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Victor Garcia

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Album Review

Ethan Philion: Meditations On Mingus

Read "Meditations On Mingus" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Questa rilettura del songbook mingusiano, conferma la potenza evocativa e l'attualità di quelle composizioni. La scelta da Ethan Philion ha privilegiato brani che testimoniamo l'impegno civile e politico del contrabbassista di Nogales e sono particolarmente d'attualità oggi. Il disco di apre con un brano dal titolo emblematico, “Once Upon A Time There Was A Holding Corporation Called Old America," che Charles Mingus non registrò mai in studio ma è presente nella registrazione live (a lungo introvabile) di At ...

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Album Review

Matt Peterson: Better Worlds

Read "Better Worlds" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Chicago pianist Matt Peterson is a versatile artist who defies genres. He is both an accomplished, bop-based improviser as well as a sensitive interpreter of the Western classical tradition. Both elements of his style come together on the exuberant and captivating Better Worlds, a collection of 10 of his originals as well as a unique arrangement of The Beatles' “Blackbird." One of the highlights of the uniformly superb album is “Petrichor," which opens with Peterson's smoldering chords that ...

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Album Review

Tracye Eileen: You Hit The Spot

Read "You Hit The Spot" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


The death of the Great American Songbook as a vehicle for aspiring singers is sometimes announced. Someone should tell the singers. Because this season alone has seen a crop of good recordings, most of them reviewed in AAJ, and very favorably so in the main. Tracye Eileen, a jny: Chicago vocalist with roots in the jazz community, continues the stream to good effect. While the recording is rather brief at 29 minutes, and the live section suggests an ...

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Album Review

Tracye Eileen: You Hit the Spot

Read "You Hit the Spot" reviewed by Jack Bowers


You Hit the Spot is either the third or fourth album by sultry-voiced, Chicago-based vocalist Tracye Eileen. It was recorded in two sessions: one with a trio (and audience), the other with a sextet. She gets a good head start thanks to a splendid choice of material— eight blue-chip tunes, all from the Great American Songbook. Eileen fares reasonably well with each of them, spreading a bluesy blanket over what are essentially straight-ahead renditions. She has excellent ...

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Album Review

Carlos Vega: Art of the Messenger

Read "Art of the Messenger" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Tenor saxophonist Carlos Vega is a steeped-in-the-tradition fan of early bebop, displaying his passion for the genre with his nods to alto saxophonist Charlie Parker on Bird's Ticket (2016) and Bird's Up (2017), both on Origin Records. With Art Of The Messenger he shifts his focus to Art Blakey, the drummer who led the Jazz Messengers from 1955 onward for thirty-five years, helping define—in the early years—the hard bop Blue Note Records approach to jazz. Vega and his ...

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Album Review

Carlos Vega: Art of the Messenger

Read "Art of the Messenger" reviewed by Jack Bowers


In case you didn't quite catch the “message" subtly embedded in the title of Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Carlos Vega's new recording, Art of the Messenger, here is a brief reminder that it was drummer Art Blakey who formed the Jazz Messengers in the mid-1950s and led the celebrated hard-bop ensemble until his death in 1990. The Messengers' roster of alumni reads like a Who's Who of Jazz Hall of Fame members. With that in mind, Vega assembled ...

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Interview

Latin Jazz Conversations: Victor Garcia (Part 3)

Latin Jazz Conversations: Victor Garcia (Part 3)

Source: The Latin Jazz Corner by Chip Boaz

Most great musicians simply know that they will have a career in music, and that inner belief drives them into a fierce momentum. Even as children, they are drawn to their instrument consistently, spending more time playing music than any other activity. By the time they reach their teens, most driven musicians have found a specific passion to guide their musical focus. They eventually find their way onto professional gigs; whether through college or simple determination, they undoubtedly start finding ...

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Interview

Latin Jazz Conversations: Victor Garcia (Part 2)

Latin Jazz Conversations: Victor Garcia (Part 2)

Source: The Latin Jazz Corner by Chip Boaz

Many elements effect the make-up of a musical scene, and as each piece evolves, so does the overall scene. The community of musicians within a city stays in a constant state of flux as artists come in and out of an area. When an important musical mainstay leaves the scene, the total artistic community feels ripples in both positive and negative ways. Sometimes influential musicians make moves to a new region, resulting in a major upswing of quality and creativity. ...

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Interview

Latin Jazz Conversations: Victor Garcia (Part 1)

Latin Jazz Conversations: Victor Garcia (Part 1)

Source: The Latin Jazz Corner by Chip Boaz

The history of jazz is broad and varied, staged in various locations across the United States; strangely enough, the history of Latin Jazz is written in one area. During the birth of jazz, Jelly Roll Morton claimed the Latin Tinge was an essential part of the music, a fact which was de-emphasized until the Big 3 Orchestras rocked New York's Palladium with massive mambos. As history followed Latin Jazz, New York remained the focus, continuing to be written through the ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Better Worlds

Self Produced
2023

buy

You Hit The Spot

Self Produced
2022

buy

Meditations On Mingus

Sunnyside Records
2022

buy

Art of the Messenger

Origin Records
2021

buy

Art of the Messenger

From: Art of the Messenger
By Victor Garcia

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