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Michelle Lordi: Two Moons
by Geno Thackara
The art of the jazz diva does not shy away from the dark and mysterious. From putting a spell on somebody to helplessly falling under that old black magic, the tradition always seems to include some small touch of witchery, and Michelle Lordi, for her part, does not let a modern-day sound obscure those roots. The mood of Two Moons sits somewhere between a late-night set in a small jazz club and a round of spooky stories around the campfire. ...
read moreHouston Person: Reminiscing at Rudy's
by Jack Bowers
The Rudy's" in the title of tenor saxophonist Houston Person's album, Reminiscing at Rudy's, is not a nightclub or other such venue but the New Jersey studio of celebrated recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder who died in 2016. As befits reminiscing, the bulk of the album's numbers are tender ballads, every one of which lands squarely in Person's amorous wheelhouse. That is not to say the veteran tenor saxophone maestrowho has recorded almost seventy albums as leader ...
read moreMatthew Parrish's Philly Express Band: Jazz at Cherry Street Pier
by Victor L. Schermer
Matthew Parrish Philly Express Band Cherry Street Pier Philadelphia, PA April 16, 2022 This Jazz Appreciation Month" concert, sponsored by Jazz Philadelphia and the city's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, unveiled a jazz quintet of highest caliber. The group was assembled by bassist Matthew Parrish with the idea of bringing together two distinguished Philadelphia-based veterans and, relatively speaking, three younger players. This was their first gig together, but they ...
read moreTom Tallitsch: Message
by David A. Orthmann
There is hard bop DNA in tenor and soprano saxophonist Tom Tallitsch's twelfth record as a leader, the third consecutive release for his TT Productions imprint. While it is always tempting to start making comparisons to classic sides from the genre, or to simply dismiss recognizable sounds as old hat in a world bursting with new ideas and concepts, Tallitsch and his associates warrant attention on their own merits. As on two recent recordings, Wheelhouse (Posi-Tone) and Ten ...
read moreMichelle Lordi: Break Up With the Sound
by C. Michael Bailey
Vocalist Michelle Lordi's house burned down at the end of 2017. That is a bracing life event from which one may find oneself at a brutally curious fork in the road. Lordi's Break Up With the Sound makes it seem that she blazed through Kubler Ross's five stages of loss and got to work on something so new, it smelled of white-hot creation. Lordi's modus operandi has been addressing the Great American Songbook, as evidenced by her densely competent Dream ...
read moreBen Schachter and Sung/Unsung: Nothingman
by AAJ Staff
Philadelphia-area saxophonist Ben Schachter plays a wide range of reed instruments extremely well, although his primary voice is the tenor saxophone. He's been influenced by Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, yet his burly tenor sound is clearly his own, and his approach is both original and personal. If the music on his self-produced Nothingman is any indication, Schachter deserves to be much better known.
Sung/Unsung is the name of Schachter's current band, which pivots on the interplay between Schachter and ...
read moreBen Schachter & Sung/Unsung: Nothingman
by Mark F. Turner
With a sharp edge that cuts on the side of dynamic playing and improvisation, Nothingman is the latest release by reedist and bandleader Ben Schachter. The Philadelphia-based musician has earned a reputation as one who treads clear of tepid jazz waters in favor of progressive and free flowing ones, as attested on his recent recordings Inside, Looking Out and Missing Beloved.
Schachter's new group Sung/Unsung is appropriately titled as he joined by highly accomplished (if not widely known) musicians--bassist Matthew ...
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