Blog - Jazz Spectrum

Honoring Jimmy Rowles

September 6, 2023

By Fritz ByersI’ve been voting in the annual DownBeat Jazz Poll for nearly as long as I’ve been hosting Jazz Spectrum – 34 years. I just sent in my ballot for this year’s poll. DownBeat, as you probably know, has been covering the world of jazz since 1934. It has survived, better than most, the challenges of the evolving world of publications, communications, and commentary. The current state of jazz journalism is fodder for a post or two, so maybe we’ll get to that down the road. Read More

This week on Jazz Spectrum – September 2, 2023

September 1, 2023

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz ByersThe centerpiece this week is Passage, the new release from Johnathan Blake’s spirited and tasteful quintet, Pentad.

The previous blog post, by Kim Kleinman, reports on a live performance last weekend by Pentad, streamed from Smoke Jazz Club in New York City, which Kim and I shared remotely. I commend that post to you for Kim’s characteristically incisive impressions of the music. Read More

JOHNATHAN BLAKE’s PENTAD with Steve Wilson, Joel Ross, David Virelles, and Dezron Douglas SMOKE JAZZ CLUB

August 29, 2023

Jazz Spectrum

By Kim KleinmanEven before the seasons of streams, Johnathan Blake made a huge impression on me as Kenny Barron’s magician on drums (and cymbals, as he is quick to add). He sits high behind his kit and keeps the cymbals low and flat so that he can reach them with the same motion as he uses with the drums. He is a force, a graceful dynamo. Read More

This week on Jazz Spectrum – August 26, 2023

August 25, 2023

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz ByersTwo days ago, I posted a short piece about Wayne Shorter. You’ll find it just below in the blog thread.

Each set of this week’s show, except the two dedicated to the Song of the Week (“Good Morning Heartache”), begins with Wayne and a world-class band performing one of his compositions. Read More

Wayne Shorter

August 23, 2023

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz Byers

This Friday is the birthday of Wayne Shorter, born August 25, 1933. He passed in March of this year, at 89. For more than fifty years, Wayne was in the pantheon of composers and instrumentalists, and he will live there permanently. If we had only his nine 1960s Blue Note recordings, from Night Dreamer in 1964 through Super Nova in 1969, he would be unrivaled as a composer, bandleader, and improviser. Read More

This week on Jazz Spectrum – August 19, 2023

August 18, 2023

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz Byers

As you’ll see in the playlist for this week’s show, three of the first four sets begin with big-band pieces. Read More

Celebrating Bill Evans (b. Aug. 16, 1929) and Mal Waldron (b. Aug. 16, 1925)

August 16, 2023

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz Byers

Today is the birthday of two essential jazz pianists – Bill Evans, a front-line luminary in the music by almost any reckoning; and Mal Waldron, less prominent in the broader culture but widely admired among musicians and by partisans of what is loosely but helpfully called the avant-garde. For years I’ve been meaning to write at length about Bill Evans and what his music has meant to me over the half-century of my attentions Read More

Johnathan Blake Drumset Jazz Spectrum_515

Drummer Johnathan Blake and His Quintet, Pentad

August 11, 2023

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz Byers

The blog post immediately below, an appreciation of the pianist Larry Willis, expresses some of the reasons Larry is this week’s featured artist. Read More

LARRY WILLIS – An Appreciation

August 9, 2023

Jazz Spectrum

By Fritz ByersIn the early years of the Murphy’s Jazz Masters program, we brought the pianist Larry Willis to play in Toledo. There were day-time educational features, as usual, and the night gig was, of course, at Murphy’s, back when it was still in the original location on Madison. If memory serves, Buster Williams was the bassist. Read More

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