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Live reviews

Nina Simone’s spirit shines in Arena Stage’s ‘Four Women’

The musical Nina Simone: Four Women has been playing to packed audiences at Arena Stage since its opening on Nov. 10. Written and produced by Christina Ham and directed by Timothy Douglas, the musical is set in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, at the 16th Street Baptist Church. On September 15, 1963, four members of the […]

December 20, 2017 0

Announcing...

Linda May Han Oh brings an illustrious quartet to CapitalBop’s fall Traveling Loft at the Fridge

Linda May Han Oh is one of the most influential and prolific young bassists in jazz. CapitalBop is proud to present her quartet at our upcoming Traveling Loft concert, on Saturday, Dec. 2, at the Fridge. Over the past few years, and especially with the release this spring of her third album, Walk Against Wind, […]

November 16, 2017 0

Interviews

Brian Blade on his Fellowship Band at 20, and ‘being led by what the music wants’

Brian Blade is perhaps best known to jazz audiences these days at the drumming dynamo that powers the Wayne Shorter Quartet. From behind the kit, he pushes against the limits of tempo, rhythm and, sometimes, reason as the group — featuring legendary saxophonist Shorter, pianist Danilo Perez and bassist John Patitucci — creates a frenetic […]

November 10, 2017 0

Features

John McLaughlin, a fusion guitar legend, is on his final tour

Some musicians hang on a bit too long, ending their careers with a slow fade. It can be painful to witness. Others recognize when it’s time to ease up, and accordingly change their relationship and approach to music. John McLaughlin, who has been at the forefront of jazz pathbreaking since the late 1960s, thinks it’s […]

November 8, 2017 0

Live reviews

What Solange and Sun Ra Have in Common

Solange and the Sun Ra Arkestra Kennedy Center Oct. 1, 2017 “You can’t have the White House without the Black House. You can’t have something without its opposite.” The groundbreaking Afrofuturist musician, bandleader and philosopher Sun Ra spoke these words, captured in Robert Mugge’s 1980 film “Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise,” as one of many […]

October 16, 2017 0

Announcing...

The legendary Amina Claudine Myers will give a rare solo performance at our October Traveling Loft

Amina Claudine Myers is one of the most respected pianists of her generation, though she’s never become the most widely known. It is CapitalBop’s honor to present this living legend of Creative Music in a very rare and special solo performance at NYU in Washington’s Abramson Family Auditorium. The concert, on Oct. 14, will be the […]

September 20, 2017 0

Interviews

Nico Segal and Julian Reid on the JuJu Exchange, Chicago’s latest fusion experiment

Trumpeter Nico Segal is probably best known for blowing hard and heavenly alongside his fellow Chicagoan Chance the Rapper. On Chance’s “Coloring Book,” Segal plays the archangel Gabriel to the rapper’s apostle Paul; revealing the majesty and awe of the Good News through his radiant horn, pushing Chance toward feverous, forceful preaching of that same […]

September 14, 2017 0

Announcing...

Nobody sings ‘jazz’ like Fay Victor. She’s our next Traveling Loft headliner.

Few contemporary vocalists have internalized, personalized and redefined the Black music tradition as thoroughly as Fay Victor. If that sounds like high praise, don’t just trust us. Time Out New York writes, “Fay Victor manages to deconstruct the tradition of jazz song without pretension or tedium—quite a high-wire feat.” Ben Ratliff of the New York […]

August 13, 2017 0

Interviews

Young bass phenom Linda May Han Oh talks about her new album, ‘Walk Against Wind’

Linda May Han Oh often describes the improvisational exchanges between herself and her bandmates—whether the members of her current quartet or in the radically exploratory work she does as part of guitar wizard Pat Metheny’s current group—as “conversations.” In fact, there is a particularly conversational tone that Oh takes when playing behind Metheny. Watching the […]

June 18, 2017 1

Interviews

Miles Mosley talks God, grooves and gigging with the West Coast Get Down

On “Young Lion,” the first track from his debut album Uprising, Miles Mosley announces himself to the world with a kind of sage swagger that many rappers can only hope to embody. “Thank God for me / Ain’t nothing been funky since ’73,” Mosley intones over a foot-stomping, hollering track of Sly Stone-like gospel funk. […]

May 25, 2017 0