Fred Kaplan

Winter Jazzfest in NY Starts Thursday

Fred Kaplan Jan 05, 2015 First Published: Jan 05, 2015

It's cold in New York City, but don't expect that to keep jazz fans from dashing through the streets of Greenwich Village this weekend, darting in out of various clubs and theaters, to see a dozen or more topflight musicians playing in the 2015 Winter Jazzfest.

Fred Kaplan

Smoke Sessions on Vinyl

Fred Kaplan Dec 19, 2014 First Published: Dec 19, 2014

With so few "major record labels" left standing, the music-loving audiophile stands alert for new ventureindies by the measure of indiesthat offer very good music, excellent sound, and (is it too much to ask?) the occasional slab of vinyl. As first reported by Robert Baird in Stereophile's August 2014 issue, there is another worthy prospect worth celebrating: Smoke Sessions Records, the creation of Paul Stache, proprietor of Smoke Jazz Club on upper Broadway in NYC, where most of his discs are recorded live, with Stache himself at the controls.

Fred Kaplan

The Best Jazz Albums of 2014

Fred Kaplan Dec 13, 2014 First Published: Dec 13, 2014

Here, once again, are my picks for the year's best jazz albums...it's been a terrible year for much of the world, but a very good year for the salve of jazz.

Fred Kaplan

Masterpieces by Ellington, Finally, on Vinyl

Fred Kaplan Dec 10, 2014 First Published: Dec 10, 2014

For five years in this blog space, I've been urging, begging, audiophile record labels to reissue Masterpieces by Ellington, to my mind Duke Ellington's finest (and finest-sounding) album, on vinyl. Now Chad Kassem of Analogue Sounds has done it, and his QRP pressing is the jaw-dropper of the year...

Fred Kaplan

Frank Kimbrough, Quartet

Fred Kaplan Nov 30, 2014 First Published: Nov 30, 2014

Frank Kimbrough is a protean artist; his voices are myriad, adaptable to the occasion, as a musician, bandleader, sideman, and composer. His new CD, Quartet (on the Palmetto label), is his first album as the leader of a foursome. (The other albums under his name have been solos, duets, or trios), and it's among his most inventive.

Fred Kaplan

A Jazz Thanksgiving in New York City

Fred Kaplan Nov 22, 2014 First Published: Nov 22, 2014

Maria Schneider, photographed by Jimmy & Dena Katz

It’s Thanksgiving time, and New York jazz fans know what that means. No, not the Macy’s parade down Broadway or the lighting of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. The really big shows for our crowdannual traditions for a while noware the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra at the Jazz Standard and Jason Moran’s Bandwagon Trio at the Village Vanguard.

Fred Kaplan

Kenny Barron & Dave Holland: The Art of Conversation

Fred Kaplan Nov 08, 2014 First Published: Nov 08, 2014

Pianist Kenny Barron and bassist Dave Holland have massive chops, and a lot to say, so their new duet album, The Art of Conversation (on the revived Impulse! label) is everything the title suggests.

Fred Kaplan

Ethan Iverson & Ron Carter at Mezzrow's

Fred Kaplan Oct 11, 2014 First Published: Oct 11, 2014

Friday night, I saw one of the finest, most intimate jazz sets I'd seen in a while: Ethan Iverson and Ron Carter playing duets at Mezzrow, a small new jazz club in Manhattan's West Village...

Fred Kaplan

The New Standard (and Joe Ferla's last thing)

Fred Kaplan Oct 06, 2014 First Published: Oct 06, 2014

Joe Ferla is the preeminent jazz recording engineer of our timeor, I should say, was, as he recently decided to retire from the profession, after more than 42 years and nearly 400 albums, to run his attention to playing guitar. (I haven't heard him do that, but I hope he's good.) His last-released album, The New Standard, is out on CD and double-LP on the Rare Noise Records label, and it stands not only as another specimen of superlative sonics but also Ferla's return to analog.

Fred Kaplan

Kenny Burrell: Midnight Blue from Music Matters Jazz

Fred Kaplan Jul 20, 2014 First Published: Jul 20, 2014

Music Matters Jazz is going 33. As all high-end vinylphiles know, MMJ is the LA-based company that's been reissuing classic Blue Note albums cut at 45 rpm, spread out over two slabs of 180 gram virgin vinyl, encased in a gatefold cover that meticulously reproduces the original's artwork on the outside and gorgeously reprints session photos of the musicians on the inside.

But now, after doing this with 112 titles, the company's proprietors, Ron Rambach and Joe Harley, are re-reissuing some of the greatest Blue Note titles on single-disc LPs cut at 33¹/₃rpm . . .