Jazz Articles about Ted Kooshian

Ramsey Lewis, Mick Goodrick & Ted Kooshian

by Joe Dimino
December 11, 2022

With the song “McQueen" from pianist & composer Ted Kooshian, we start the 780th Episode of Neon Jazz with some good audio elbow grease. From there, we hear the artist Ted first saw in a live venue in the legendary Count Basie. Also, new music from Pedro Neves, Cheryl Ann Spencer and Rich Willey plus a tasty new album from the late, great Ramsey Lewis covering The Beatles “Golden Slumbers." Finally, we say thanks and good-bye to the wonderful guitarist ...

Ted Kooshian: Hubub!

by Edward Blanco
December 6, 2022

New York pianist and keyboardist Ted Kooshian continues his love affair with classic TV, cartoon themes and the pop scene, on Hubub!, offering a selection of striking originals influenced by his “enthusiastic love for pop culture," which includes tributes to actors Steve McQueen and William Shatner of Star Trek fame. The album's sole standard is Leonard Bernstein's classic “Somewhere" from the West Side Story play, distinguishing this version from so many others with an atypically jaunty arrangement from the pianist. ...

Ted Kooshian: Hubub!

by Jack Bowers
November 24, 2022

There are two ways of looking at Hubub!, pianist Ted Kooshian's fifth album as leader. The first is, “nothing new here"; and the second, “everything is new here." On the one hand, Kooshian's able quintet hews closely to the post-bop canon which has given rise to its fabric; on the other, they do so within the framework of Kooshian's bright and engaging melodies, none of which seems commonplace or shopworn. Kooshian wrote nine of the album's eleven ...

Scott Whitfield & Friends: A Bi-Coastal Christmas

by Jack Bowers
December 31, 2020

If trombonist Scott Whitfield's A Bi-Coastal Christmas cannot quicken your inner holiday spirit, that will not be for lack of trying. Whitfield uses every ribbon in the packet and every tool in the shed to help make the season bright, from big band to quintet, from duo to solo (Whitfield's trombone all by itself). Two of the selections were recorded in 2004, four others in 2005, whereas Whitfield's brace of solo tracks was taped in 2020 as he cast off ...

Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet: Underdog, and Other Stories ...

by Woodrow Wilkins
October 26, 2009

Sometimes, a name is all it takes to get attention. Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet has such a name. But the name alone doesn't necessarily mean good quality. The band still has to play, and play they do on Underdog, and Other Stories .... The ensemble is comprised of Kooshian on piano, Jeff Lederer on saxophones, Tom Hubbard on bass, and Scott Neumann and Warren Odze on drums. Kooshian, a native of San Jose, California, migrated to ...

Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet: Underdog And Other Stories...

by Mark Corroto
September 17, 2009

Ignore the fact that pianist Ted Kooshian regularly covers cartoon and TV music in his quartet and what's left is an appreciation for music that swings exceptionally hard, and a passion for each tune that is anything but “animated."

Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet has produced its second volume of music, Underdog And Other Stories..., following a self-titled release from 2008 that contained covers of The Simpsons' theme, Batman, Top Cat, and the music of Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, and Sting. ...

Ted Kooshian: Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet

by Michael P. Gladstone
June 8, 2008

Getting past the sci-fi cover artwork of this album, there's some pretty diverting jazz within. Pianist Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet has a different spin on the music. The thematic concept is to play music from animated Saturday morning television science fiction broadcasts of yore. In order to complement the aforementioned seven themes, Kooshian his group submit their versions of rock tunes plus a take on Borodin/Wright's standard “Baubles, Bangles and Beads."

It is possible that you've seen ...