Return of the Guitar Man - The New York City Jazz Record

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New York@Night
Interview: Vic Juris
by Ryan Blotnick
Artist Feature: Mary Halvorson
by Martin Longley
On The Cover: George Benson
by Bill Milkowski
Encore: Lest We Forget:
Johnny Smith Attila Zoller
by Marcia Hillman by Clifford Allen
Megaphone VOXNews
by Terrence McManus by Suzanne Lorge
Label Spotlight: Listen Up!:
Loose Torque JC Stylles
by Ken Waxman & Chris Welcome
Festival Report: Oslo • Météo • Vail
CD Reviews: Wes Montgomery, Joe Morris, Howard Alden,
Pat Metheny, Stanley Jordan, Gord Grdina, Marc Ducret and more
Event Calendar
Club Directory
Miscellany: In Memoriam • Birthdays • On This Day
Managing Editor: Laurence Donohue-Greene
Editorial Director & Production Manager: Andrey Henkin
Staff Writers
David R. Adler, Clifford Allen, Fred Bouchard, Stuart Broomer, Tom Conrad, Ken Dryden,
Donald Elfman, Sean Fitzell, Graham Flanagan, Kurt Gottschalk, Tom Greenland,
Laurel Gross, Alex Henderson, Marcia Hillman, Terrell Holmes, Robert Iannapollo,
Francis Lo Kee, Martin Longley, Suzanne Lorge, Wilbur MacKenzie, Marc Medwin,
Russ Musto, Joel Roberts, John Sharpe, Elliott Simon, Jeff Stockton, Andrew Vélez, Ken Waxman
Contributing Writers
Duck Baker, Ryan Blotnick, Anders Griffen, George Kanzler, Terrence McManus,
Gordon Marshall, Bill Milkowski, Matthew Miller, Sharon Mizrahi, Sean O’Connell, Flo Wetzel
Contributing Photographers
Lena Adasheva, Scott Friedlander, Peter Gannushkin, Marco Glaviano,
Jan Granlie, Alan Nahigian, Susan O’Connor, Drew Winners
The New York City Jazz Record
www.nycjazzrecord.com
When one thinks of the instrument that most closely defines jazz, the saxophone
is the obvious choice. But guitar has been making a strong case for decades now
and some of the most compelling players in jazz history have been six-stringers.
What makes the guitarist most interesting is that they often have the most
expansive view of jazz and its possibilities, saddled with less history and fewer
archetypes. We feature three of them in this, our special Guitar Issue. George
Benson (On The Cover) has been a polarizing figure, heir to the throne of Wes
Montgomery but willing to disappoint purists because of his crossover activities;
Benson plays Town Hall this month in support of his new (return-to-jazz) album
Guitar Man. Vic Juris (Interview) got his start, like many of his kind, working with
organists, but also absorbed the nascent fusion movement, establishing his
credentials with Dave Liebman and as a leader and educator; Juris plays around
town several times this month. And Mary Halvorson (Artist Feature) has rightly
been described as a unique voice on her instrument, to which her various projects
and appearances as a sideman attest; this month she plays with mentor Anthony
Braxton as well as leading or co-leading several typically wide-ranging projects.
We also have features on guitar legend Johnny Smith (Encore), Attila Zoller (Lest
We Forget), a Megaphone by guitarist Terrence McManus, Listen Ups on two
up-and-coming plectricts (JC Stylles and Chris Welcome) and the first four pages
of our CD review section devoted to modern (and past) practitioners.
In addition to the cornucopia above, please browse our massive Event
Calendar for concerts by others guitarists like Peter Bernstein, Vernon Reid, Sean
Moran, Paul Bollenback, Gilad Hekselman, Tomas Janzon, Peter Leitch, Gene
Bertoncini, Mike Stern, Avi Rothbard, Brad Shepik, Steve Cardenas, Jack Wilkins,
Paul Meyers, Ryan Ferreira, Russell Malone, Miles Okazaki, Kazumi Watanabe,
Ben Monder, Dom Minasi, Brad Farberman, Jon Lundbom, Rez Abbasi, Juan-
Carlos Formell, Amanda Monaco, Bucky Pizzarelli, Michael Musillami and others.
Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor Andrey Henkin, Editorial Director
On the cover: George Benson (photo by Marco Glaviano)
Corrections: In last month’s Label Spotlight, Hans Reichel’s instrument was
incorrectly identified as a saxophone when it is actually a Daxophone. In one of last
month’s NY@Nights, the drummer with Jennifer Charles and Oren Bloedow at
Doma was Ben Perowsky.
Submit Letters to the Editor by emailing feedback@nycjazzrecord.com
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To Contact:
The New York City Jazz Record
116 Pinehurst Avenue, Ste. J41
New York, NY 10033
United States
Laurence Donohue-Greene: ldgreene@nycjazzrecord.com
Andrey Henkin: ahenkin@nycjazzrecord.com
General Inquiries: info@nycjazzrecord.com
Advertising: advertising@nycjazzrecord.com
Editorial: editorial@nycjazzrecord.com
Calendar: calendar@nycjazzrecord.com
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THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | October 2011 3