Ravi Shankar

Born: April 7, 1920

Ravi Shankar, the legendary sitarist and composer is India's most esteemed musical Ambassador and a singular phenomenon in the classical music worlds of East and West. As a performer, composer, teacher and writer, he has done more for Indian music than any other musician. He is well known for his pioneering work in bringing Indian music to the West. This however, he did only after long years of dedicated study under his illustrious guru Baba Allaudin Khan and after making a name for himself in India. Always ahead of his time, Ravi Shankar has written two concertos for sitar and orchestra, violin-sitar compositions for Yehudi Menuhin and himself, music for flute virtuoso Jean Pierre Rampal, music for Hosan Yamamoto, master of the Shakuhachi and Musumi Miyashita - Koto virtuoso, and collaborated with Phillip Glass (Passages)

Emad Armoush's Rayhan: Distilled Extractions

by Mark Corroto
January 26, 2025

Jazz and creative music have always resisted assimilation. By that, I mean jazz draws upon--or perhaps more accurately, appropriates--sounds, traditions and styles to create something entirely new. This has been true since New Orleans musicians blended Caribbean, French, African and Sicilian influences while performing on traditional marching band instruments. Over the century-plus since its inception, improvising ...

Spinifex: Undrilling the Hole

by Lawrence Peryer
December 19, 2024

The Amsterdam-based sextet Spinifex borrowed their name from a hardy Australian grass known for thriving in harsh conditions. For nearly two decades, they have forged original music from seemingly incompatible elements--mathematical structures, punk aggression, free jazz fire. Their ninth album, Undrilling the Hole, presents seven new compositions from alto saxophonist Tobias Klein that showcase the band's ...

Jonny Gee

Born: October, 1974

Musical polymath, London bassist Jonny Gee was appointed as a professor at the Guildhall (coaching impro & small groups) has worked across many styles of jazz and other music, performing with artists including:

Ravi Shankar, Ronnie Scott, Dame Cleo Laine, Lee Konitz, King Salsa, Roberto Pla, Antonio Forcione, Dame Emma Kirkby, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Derek Jacobi (who toured reading poetry with Utter:Jazz), Ruthie Culver, Zum, La Mariposa Tango, Kosmos, The Sixteen, Voces8, The London Handel Orchestra, The Chinese Silk String Quartet, The Hep Chaps, Ruby & The Dukes, The Ikos, Dom Pipkin's Allstar New Orleans Trio, DJ Mista Trick ("Do what you do"/YOU Album), Aaron Liddard, England (Carmina Burana prog rock), Brian May & Roger Daltrey & Ben Elton (for Roger Taylor private shows), Gracie & The G-Spots.

Souvik Dutta: 20 Years of Abstract Logix

by Mike Jacobs
September 27, 2024

If you are a music lover, you may already know the name Souvik (pronounced show-vik) Dutta. Over the last 20 years, he has taken his Abstract Logix enterprise from a pre-YouTube streaming platform to a music retail website to a niche imprint to a respected independent label boasting a top-tier roster that includes the likes of ...

Coltrane, il frastornante riflesso dell��universo

by Libero Farn��
February 19, 2024

John Coltrane--Tranesonic o il riflesso dell'universo Aldo Gianolio e Piercarlo Poggio 129 pagine Tuttle Edizioni 2024 Bisogna ammettere che negli ultimi anni l'offerta editoriale italiana di argomento jazzistico �� tutt'altro che avara di proposte. Merito del lavoro lodevolissimo e disinteressato di tante case editrici, per lo pi�� piccole e amatoriali ...

On Minimalism: Documenting A Musical Movement

by Ian Patterson
September 14, 2023

On Minimalism: Documenting A Musical Movement Kerry O'Brien and William Robin 449 Pages ISBN: 9780520382084 University of California Press 2023 Much like jazz, the origin story of minimalism is messy and hard to pin down to a date. And like jazz, definitions of minimalism can be rather slippery or ...

Take Five with Enayet Hossain

by AAJ Staff
June 29, 2023

Meet Enayet Hossain Enayet Hossain is an accomplished tabla player from a renowned Indian musical family whose careers span three generations. Born in Bangladesh to an Indian father and Bangladeshi mother, he moved to the U.S. as a child. He received musical training from his father, Hamid Hossain, an esteemed Indian musician renowned for teaching and ...

Yosi Levy: Acoustic Project II: The Duo

by Dave Linn
June 26, 2023

Yosi Levy was born in Israel and began playing guitar at the age of 12. After a mandatory stint in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), he began working professionally in clubs around Israel. In the early 1980s, he decided to move to New York City and study classical guitar at the prestigious Mannes College of Music ...

John McLaughlin And Zakir Hussain: Shakti's Half-Century Of Spontaneous Joy

by Mike Jacobs
June 12, 2023

John McLaughlin. Ustad Zakir Hussain. Speak either name and a host of musical notions can come to mind. Pair them together and they conjure just one: Shakti. Indeed, the iconic jazz guitarist and celebrated Indian percussionist have each built long careers replete with enough musical achievements, stylistic innovations and instrumental mastery to gain entrance ...