E. Doctor Smith's Blog

After contributing six decades of musical direction and genius, Randy Weston remains one of the world's foremost pianists and composers today, a true innovator and visionary. Encompassing the vast rhythmic heritage of Africa, his global creations musically continue to inform and inspire. "Weston has the biggest sound of any jazz pianist since Ellington and Monk, as well as the richest most inventive beat," states jazz critic Stanley Crouch, "but his art is more than projection and time; it's the result of a studious and inspired intelligence... An intelligence that is creating a fresh synthesis of African elements with jazz technique". In partnership with the Museum of the African Diaspora, the Jazz Heritage Center will present a weekend focused on the life and music of jazz legend Randy Weston. The Jazz Heritage Center will be showing two films about Randy Weston's life and will be featuring him in conversation with legendary jazz radio per...

Perhaps the most incredible drummer of our time is the world renown Billy Cobham. With a career spanning 4 decades, Cobham has performed with pianists Horace Silver and George Duke, legendary trumpeter Miles Davis, tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, vibraphonist Milt Holland and jazz guitarist John McLaughlin, to name but a few. Cobham has also performed with the Grateful Dead and their tribute group, "Jazz is Dead", with the famed Peter Gabriel, Level 42 and many, many more. An inductee into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame, Cobham is best known primarily for his jazz-rock drumming. Cobham’s latest release, “Palindrome” on the Multimedia Concepts label, is a return to those roots. Percussionist, writer and educator Reid J. Kennedy reviewed Palindrome last January for the Jazz Police. It so closely echoed my own view of this album, that it bears quoting here. Kennedy writes, “The album opens with an updated arrangement of Cobham’s “Moon Germs,” origin...

This Saturday afternoon, two of my favorite pop groups, The Orange Peels and the Corner Laughers will descend on the Hotel Utah as part of the four day, SFPopfest 2010. Joining them will be New York's Dream Diary and Sweeden's Leaving Mornington Crescent. The Peels songwriting tandem of Allen Clapp and Jill Pries remain intact, however the ever evolving line-up moves the ridiculously versatile John Moremen from behind the drum kit and back to his first love, lead guitar. Taking over the drum chores is the very capable Gabriel Coan. This could be one of the best Peels line-ups yet. The Corner Laughers are another product of the fabled "Mystery Lawn Studios" in Sunnyvale. The sweet vocals of singer Karla Kane and the rock solid bass of Khoi Huynh have produced some of best pop tunes I've heard in some time. Alongside the rhythm guitar of Angela Stiletto and the "Bonham-like" drumming of Charlie Crabtree, the Laughers blew my mind with their in...

Today, I'll be attending the 2007 edition of England's famed Bath International Music Festival. In addition to being one of England's most beautiful and architectural cities, Bath attracts some of the greatest musicians from around the globe; Mavis Staples & Jazz Jamaica, the electronica of Arthurs & Bown, and People Like Us; the folk stylings of Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill; and the genre crossing Iain Ballamy & Stian Carstensen. My personal favorites however, will be the jazz duo of drummer Bill Bruford and pianist Michiel Borstlap. After a high profile and illustrious career as the rock drummer of his generation (with Yes, Genesis and King Crimson), Bruford carved out an equally successful name as a jazz drummer through his jazz-rock ensemble Earthworks. Borstlap is a brilliant pianist, capable of creating solos of dazzling complexity, but also able to employ space and subtlety. Together they adopt a witty, conversational style: the table talk ...

Not just another funk/world/rock/jazz/classical ensemble, Eclectica is a virtuoso groove event. This genre-defying band features the 5 time Grammy Award–winning drumming of Roy "Futureman" Wooten, of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and electric violin virtuoso Tracy Silverman, heralded by the BBC as “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin.” Bass legend Steve Forrest, (replacing Kyle Whalum), rounds out the ensemble. Eclectica weaves sound-pieces together with a groove that is alive from the first note to the last encore, with sing-along choruses and creative jams that can lead in any direction. With 3-part vocals and inspired synchronicity, Eclectica is a celebration and a concert on the same stage. Jim Beal Jr., writer for the San Antonio Express-News interviewed the band during a festival last year, and was able to get some fantastic insight into the creation of this unique trio. Beal writes, "When it comes to naming bands, truth in advertising ...

Beginning April 5th, jazz and photography lovers will be in for a real treat when they visit the Fillmore's Jazz Heritage Center. In honor of Jazz Appreciation Month, the JHC is presenting Jazz Giants: The Photography of Herman Leonard—a collection of some of the greatest jazz photographs ever taken by one of America’s greatest living photographers. The show is Herman Leonard’s first in San Francisco since he briefly lived in the city twenty years ago. The exhibit includes more than forty classic black and white photographs of jazz legends, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Billie Holliday and Thelonious Monk. The images will be on exhibit April 5th - May 16th, in the JHC’s Lush Life Gallery and in the JHC’s Koret Heritage Lobby outside the entrance to Yoshi’s Jazz Club and Restaurant at 1320 Fillmore. “Jazz Giants” is a photographic journey through the golden years of the Jazz, Blues and Bebop eras that document the larger-than-life legends that...

Last October, I was in New York City to see the only U.S. appearance of British drummer Bill Bruford's Earthworks at the Iridium Jazz Club. His latest group features the incendiary Tim Garland on saxophones, the ever stable Lawrence Cottle on bass and the marvelous young Gwilym Simcock on piano. Apparently, I wasn't the only Californian in attendance; a certain jazz writer from Santa Rosa had seen all ten shows of Bruford's five day stand! After the show, I spoke to Bruford about a possible return to Yoshi's, and the status of any future recordings. Bruford explained that he would be releasing no new CDs, but rather a two volume DVD anthology; one featuring the current band, and the other featuring the original Earthworks line-up with Django Bates, Iain Ballamy and Tim Harries. Wait no longer, these fantastic DVDs are now here. Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, a uniquely British institution, have been turning heads on the international jazz scene now for 20 years...