For my birthday weekend, I gave myself a present and an assignment – review the 2023 Newport Jazz Festival. Here’s the result, at DownBeat Magazine. The nation’s oldest jazz festival was never only about jazz. This year’s edition presented the full gamut of jazz and “jazz-adjacent” music, including big personalities like Samara Joy, Jon Batiste, and Herbie Hancock.
Filed under Bill Charlap, Bob Dorough, Branford Marsalis, Camille Thurman, Charles McPherson, Christian McBride, Derrick Hodge, Diana Krall, George Wein, Herbie Hancock, Jon Batiste, Kenny Washington, Kurt Elling, Larry Goldings, Lionel Loueke, Louis Armstrong, Marquis Hill, Newport Jazz Festival, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles
Last summer, with the club and concert scene in the US and Europe shuttered and fear rampant, the sensational 30-year-old pianist @EmmetCohen managed to organize a tour of Europe for his NYC-based trio. Everywhere they went, they were told they were the only American band that had come over and performed. How did they do it? My news piece in DownBeat.
Here’s my JazzTimes interview with Wynton Marsalis about channeling legendary cornetist Buddy Bolden, known as “the man who invented jazz,” for the film Bolden, which opens nationwide today (May 3, 2019). I recommend that everyone who cares about jazz see the film and check out the soundtrack. Wynton and colleagues did a brilliant job imagining what Bolden’s group sounded like – there are no existing recordings of them. He also recreated the excitement of a 1930s-era concert by Louis Armstrong & his Orchestra, with the help of the gifted actor-singer Reno Wilson as Pops.
Filed under Bolden movie, Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong, Reno Wilson, Wynton Marsalis
If you’re free on Sunday afternoon, 2/5/17, join me for a look back at The Great Jazz Singers (Part 1) – From Satchmo to Lady Day. I’ll be speaking – and playing killer film clips – at the Freeport Memorial Library on Merrick Road at 2:30 pm, and it’s free.
Filed under Allen Morrison, Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Uncategorized
Here’s my first piece for The Guardian: a look back on the history of jazz-on-film – the good, the bad and the ugly – pegged to the forthcoming release of two remarkable films about jazz. “Born to be Blue,” with Ethan Hawke as Chet Baker, opens March 25. Don Cheadle’s “Miles Ahead,” about you-know-who, opens April 1.
The article includes a list of my five favorite films about jazz and jazz musicians. The Guardian didn’t have room for my honorable mentions, but here they are:
Allen Morrison - Music Journalist, Jazz Pianist, Songwriter, Lecturer - Long Island, NY 
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