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UMO Jazz Orchestra with Michael Brecker: Live in Helsinki 1995
by Jack Bowers
If your fondness for big-band jazz includes searching for hidden treasures, here's a recently uncovered gem that should more than gladden your spirit: a concert recording from 1995 by Finland's superb UMO Jazz Orchestra featuring the renowned tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker who left us far too soon a dozen years later at age fifty-seven. The impeccably preserved performance at Helsinki's Royal Cotton Club finds Brecker in his customarily assertive mode, sprinting through ten engaging compositions that run the gamut from ...
read moreRoseanna Vitro: Clarity: Music of Clare Fischer
by C. Michael Bailey
Roseanna Vitro is a “singer's singer." What does that mean? It means she is so excellent and still warranting much more attention. Her deep and precise alto is perfectly tuned and balanced. Her phrasing is textbook. This is what a jazz singer sounds like. But Vitro's skill set does not stop at vocal prowess. She is also a crack arranger, programmer and music journalist. That is a wealth of grace and talent from Hot Springs, Arkansas. Vitro's ...
read moreTony Adamo: Miles of Blu
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Long before rappers and scratchers, resurrected Mummies, and Lord Buckley's hipsters and flipsters, the ancient Greeks had a name for “cats" like Tony Adamo--rhapsode. The homonym notwithstanding, a rhapsode was a speak-singer--who plucked his lyre and “spung" (spoke-sung) expressive tales of towering, powerful Gods and the tribulations of mortals below them. Pan pipes and percussion types might have accompanied a rhapsode (perhaps doing an early Greek version of James Brown's “Famous Flames" or Adamo's hip crew here?).With Miles ...
read moreJeff Berlin: Low Standards
by Glenn Astarita
Indeed, bassist and educator Jeff Berlin is a modern era pioneer amid accolades that have piled high, spanning several decades via his astounding technique and contributions to progressive-rock, jazz fusion and modern mainstream jazz. Following up his jazz trio outing High Standards (2010, M.A.J. Records) also featuring bassist, pianist Richard Drexler, the core differentiator on Low Standards is that renowned drummer Mike Clark takes over the drum chair from Danny Gottlieb. Yet Berlin's game-plan is similar as Drexler uses the ...
read moreMichael Wolff & Mike Clark: Wolff & Clark Expedition
by Glenn Astarita
This jazz piano trio date by world-class musicians is all about the groove. Drummer Mike Clark, revered for his slippery jazz-funk beats, hearkening back to this tenure with Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, is touted as one of the most sampled drummers of the digital age. However, he is first and foremost a jazz drummer, as his resume includes stints with a list of greats too lengthy in scope to cite here. Teaming with fellow jazz giant pianist, Michael Wolff and first-call ...
read moreBria Skonberg: So is the Day
by Nicholas F. Mondello
It's a rare talent that can straddle--and dare request membership in--the trumpet artist continuum emanating from Louis Armstrong and progressing down through his “Neo Orleans" progeny: Byron Stripling, Wynton Marsalis and Nicholas Payton (whose big band trumpet section Skonberg graces). However, with her bravura performance on So is the Day, Bria Skonberg confirms that she is not only indeed a triple threat musician--player, vocalist and composer--but also that that esteemed lineage, consummate entertainers all, would heartily approve her membership.
read moreRandy Johnston: People Music
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Perhaps more than any other musical instrument, the guitarists of today come drenched in the music of highly diverse musical genres. The instrument has been a fulcrum of expression, from folk, country and blues to jazz and rock--with a smidgen of classical thrown into the mix as well. Thinking about it, the task of developing as a guitarist has got to be daunting, with all of those musical bases to cover. With People Music, celebrated guitarist Randy ...
read moreKenny Drew, Jr. and Larry Coryell: Duality
by Nicholas F. Mondello
The jazz duo affords its participants wonderful opportunities to stretch out creatively. Ideas, suggestions and negotiations of all musical kinds percolate back and forth. And, in the best of instances, they birth new nuggets for further development and exploration. At the same time, the duet framework can possibly limit, as competitive natures and stylistic dichotomies might overtake the mutual partnership and pose distraction. Duality, which features the marvelous talents of pianist Kenny Drew, Jr. and guitarist Larry ...
read moreJeff Rupert: From Memphis to Mobile
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Sound and swing. It seems that these two elements of the very DNA of jazz are sadly absent from much of what is offered up in some of today's recorded music. It might be smooth or contrived, but much that's heard doesn't seem in synch with the very essence of the art form. Happily, with From Memphis to Mobile, saxophonist Jeff Rupert and cohorts excel supremely at both sounding and swinging. The CD offers up eleven selections ...
read moreJeff Lashway: Reunion
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Throughout the decades, the bands of trumpet legend Maynard Ferguson were, by very nature, heavily brass and ensemble section oriented. Occasionally, Ferguson's pianists were given the opportunity to shine, launching into extended solo tune introductions or brief solos. Some of those pianists were (or would become) stars or leaders in their own right. They included Mike Abene, Allan Zavod, Pete Jackson, Jaki Byard, Bob James, Christian Jacob and others. Even Chick Corea did a short stint before returning to forever. ...
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