Articles by Alexander M. Stern
Randy Simon Jazz Project: Light It Up
by Alexander M. Stern
The Randy Simon Jazz Project is a collection of some of Upstate New York's best and brightest jazz luminaries, all brought together to play the music of the titular Simon. Simon's compositions and arrangements are extraordinary. Complex yet completely accessible, he paints dazzling portraits in sound, creating perfect launching points for his soloists. Light It Up, Simon's fourth album since 2008, continues a run of exceptional albums that present modern jazz at its best. The performers on this album are ...
read moreJeff Campbell Trio: A Declaration of Optimism
by Alexander M. Stern
Bassist Jeff Campbell's A Declaration of Optimism is a beautiful album with a lot to say, and manages to say it all in a very quiet way.
Beginning with the title track, Campbell's piano-less trio, also featuring tenor saxophonist John Wojciechowski = 15550}}, and drummer John Hollenbeck, establishes an intimate connection between the three instrumental voices. Appropriately, Campbell's voice is dominant, setting the tone on each track. Wojciechowski's ebullient tenor saxophone occupies the foreground, but it's always clear that Campbell ...
read moreKeith Pray's Big Soul Ensemble: Live at the Lark Tavern
by Alexander M. Stern
Live recording can be a mixed blessing. On a live album, an artist has an opportunity to capture the raw energy created in performance before an audience. When the band is cooking and the audience is whooping it up, it is clear that while music is made in rehearsal halls and recording studios, it lives onstage. On the other hand, recording live presents its own unique set of challenges. Getting the best possible sound in the controlled environment of the ...
read moreRandy Simon Jazz Project: Awakening
by Alexander M. Stern
In describing his project on his website, composer Randy Simon characterizes his entry into the world of jazz composition as the result of a “midlife crisis." A lifelong jazz fan, Simon began taking piano lessons as an adult. Finding improvisation to be a challenge, he found that he could write down the melodies in his head, at which point his “piano lessons became composition lessons."
As it happened, Simon's teacher was a performing musician, and through connections forged through that ...
read moreBrian Patneaude at the Massry Center for the Arts in Albany, NY
by Alexander M. Stern
Brian Patneaude Massry Center for the Arts Albany, NY February 7, 2009
After a brief delay, Brian Patneaude and company took the stage at the Massry Center for the Arts to enthusiastic applause from the near-capacity crowd. Without a moment's hesitation, the group launched into the title track from Riverview, Patneaude's lastest album. Joining the saxophonist at the College of Saint Rose's newly constructed arts center were guitarist Mike Moreno, organist Jesse Chandler, ...
read moreAdrian Cohen: Delphic
by Alexander M. Stern
Five years have passed since pianist Adrian Cohen released his debut CD, Standardized (Independent, 2003), an exhilarating exploration of the jazz repertoire in a trio setting. In that time, both Cohen's abilities and his reputation have grown. With Delphic, Cohen meets and exceeds the promise of his first disc.
The album takes its title from the oracle of Apollo whose temple stood at the foot of Mount Parnassus. The Greek God Apollo spoke through this oracle proclaiming, among other things, ...
read moreGene Perla: Bill's Waltz
by Alexander M. Stern
Gene PerlaBill's WaltzPM Records2008
Bill's Waltz, bassist Gene Perla's well-executed tribute to his former boss, drummer Elvin Jones, is one of those albums that could only exist in this modern world of digital recording techniques and studio trickery--and therein lies the rub. Many jazz listeners are conservative in their conception of what recorded jazz is and how it should be made. To these listeners, jazz should be recorded live in the studio ...
read moreQuartsemble: Tango
by Alexander M. Stern
Tango, as a musical form, originated during the late 19th century in Argentina and Uruguay among European immigrant populations. It derived its unique rhythms and sound from several different kinds of European dance music, including polkas, mazurkas, and flamenco, as well as Latin American musical styles like milonga and habanera. It is traditionally played by groups consisting of two violins, a piano, a double-bass, and two bandoneóns (a free reed instrument resembling an accordion or concertina, although unlike an accordion ...
read moreGimme That Old Time Shellac: Two Treasure Troves Of Vintage Americana
by Alexander M. Stern
There is a powerful irony in the modern consumption of old music. When record companies first sent representatives into the Appalachians and the Mississippi Delta, the intention was to record music that the inhabitants of those regions themselves would buy. The idea that people in cities like New York or Boston would be interested in the music captured on those fragile shellac discs seemed absurd to the early talent scouts. At best, a few transplanted southerners in cities like Chicago ...
read moreElvis Costello: North
by Alexander M. Stern
A long time ago – it seems like a lifetime – Elvis Costello glared out at the listener from the cover of This Year’s Model as the voice emanating from the speaker snarled words of revenge and guilt: “Don’t say you love me when it’s just a rumor/Don’t say a word if there is any doubt/Sometimes I think that love is just a tumor/You’ve got to cut it out...”
Oh, how the times have changed.
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