pianist, organist, and 20-yr member of James Taylor's band, Larry Goldings is also the brilliant comic mind behind the viral CPAC "national anthem" video and, as most jazz fans know, the madcap "Hans Groiner" character, an "expert" on Thelonious Monk's music who "improves it by making it more relaxing and less offensive to the ear.” Many thanks to Mac Randall of…...

http://allenmorrison.com/2021/06/14/larry-goldings-is-becoming-the-victor-borge-of-jazz/

Goldings as “The Guy with the Gig” (l), and “Hans Groiner.” More than a gifted pianist, organist, and 20-yr member of James Taylor’s band, Larry Goldings is also the b…

22/03/2021

Review of Stacey Kent’s album The Changing Lights in DownBeat
http://allenmorrison.com/2014/04/08/nice-review-of-stacey_kent-downbeatmag/

Visit the post for more.

15/03/2021

Singer Stacey Kent, a star on 3 continents, and her husband, sax player Jim Tomlinson, enchanted a packed house at Birdland recently. My review is here.

http://allenmorrison.com/2013/12/31/stacey-kent-and-band-weave-a-spell-at-birdland/

Singer Stacey Kent, a star on 3 continents, and her husband, sax player Jim Tomlinson, enchanted a packed house at Birdland recently. My review is here.

12/02/2021

What a pleasure to interview Sergio Mendes, one of my musical heroes since I was a kid. The article appears in TIDAL Magazine, the highly readable online publication of the TIDAL streaming service (owned by Jay-Z). Here's one bit that didn't make the final piece: "Mas Que Nada" - Sergio's signature song since Brasil '66, a song that became the first-ever worldwide hit in Portuguese....

http://allenmorrison.com/2021/02/12/a-conversation-with-sergio-mendes-tidal-magazine/

What a pleasure to interview Sergio Mendes, one of my musical heroes since I was a kid. The article appears in TIDAL Magazine, the highly readable online publication of the TIDAL streaming service …

19/01/2021

“There’s something really exhilarating about doing something terrifying," she said, talking about her latest project, Ogresse, her song cycle/performance piece, which she is trying to turn into an animated feature film. For my vocal jazz column in Jazziz Magazine (Jan. 2021 issue), the supremely talented , a recently minted MacArthur fellow, spoke to me from Miami, where she was spending the holidays. A beautiful person and artist.

http://allenmorrison.com/2021/01/19/cecile-mclorin-salvant-cecilesalvant-on-gratitude-pandemics-awards-and-what-scares-her/

“There’s something really exhilarating about doing something terrifying,” she said, talking about her latest project, Ogresse, her song cycle/performance piece, which she is trying to turn in…

14/01/2021

Last summer, with the club and concert scene in the US and Europe shuttered and fear rampant, the sensational 30-year-old pianist Emmett Cohen managed to organize a tour of Europe for his NYC-based trio. Everywhere they went, they were told they were the only American band that had come over and performed. How did they do it? My news piece in DownBeat.

http://allenmorrison.com/2021/01/14/emmet-cohen-on-turning-lemons-into-lemonade-downbeat-feb-2021/

Last summer, with the club and concert scene in the US and Europe shuttered and fear rampant, the sensational 30-year-old pianist Emmett Cohen managed to organize a tour of Europe for his NYC-based…

05/01/2021

My latest for JazzTimes -- Pianist is the Zelig of the jazz and pop music world, playing with everyone from Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock to Steely Dan, Carly Simon and Rickie Lee Jones, arranging music for American Idol, playing on James Bond movie scores, and serving as musical director for Jazz at the White House and International Jazz Day. But it's his brilliant writing for the Grammy-winning MONK'estra that has won him his greatest acclaim. And he's got a few stories...

http://allenmorrison.com/2021/01/05/john-beasley-reflects-on-miles-herbie-and-of-course-monk-jazztimes-jan-feb-2021/

My latest for JazzTimes — Pianist is the Zelig of the jazz and pop music world, playing with everyone from Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock to Steely Dan, Carly Simon and Rickie Le…

06/12/2020

I recently had the pleasure of talking to singer/arranger Amy London of the Royal Bopsters for Jazziz Magazine, then reviewing their new album Party of Four for DownBeat. The Bopsters - soprano London, alto Holli Ross, tenor Pete McGuiness, and bass Dylan Pramuk - specialize in the vocalese of the bebop era and beyond. On the new album, they perform songs by Billy Strayhorn and Tadd Dameron, standards and more modern stuff, including one by Wayne Shorter....

http://allenmorrison.com/2020/12/06/the-royal-bopsters-return-downbeat-jan-2021/

I recently had the pleasure of talking to singer/arranger Amy London of the Royal Bopsters for Jazziz Magazine, then reviewing their new album Party of Four for DownBeat. The Bopsters – sopra…

