Jazz Articles

Michael Lampert: Blue Gardenia

by Stephen Latessa
August 3, 2005

When you think of lead instruments in jazz, the electric mandolin probably doesn't spring to mind. However, if all its practitioners could match the dexterity and achieve the same feel as Michael Lampert, perhaps that would change. In Lampert's hands, the instrument sounds nothing like what fans of bluegrass would expect. Instead, it sounds closer to a guitar. While listening to Blue Gardenia, I subconsciously began to believe that the music was created by a six-string.

However, putting ...

Michael Lampert: Jacaranda

by Todd S. Jenkins
June 1, 2001

And now for something totally unexpected. Something along the lines of David Grisman or Mike Marshall's bluegrass-jazz might be anticipated from a jazz mandolinist, yes? But Michael Lampert is a master of the four-string electric mandolin, a rare beast indeed. Without the added sonority of the usual double-courses of strings, Lampert's instrument sounds much closer to a high-pitched electric guitar than what is normally expected of a mandolin. That said, the music he creates with such an odd hybrid is ...