Articles by Norman Weinstein

Two Ways of Bookending John Coltrane

by Norman Weinstein
January 23, 2008

Reviewing a massive reference volume about saxophonist John Coltrane alongside a jazz journalist's personal overview of Coltrane and his legacy might at first seem like comparing an apple with an orange--but bear with me. This is really like comparing an apple painted by Cezanne with a lemon painted by Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

Arcimboldo was a 16th century Italian painter with the skill to paint a glowing lemon as a grotesquely dissociated ghost of itself. In Coltrane: The Story Of A Sound, ...

Willie Colon: The Player: A Man and his Music

by Norman Weinstein
June 29, 2007

This two-disc overview of the work of the trombonist, vocalist, and composer Willie Colón presents a musically convincing case that Colón was to the history of Latin music what Don Drummond was to Jamaican ska and J.J. Johnson was to jazz. If the preceding suggests a holy trinity, note that all three had a fervor frequently associated with the spiritually possessed. While many jazz fans have immersed themselves in J.J. Johnson's legacy, few know Drummond and Colón as well as ...

Howard Leshaw Quartet: Shadow Song

by Norman Weinstein
June 28, 2007

This highly engaging album brings to mind the enduring impact of John Coltrane's legacy in terms of spiritual lyricism. In the case of Howard Leshaw, whose other band is a spirited klezmer band, Coltrane's spiritually-charged lyricism is mingled, as in the case of Andy Statman's music, with a comprehensive immersion in a variety of sacred and secular Jewish musical styles. While the indebtedness to Jewish melodies was only obvious in the first of seven ...

Andrew Hill: Compulsion!!!!!

by Norman Weinstein
April 30, 2007

The five exclamation marks following the word Compulsion are completely appropriate for a title. Of all the distinguished albums of Andrew Hill's career as a pianist/composer, this is arguably the most passionately executed. The monumentality of this recording can best be realized by looking at its recording date of 1965. Coltrane was leaving his classic quartet and experimenting with multiple drummers. Archie Shepp was likewise experimenting with heavily augmented percussion sections. Art Blakey's earlier recordings with various African and neo-African ...

Bunky Green: Another Place

by Norman Weinstein
November 24, 2006

This release is a welcome reminder that Bunky Green is alive and well--and one of the dozen most important alto sax players in the country. In spite of notable associations with bands led by Charles Mingus, Sonny Stitt and Yusef Lateef, Green's available catalog until this release consisted of a single disc, Healing the Pain (Delos, 1990). But Green was befriended by Steve Coleman, and we have this recording as a result. Part of Coleman's genius is getting talent, ranging ...

Archie Shepp: Kwanza

by Norman Weinstein
November 14, 2006

This big band session collects all of Archie Shepp's virtues as a composer, saxophonist and jazz dramaticist and puts them into one glorious package. Like the African-American holiday this album is named after, it's an imposing hybrid form, a sprawling mass of experimental jazz circa 1969 sharply peppered with funk, blues, and myriad musical evocations of an imaginary “Africa." Not only was Shepp consistently soloing with as much dynamic originality as he would ever do--gruff, hoarse, but ...

Charlie Palmieri: El Gigante Del Teclado

by Norman Weinstein
October 16, 2006

The ongoing achievements of the great Latin jazz pianist/composer Eddie Palmieri may hopefully lead listeners new to Latin music to explore the recordings of his equally talented brother Charlie. Charlie Palmieri, a dynamic keyboardist and bandleader, passed away in 1988, and his albums have been difficult to obtain compared to those of his younger brother. “El Gigante Del Teclado," which translates into English as the immodest but accurate “The Giant of the Keyboard," is one of an outstanding batch of ...

John Coltrane: Fearless Leader

by Norman Weinstein
October 1, 2006

John Coltrane Fearless Leader Prestige 2006

This six-CD set of all of the original Prestige albums led by John Coltrane comes as a relief after the previous sixteen-disc box of every one of his preserved recordings on the label, as leader or sideman. Putting aside the daunting cost of that huge collection, there was a fair amount of dross, at least to these ears--the session under Kenny Burrell's name and blowing sessions with Al ...

Brian Lynch / Eddie Palmieri Project: Simpatico

by Norman Weinstein
September 23, 2006

Two decades of working as a highly accomplished trumpeter in Eddie Palmieri's Latin jazz band has culminated for Brian Lynch with this completely ravishing recording alongside his musical mentor. While the name of the group might raise the question of “who's on first?", rest assured that this is an inspired collaboration with the less-celebrated Lynch firmly at the helm. Most of the tunes are his, and the versions of Palmieri's pieces are marked by Lynch's hand. In fact, this album ...

Freddie Hubbard: Here to Stay

by Norman Weinstein
September 20, 2006

This album has certainly had a sad history. It was left in the Blue note vaults for fourteen years. Then it was reissued in a double-vinyl set with Hub Cap, a coupling that doesn't reveal either session in the best light.Then a decade later, it finally was released as a single album. And that brings us to the present version, on which occasion the devout Bob Blumenthal seems to say in his liner notes (well, he hedges around the fact) ...