Gary Smulyan, Claire Daly, Brian Landrus, Jason Marshall, and Frank Basile have formed Low Blow Music, a grassroots organization dedicate to the advancement and promotion of the baritone saxophone in music of all genres. We have our kickoff event on Oct 8, which is Pepper Adams’ birthday, with a 12 hour baritone marathon gig featuring 10 baritone-led bands from noon to midnight at Ornithology in Brooklyn. That will be followed by a jam session until 2:30 am!
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The VJO will be commemorating the centennial of Thad Jones' birth the entire 2022-23 academic year. Celebrate one of the giants of big band jazz by bringing the VJO to your campus, festival or concert series. Contact booking coordinator Eric Allen for more info.
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For the 2021 JazzTimes Expanded Critics’ Poll, an annual companion to last issue’s Year in Review section (which featured our choices for top 40 new releases and top 10 historical releases of 2021), our regular contributors participated in a survey based on our yearly Readers’ Poll. Contributors were asked to focus on artists’ achievements during 2021 rather than assessing entire careers.
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The Real Jazz Top Ten 2021 1. Ronnie Cuber & Gary Smulyan, TOUGH BARITONES (Steeplechase)2. Joe Lovano & Trio Tapestry, GARDEN OF EXPRESSION (ECM)3. Ack van Rooyen, 90 (Jazzline)4. Teus Nobel Liberty Group. PLEASURE IS THE MEASURE, LIVE AT PARADOX TILBURG (Nobel Music)5. Giovanni Guidi, OJOS DE GATO (CAM Jazz)6. Joel Frahm, THE BRIGHT SIDE (Anzic Records)7. James Brandon Lewis Red Lily Quintet, JESUP WAGON (Tao Forms)8. Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas Sound Prints, OTHER WORLDS (Greenleaf Music)9. QOW Trio, THE ALBUM (Ubuntu Music)10. Bill…
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Lyndhurst Estate 635 South Broadway Tarrytown, NY The grounds open at 4:30 pm, music begins at 6:30 pm. There is a $5 per person parking fee. The site is also accessible by walking the Old Croton Aqueduct trail. Dogs are allowed on-leash. Concerts are on the west lawn overlooking the Hudson River. Rain call made by 3 pm the day of and announced on this page, on Facebook, and our Instagram stories. Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets or low-profile lawn chairs and may bring or purchase a…
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'At the Jazz Forum, Gary will pay homage to one of his primary influences, the incomparable Pepper Adams. With a performance titled “Re-Encounter!” he revisits Pepper’s landmark 1968 album Encounter! recorded with Zoot Sims, Tommy Flanagan, Ron Carter and Elvin Jones. For Gary’s show, Eric Alexander, Renee Rosnes, Sean Smith and Carl Allen will step into the shoes of the album’s luminaries. “This is one of my favorite records,” Gary notes. “The playing is great and the tunes Pepper chose are great. So much of Encounter! is outside the…
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Gary was the Winner of the 2018 Jazz Times Expanded Critics Poll for Baritone Saxophone! For this annual companion poll to our January/February issue’s Top 50 Critics’ Picks, our regular contributors and critics participated in this survey based on our yearly Readers’ Poll. Voters in the Expanded Critics’ Poll were asked to focus on artists’ achievements during 2018 rather than assessing entire careers.
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Baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan brings here his trademark “contrafacts” (a music making method that shares the chord progressions with other compositions) approach to this first SteepleChase leader outing challenging us (maybe?) to guess the tunes he is employing. Smulyan whose professional career took shape by joining Woody Herman’s Young Thundering Herds at age 22 (1978) has won Critics’ and Readers’ Poll awards numerous times by Downbeat and JazzTimes, among others. GARY SMULYAN baritone saxophone DAVID WONG bass RODNEY GREEN drums Recorded April 2017 1 VODKA…
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