Articles by George Kanzler
Billie Holiday: The Complete Commodore & Decca Masters
by George Kanzler
Billie HolidayThe Complete Commodore & Decca MastersVerve Music Group2010 In 1959, Nina Simone made a black-pride point about her hit single, “I Loves You Porgy," very publicly proclaiming that she refused to use the (to her) demeaning dialect pronunciation “loves," substituting “love." It was the same year that Billie Holiday died, but few remembered that Holiday had, without fanfare, simply sang “love" instead of “loves" in her exquisite 1948 recording of ...
read moreMcCoy Tyner: Solo (Live from San Francisco) & Live 2009 (6th Annual Concert Tour: The Works of McCoy Tyner)
by George Kanzler
McCoy Tyner Solo: Live From San Francisco Half Note 2009 SFJAZZ Collective Live 2009: 6th Annual Concert Tour SFJAZZ 2009 In the more than four decades since he was a mainstay of the John Coltrane Quartet, McCoy Tyner has enhanced his stature as a bandleader, composer and seminal modern jazz pianist. His muscular, roiling ...
read moreJacky Terrasson: Push
by George Kanzler
Since winning the Thelonious Monk Piano Competition 17 years ago, Jacky Terrasson has ranged far and wide from his original, striking early trio (with minimalist drummer/percussionist Leon Parker), exploring formats from solo and various duos to larger ensembles. For this, his first album for a new label, he returns with a new trio, featuring recent Monk Competition-winning bassist Ben Williams and drummer Jamire Williams, augmented by guests. While Terrasson has been likened to Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock, ...
read moreMyron Walden: Momentum & Momentum Live
by George Kanzler
Myron WaldenMomentumDemi Sound2010 Artist #2Momentum LiveDemi Sound2010 Momentum is both album title and the name Myron Walden has used for one of his ensembles, inspired by the '60s Miles Davis Quintet (another ensemble, Myron Walden In This World, seems poised at the intersection of Windham Hill and ECM dale). Like Wayne Shorter in that ...
read moreBill Gerhardt: Momentum
by George Kanzler
It takes uncommon knowledge of jazz history to begin a solo piano album with a dedication to Herbie Nichols. “One for Herbie" is only one of the delightful surprises from pianist Bill Gerhardt on this winning solo recital, sumptuously recorded on a 10-foot Fazioli grand piano at the SteepleChase studios in Europe. Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Gerhardt may be known to Big Apple jazz fans for his work in Cotangent, a quartet he co-leads with the Dutch (NY-based) saxophonist ...
read more100 Years of Artie Shaw
by George Kanzler
Artie ShawThe Last Recordings Vol. 1MusicMaster-Nimbus2009 Artie ShawThe Last Recordings Vol. 2MusicMaster-Nimbus2009 Artie ShawThe Last Recordings Vol. 3MusicMaster-Nimbus2009 Artie ShawThe Complete Spotlight Band 1945 BroadcastsHep Jazz2009 Artie ShawComplete Thesaurus Transcriptions 1949Hep Jazz2010
read moreDuke Ellington: Chicago 1946 & Cornell University 1948
by George Kanzler
Duke EllingtonChicago 1946MusicMasters-Nimbus2009 Duke EllingtonCornell University 1948MusicMasters-Nimbus2009 The depth and breadth of the Ellington Orchestra's repertoire/book over the half-century Duke led the band is mind-bogglingly vast. And commercially-released studio recordings are only the tip of the iceberg. There are compositions, versions of tunes and unique collaborations contained on these two albums found either nowhere ...
read moreLes Paul: How High The Moon: Hits & Rarities From The Wizard of Waukesha
by George Kanzler
His name is on the classic Gibson guitar and his role in the development of the electric guitar, as well as in the creation of multi-track recording and overdubbing, is indisputable. But even though he spent the last two-plus decades of his life holding forth, as much as raconteur as musician, on Monday nights (Fat Tuesday's and, later, Iridium), Les Paul, who died at 94 last summer (2009), won't be remembered as a jazz musician. His musical tastes ran closer ...
read moreClaudio Roditi: Simpatico & The Mastery of Passion
by George Kanzler
Claudio RoditiSimpaticoResonance2009 Harry SimonThe Mastery of PassionResonance2009 Claudio Roditi, along with Michael Brecker, was a “special guest" on two LPs the young keyboardist Harris Simon made for producer George Klabin at the end of the '70s. Klabin must have liked what he heard in the Brazilian trumpeter/flugelhornist for a couple years ago Roditi did ...
read moreAntonio Ciacca: Lagos Blues (with Steve Grossman)
by George Kanzler
There's a good reason most “real" jazz radio stations tend to favor the modern mainstream jazz of the post-bop era codified by such record labels from the mid-20th Century as Blue Note, Columbia's jazz division, Prestige, Riverside and Impulse. It's creative jazz with a comfortingly substantial physicality, clean lines and rhythmic heft still anchored to a swing feel. The excellent Italian jazz pianist Antonio Ciacca is firmly in that modern mainstream, the music here from a quintet, quartet and trio ...
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