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Jazz Articles about Don Braden
About Don Braden
Instrument: Saxophone, tenor
Related Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar ToPeter Hand: Blue Topaz
by Jack Bowers
Peter Hand has a hand in almost everything on Blue Topaz, playing masterful guitar, writing seven of the album's ten engaging numbers and arranging all of them. He also spliced together a pair of blue-chip ensembles for his first small-group recording after three well-received big-band albums, and invited his longtime friend--and legendary tenor saxophonist--Houston Person to sit in on two tracks. Person had also guested on one of the guitarist's big-band recordings, Out of Hand (2014). Hand's ...
read moreA Conversation with Don Braden
by AAJ Staff
This interview was first published in two parts at All About Jazz on May 1999. In this interview, we chat with Don Braden about his views on MP3 files, his relationship with Bill Cosby, the impact Kenny Kirkland had on his latest album for RCA Victor, Fire Within, and a host of other related and unrelated things. It's Braden, at home, from the heart, unedited, and in his own words. All About Jazz: Let's start from ...
read moreDon Braden: Earth Wind and Wonder, Vol. 2
by Jack Bowers
As on the first recording of this two-volume series, acclaimed tenor saxophonist Don Braden pays tribute to a couple of his coming-of-age idols, singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder and the genre-defying group Earth, Wind and Fire. Braden has chosen four of Wonder's compositions and three associated with EW&F to accompany a pair of his splendid original themes. Braden plays tenor saxophone most of the way, flute and alto flute, respectively on Wonder's “Bird of Beauty" and “Creepin.'" Needless to ...
read moreEric Goletz: Standard-ized!
by Jack Bowers
If variety is on your wish list, you will find a lot to like on Standard-ized!, New York-based trombonist Eric Goletz's third album in three years. Group size and makeup are seldom the same, Goletz's charts traverse new realms, there are special guests to enhance the proceedings, and Goletz even enlists a six-piece string “orchestra" on several numbers. The strings accompany one of the guests, vocalist LaJuan Carter, on the Nat King Cole chart-topper, “Nature Boy," and ...
read moreThe Don Braden Organix Quartet: Luminosity
by Dan Bilawsky
Saxophonist Don Braden is all about positivity and sharing the joys of jazz. His ebullient music speaks to his intelligence yet he never falls prey to the jazz-as-intellectual-exercise trap that seems to snare younger musicians and a good amount of his peers. Over the course of his previous albums, Braden's managed to create accessible music built atop the pillars of wit, honesty, swing, and heart. He does it once more on this satisfying date. The aptly-titled Luminosity ...
read moreDon Braden: Gentle Storm
by Ken Dryden
Don Braden has come a long way since his days at Harvard, where he studied engineering along with playing in the university's jazz band. Over two decades into his career in jazz at the time of these recording sessions, the tenor saxophonist is very much at the top of his game. Joined by pianist George Colligan, bassist Joris Teepe and drummer Cecil Brooks III, who have all worked together on a number of occasions, Braden assembles a terrific program.
read moreDon Braden: Harvard Hipster
by Jason Crane
Don Braden went to Harvard in 1981 to become a computer programmer and emerged as a new voice on the saxophone. For two decades he's been making a name for himself in the modern jazz world, and he's compiled an impressive resume, working with established masters like [trumpeter] Freddie Hubbard, [vocalist] Betty Carter, [drummers] Roy Haynes and Tony Williams; then-emerging-talents like [trumpeter] Wynton Marsalis and the Harper Brothers; and as a leader and composer in his own right. ...
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