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3
Album Review

David Sills Double Guitar Quintet: Natural Lines

Read "Natural Lines" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Los Angeles-based reed player David Sills has usually led a quintet with guitar, piano, bass and drums. Most of his recent performances have taken place in venues lacking a piano, so he began adding a second guitar. The change in instrumentation had a side benefit, opening up new musical possibilities and colors. Having two guitars in the rhythm section is common in rock music, but unusual in jazz, so it offers a novel listening experience (especially for jazz guitar fans). ...

44
Album Review

Kihong Jang: They Brought A New Kind of Music To Me

Read "They Brought A New Kind of Music To Me" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


Kihong Jang's debut record as a leader is the antithesis of the hectic, anxious character of many contemporary jazz releases. The guitarist's unassuming approach contains an impressive degree of depth and certainty for a young musician. The disc's six tracks offer affably swinging sounds that aren't particularly knotty, convoluted or strained. Original compositions, choice of tempos and solo statements evince the virtues of temperance and economy. Jang and pianist Jinjoo Yoo (both presently based in the New York City area), ...

6
Album Review

Doron Tirosh: Simply Because It's Winter

Read "Simply Because It's Winter" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


Drummer/composer Doron Tirosh's Simply Because It's Winter brings to mind the adage “good things come in small packages." The six tracks comprise a coherent piece of work in twenty-five minutes of running time. Along with pianist Michael Kanan and bassist Neal Miner, Tirosh achieves a kind of courtly, non-doctrinaire bebop essence. It's jazz that doesn't need to insist or tie itself into knots to make a point. Regardless of the tempo or the mood of the material, the trio has ...

5
Album Review

Salvo Losappio: Long Story Short

Read "Long Story Short" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Although Long Story Short is an entirely appropriate title for Italian-born tenor saxophonist Salvo Losappio's debut CD as leader, as its playing time is a lean LP-like thirty-eight minutes, Rush Job might have been an even better one. Losappio's name and face adorn the front cover of the album, which names his four sidemen but does not disclose which instruments they play. That information is consigned to an accompanying press release. Song titles and running times are shown on the ...

4
Album Review

Champian Fulton: After Dark

Read "After Dark" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Veteran New York pianist and vocalist Champian Fulton offers another recording of time-honored standards on After Dark, except this particular effort focuses on the music of the Queen of the Blues, the music of the great Dinah Washington, who was her first major vocalist influence early on in her life. Though she grew up listening to Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Helen Humes among others, it was the sound of Dinah's voice that left the biggest impression and this album, ...

8
Album Review

Eyal Vilner Big Band: Almost Sunrise

Read "Almost Sunrise" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Suddenly, it seems, the state of Israel has become a focal point and incubator for contemporary jazz. A new wave of world-class musicians led by the three Cohens (not to be confused with Broadway's three Cohans) has crossed the ocean to plant the Israeli flag firmly in the midst of what was once considered an unassailable American stronghold. Among the more recent and impressive arrivals is Eyal Vilner, a composer / arranger / saxophonist from Tel Aviv who came here ...

4
Album Review

David Sills: Blue's the New Green

Read "Blue's the New Green" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Saxophonist David Sills opens his Blue's the New Green with tenor sax titan Sonny Rollins' tune, “No Moe." But Sills doesn't use Rollins' musculature or his burly tone. He rolls more in the mode of sax men Joe Henderson or Stan Getz--or, to take it back further, Coleman Hawkins or Ben Webster, with a smooth, vibrato-less delivery. Sills is steeped in the tradition of those who came before him, without being mired there. As in previous outings, Eastern ...

1
Extended Analysis

Josh Brown: Songbook Trio

Read "Josh Brown: Songbook Trio" reviewed by Geannine Reid


Trombonist Josh Brown was raised in Burlington, Ontario. His mother was a music teacher and his father was an avid jazz fan. It is no surprise that Brown grew up playing in school and city bands, eventually winning local and national competitions and eventually attended Humber College in Toronto, where he studied music. Brown also went on to attend the prestigious Banff School of Fine Arts, and Thelonious Monk Jazz Aspen Snowmass. Making the move to New York in the ...

2
Album Review

Richie Vitale: Vitalogy

Read "Vitalogy" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Richie Vitale is a fixture of the New York music scene, a veteran trumpeter with a resume that includes The Buddy Rich Big Band, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. Vitalogy is not a big band recording, but features Vitale in a quintet format blowing through a short repertoire of power-packed bop, balladic and Latin-flavored originals. Each of the six tracks on this EP-length release is a keeper, offering rich melodies ...

20
Album Review

Eyal Vilner Big Band: Introducing The Eyal Vilner Big Band

Read "Introducing The Eyal Vilner Big Band" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Most contemporary big band music is either of the heavily arranged, progressive jazz variety or the light-swing, Glenn Miller orchestral type played mainly for the benefit of nostalgic dancers. It is therefore refreshing to hear an ensemble that embraces the exuberance of mid-20th Century large groups and simultaneously delivers a bop-ish and elaborate sound. Introducing the Eyal Vilner Big Band opens with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's boisterous “Woody'N You." The musicians, driven by Yonathan Rosen's propulsive drumming, weave ...


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