Global Rhythms

10/09/2020

BRAZIL'S CRAZIEST, HAPPIEST BASS PLAYER — Most bass players live in the background, literally and figuratively. They add immensely to the beat and rhythm of a band, but they aren’t the stars, the entertainers, or the “wowee” soloists. Zerró Santos is all of those, and much more.

Zerró is a one-man high-wattage power plant who has more expressions in his face, more velocity in his fingers, more energy in his body, and more imagination in his compositions than any bass player (or any jazz musician) I’ve ever seen.

And he’s 65!

JAZZ NOS FUNDOS CLUB, Sao Paulo — Most bass players live in the background, literally and figuratively. They add immensely to the beat and rhythm of a band, but they aren’t the stars, the entertain…

10/07/2020

Brazil's happiest, craziest bass player - https://mailchi.mp/1df998372b91/brazils-happiest-craziest-bass-player

08/16/2020

HE GOT HIS FIRST SAX WHEN HE WAS ONE AND A HALF...and he was mad that it wasn't real. Bernard and his brother, Chris Carpio, grew up swaddled in big band music. Their dad, Tony Carpio, was a famous big band leader in Hong Kong. Both started playing early and today they are playing some of the best jazz in Hong King. Read their story and wlisten to their music here: https://globalrhythms.net/2020/08/15/a-toy-sax-and-a-rugby-injury-launched-carpio-brothers/

07/19/2020

SEARING, PROVOCATIVE, MUST-SEE MOVIE. If you can't be protesting or marching, you can be self-educating. You can watch it on Prime, Hulu, Dox, Tubi, Magnolia Selects, and YouTube Movies. Here's the Prime link: https://amzn.to/3hjSbkX

07/17/2020

His first saxophone was a pencil...

MR. HENRY’S. — If you’re willing to start learning the saxophone on a pencil, you’re one driven musical son of a bitch! But that’s exactly how Herb Scott, one of Washington D.C.’s favorite saxophone players and the founder of the weekly Capitol Hill Jazz Jam at Mr. Henry’s, got starte...

07/08/2020

WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW? WANT TO TRY SOME EXCITING NEW MUSIC? La Yegros takes traditional (and already appealing) Argentine Cumbia music to a pulsing level of energy. Take five minutes and expand your horizons! https://globalrhythms.net/2020/04/08/a-treat-for-you-try-fun-cumbia-music-from-layegros/

07/02/2020

JAZZ PHOTO OF THE DAY #21 — ANDY’S JAZZ CLUB, Chicago: (Corey Wilkes on trumpet) — The Founder of the weekly Trumpet Summits at Andy’s, Marques Carroll, uses his trumpet to make music and to make change. Hundreds of young men in Chicago have found new lives through Marques and the music program he started in one of the toughest sections of the city. He also plays with the Count Basie Orchestra and many other groups, but teaching is his first love.

“Music has been a way for me to learn about myself,” he told me. “It taught me discipline, it taught me how to give back, it taught me how to deal with my feelings and my emotions and my thoughts. It’s taught me to be serious about matters that matter to me the most.”

Listen to his powerful music and hear his story here: https://globalrhythms.net/2018/11/20/the-trumpet-its-got-brilliance-darkness/

This is the 21st day of posting one of my favorite photos from filming and interviewing more than 50 musicians in 17 cities in 11 countries on five continents over the last four years....listen to the bands and the interviews on my blog at https://global rhythms.net

06/20/2020

JAZZ PHOTO OF THE DAY #19 — THE JAZZ CAFE, LONDON: Here is La Yegros band accordion player Damien Issertes joyously rocking out with guitarist David Maldonado. The La Yegros brand of Cumbia music blends electronic music with Cumbia but also mixes in rock, carnavalito, chamame, hip hop, rap, milonga, etc. “It happened very naturally when the band met, and that’s just how it started, how we began forming our own way of making music,” La Yegros told me.

Listen to her powerful music and hear her story using this link: https://globalrhythms.net/2020/04/08/a-treat-for-you-try-fun-cumbia-music-from-layegros/

This is the 19th day of posting one of my favorite photos from filming and interviewing more than 50 musicians in 17 cities in 11 countries on five continents over the last four years....listen to the bands and the interviews on my blog at https://global rhythms.net

06/18/2020

JAZZ PHOTO OF THE DAY #18, TERRA BLUES, NYC — Bobby Bryan counsels convicted teenage felons at the Rikers Island prison during the day. At night, he sings the blues.

“I can take the worst day on Rikers Island — a pepper spray day, a really f**ked-up day — and come up here and have a blast playing music and then take that positive energy back there,” Bobby told me after his set. “I have to have good nights in order to do that.”

Listen to his powerful music and hear his story here: https://globalrhythms.net/2016/07/08/bobby-bryans-prison-days-blues-nights/

This is the 18th day of posting one of my favorite photos from filming and interviewing more than 50 musicians in 17 cities in 11 countries on five continents over the last four years....listen to the bands and the interviews on my blog at https://global rhythms.net

06/12/2020

JAZZ PHOTO OF THE DAY #17, THE JAZZ CAFE, LONDON — If you’ve never heard (or even heard of) cumbia music, do yourself a favor and watch the video with this post! La Yegros ratchets up traditional cumbia music several notches into wild, driving rhythms and sounds that stir the soul and the body.

Listen to her powerful music and hear her story here: https://globalrhythms.net/2020/04/08/a-treat-for-you-try-fun-cumbia-music-from-layegros/

This is the 17th day of posting one of my favorite photos from filming and interviewing more than 50 musicians in 17 cities in 11 countries on five continents over the last four years....listen to the bands and the interviews on my blog at https://global rhythms.net

06/09/2020

JAZZ PHOTO OF THE DAY #16, THE CRYPT, CAPE TOWN, S. AFRICA — “I acknowledge the heartache and the struggle through the music,” said 19-year-old pianist Noble Mazinya in Spencer Mbdau’s quintet. “For example, we just played a song by Winston Mankunku, called ‘Yakhal’ Inkomo’. He wrote the song to describe his struggle in apartheid. You can hear that it comes from a place of pain, but there’s a of love and beauty within it even though it comes from a dark place. I am aware of what happened in my country, and I feel blessed to be able to play that song in a free country.” Listen to her powerful music and hear hers and the quintet’s story here: https://globalrhythms.net/2017/10/25/we-could-get-arrested-just-for-making-people-happy/.

This is the 16th day of posting one of my favorite photos from filming and interviewing more than 50 musicians in 17 cities in 11 countries on five continents over the last four years....listen to the bands and the interviews on my blog at https://global rhythms.net