25/11/2020

I'm excited that so many of my favorite artists and interview subjects are nominated for 2021 Grammys! John Beasley; Kurt Elling, featuring Danilo Perez; Kenny Washington; Becca Stevens; Chico Pinheiro; Maria Schneider; Alan Broadbent; Chick Corea; Christian McBride; Brian Blade; Terri Lyne Carrington, …...

http://allenmorrison.com/2020/11/25/congratulations-to-the-2021-grammy-nominees/

John BeasleyKurt and DaniloKenny WashingtonBecca StevensAlan BroadbentJacob Collier (2017 Grammy winner)Maria Schneider I’m excited that so many of my favorite artists and interview subjects …

22/11/2020

My short piece about the gifted young jazz singer, from DownBeat's recent "25 For The Future" special issue.

http://allenmorrison.com/2020/11/22/jazzmeia-horn-is-staying-busy-downbeat-nov-2020/

My short piece about the gifted young jazz singer, from DownBeat’s recent “25 For The Future” special issue.

12/11/2020

Trumpeter Till Brönner (left) performs with saxophonist Igor Butman and the Moscow Jazz Orchestra, during the 2019 Jazz Across Borders conference in St. Petersburg, Russia.(Photo: Courtesy Jazz Across Borders) Local musicians met jazz promoters from around the globe and bridges were built at the third annual Jazz Across Borders conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, which I was honored to attend November 15-16, 2019. Here's my review from DownBeat.com.

http://allenmorrison.com/2019/11/24/russian-jazz-artists-shine-at-st-petersburg-conference-downbeat/

Trumpeter Till Brönner (left) performs with saxophonist Igor Butman and the Moscow Jazz Orchestra, during the 2019 Jazz Across Borders conference in St. Petersburg, Russia.(Photo: Courtesy Jazz Acr…

02/09/2020

After 35 years as a guest singer on other peoples’ records, Oakland-based Kenny Washington, 63, is releasing his first studio album under his own name. The album is called What’s the Hurry? “I’m originally from New Orleans, the Big Easy,” Washington says. “The people are laid back. I’ve never been in a hurry to do anything.” Joe Locke, the extraordinary vibraphonist who works with Washington often, calls him "one of the most important male vocalists in the world...Kenny is the whole package." [ 51 more words ]
http://allenmorrison.com/2020/09/02/kenny-washington-a-late-bloomers-slow-rise-to-vocal-stardom-jazztimes-sept-2020/

After 35 years as a guest singer on other peoples’ records, Oakland-based Kenny Washington, 63, is releasing his first studio album under his own name. The album is called What’s the Hurry? “I’m or…

27/08/2020

Like Brazilian music? Check out my new piece about pianist Antonio Adolfo's tribute to the great Milton Nascimento.

Two young musicians in Rio De Janeiro became friends and, briefly, collaborators back in 1967. Antonio Adolfo, a 20-year-old pianist and Rio native, was leading a pioneering samba-jazz group called The 3-D Trio. Milton Nascimento, a…

19/07/2020

DownBeat recently asked me to review Capitol's re-release of Frank Sinatra's 1960 mid-career classic Nice ‘N’ Easy, now in an expanded edition for the album's 60th anniversary (https://downbeat.com/digitaledition/2020/DB20_08/single_page_view/48.html)
A slightly "expanded edition" of my review is below. Diving back into that New Frontier world with Frank and Nelson Riddle - both of them at their artistic peak - proved a soothing diversion from the pandemic and the anxieties and outrages of the 24/7 news cycle. [ 422 more words ]
http://allenmorrison.com/2020/07/19/revisiting-a-classic-sinatra-album-during-the-pandemic-downbeat-august-2020/

DownBeat recently asked me to review Capitol’s re-release of Frank Sinatra’s 1960 mid-career classic Nice ‘N’ Easy, now in an expanded edition for the album’s 60th anniversary ( A…

09/06/2020

Jazz Clubs, Festivals Search For Hope Amid A Slowly Opening Economy (DownBeat, July 2020)
http://allenmorrison.com/2020/06/09/jazz-clubs-festivals-search-for-hope-amid-a-slowly-opening-economy-downbeat-july-2020/

Smalls Jazz Club, NYC. The club began live-streaming shows, with no audience physically present, on June 1. Jazz is “the least socially distanced art form,” says Spike Wilner, pianist a…

03/05/2020

Dear friends and family: My friend Delia Fischer (Fischer Delia), the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, will be performing live on YouTube on Sunday afternoon at 5 pm Rio time (4 pm, EDT, 1 pm PDT). Her show will include a song in English for which I wrote the lyric. Hope you can catch it!

Amanhã tem estreia: às 17h rola a minha primeira live no YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/user/deliafischeroficial

O roteiro incluirá canções de “Tempo Mínimo”, “Saudações Egberto” e “Presente”.
Você não pode perder essa.
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❤️❤️❤️