Jazz Articles about Danny Grissett

Jim Rotondi: Finesse

by Jack Bowers
April 6, 2024

Finesse is trumpeter Jim Rotondi's ninth recording as a leader but his first using a full orchestra including strings. The band and string section are from Austria, where Rotondi presently lives, performs, and teaches, and each one is quite good. As for Rotondi, besides playing superb trumpet--open or muted--he wrote every song on the album save for two brief “introductory" pieces by Jakob Helling who was the arranger on every number. As if that many instruments weren't ...

Tom Harrell: Number Five

by John Kelman
April 24, 2023

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," they say, and since coming to HighNote in 2007, trumpeter Tom Harrell has lived by that old adage, utilizing the same quintet for its auspicious debut, Light On, and three subsequent recordings, culminating in 2011's outstanding Time of the Sun. Number Five continues Harrell's winning streak with the same line-up, but if each successive recording has reflected the ongoing growth of one of today's most compelling small groups--the chemistry deeper and the interaction ...

Jimmy Greene: Gifts and Givers

by C. Andrew Hovan
March 12, 2023

The two-tenor battle is not a new idea, with iconic pairings from the jazz pantheon running the gamut from Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray to Eddie “Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin. In more recent times, Eric Alexander and Grant Stewart have fueled the fire with their own incendiary adventures as heard on the current albums Wailin' (Criss 1258) and Cookin' (Criss 1283). As with any healthy blowing session, the idea is to keep each player on his toes while pushing ...

Theo Croker: Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic XII: Sketches of Miles

by Mark Sullivan
October 29, 2022

Let us just cut to the chase and say this is a terrific collection of live concert interpretations and arrangements of acoustic Miles Davis music, drawing from recordings originally released between 1956 and 1968. This period arguably includes his most beloved output, with a place in the hearts of most jazz fans. The first disc in the set focuses on the Miles Davis Quintet, as played by the Theo Croker Quartet. The second disc is devoted to Davis's large ensemble ...

Anne Mette Iversen Quartet + 1: Racing a Butterfly

by Friedrich Kunzmann
June 7, 2020

A working collective since 2002, Anne Mette Iversen's quartet—saxophonist John Ellis, pianist Danny Grissett, drummer Otis Brown III and Iversen herself on bass—has developed a unique musical language, which transcends typical stigmas of the genre and demonstrates a special sense of light-footedness in navigating through the different bars and meters, all the while evading the self-indulgent. Augmented to a quintet with the addition of trombonist Peter Dahlgren, Racing A Butterfly sees Iverson building on concepts introduced on past outings Milo ...

Anne Mette Iversen: Racing a Butterfly

by Mike Jurkovic
May 15, 2020

Many can surely recall the sunny, childlike fervor and bounce chasing a butterfly. Whether it was the park behind the projects or a rolling, rural vista, a feeling of wonder and wander settled into our core memory, only to be summoned in up from the subconscious to displace the current. Even if but for a moment. Even if but for the forty-eight or so minutes of Racing a Butterfly's capering wit. No one is afraid to follow a ...

Danny Grissett: Encounters & Waldron Mahdi Ricks

by Elliott Simon
January 10, 2009

Ghostliness permeates both pianist Danny Grissett's Encounters and trumpeter/ flugelhornist Waldron Mahdi Ricks' eponymous album. Grissett is on Ricks' debut as a leader and leads a trio for his sophomore effort.

The sessions showcase two sides of the young pianist--one who can most certainly swing in a modern jazz way, but who also has the rarer ability to convey subtle feeling through touch and comps. Ricks, especially on flugelhorn, appears to be a likeminded romantic whose compositions, delicate tone and ...