Jazz Articles

Darren Johnston's Gone To Chicago: The Big Lift

by Glenn Astarita
December 13, 2011

Canada-reared, but calling San Francisco home since 1997, trumpeter and composer Darren Johnston delves into the Chicago's avant, modern-jazz establishment and kicks off a vibrant set, with prominent constituents of The Windy City's fertile soundscape. With The Big Lift, the trumpeter's ascending status within the outer reaches of jazz attains another hierarchical level. Peppered by an undulating groove-quotient, the ensemble combines a frothy and infectious mode of attack by incorporating the blues, mainstream jazz, and avant-garde musings with ...

Marcus Shelby Orchestra: Soul Of The Movement: Meditations On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

by Edward Blanco
January 19, 2011

A man with a deep social conscience and a fervent interest in social history, San Francisco bassist and band leader Marcus Shelby has previously used music to illuminate past injustices on Port Chicago (Noir Records, 2006), and then again with Harriet Tubman (Noir Records, 2008). On Soul Of The Movement: Meditations On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Shelby once again tackles another large-scale project of social and spiritual significance expressed through his creative musical interpretations.For Shelby, the inspiration ...

Marcus Shelby Orchestra: Soul Of The Movement: Meditations On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

by Bruce Lindsay
January 2, 2011

Soul Of The Movement: Meditations On Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr is a beautiful album. Bassist, composer and arranger Marcus Shelby was inspired to put the album together by his study of the Civil Rights Movement and, in the combining of his own original compositions with spirituals and tunes associated with the movement, he has created a most affecting and uplifting recording, performed with passion by the superb 15-piece Marcus Shelby Orchestra. Shelby's own compositions take their ...

Billy White: First Things First

by Dan Bilawsky
December 9, 2010

First Things First is as apt a name for a debut album as anybody could come up with. While this marks pianist Billy White's first leader date, he already has plenty of impressive musical experience under his belt: spending his college years earning a degree in ethnomusicology from UCLA; working with a jazz/hip-hop hybrid group Heezbus, while living in Paris; studying Gnawa trance music in Morocco; and writing some music for films. Eventually, the San Francisco native landed in Brooklyn, ...

Mercury Falls: Quadrangle

by Dan McClenaghan
August 23, 2010

It begins with a stark electric drone, an eerie, throbbing repetition from which the familiar cry of a saxophone emerges. The tune is “Spring Pools," and it sounds like music that swells out of the quiet after the Apocalypse. The group is Mercury Falls, a saxophone/guitar/bass/drums ensemble with some deft electronic embellishments. The music could be called ambient, with its seemingly drifting momentum, but it's too gutsy to hold that tag.Heading up the group are reedman Patrick Cress ...

Mercury Falls: Quadrangle

by Bruce Lindsay
August 22, 2010

Mercury Falls is an intriguing and somewhat ambivalent band name--and whether it refers to a celestial body, a mythological messenger, plummeting water, dropping temperatures or, indeed, to nothing at all, it's a name that readily reflects the fascinating and at times beautiful music that the band creates on its debut release, Quadrangle. Although Mercury Falls disowns the term, much of the music on Quadrangle has a distinctly ambient feel to it (the band refers to it as ...

Mitch Marcus: Countdown 2 Meltdown

by Terrell Kent Holmes
May 11, 2010

Although its music is grounded in blues, bop and other time-honored constructs, the Mitch Marcus Quintet is not your usual jazz band. In fact, the MMQ's adventurous tunes, use of unusual meters and delightfully manic arrangements travel far beyond conventional musical borders. The band's Countdown 2 Meltdown is a sonic riot bursting with invention and mischief. This is evident from the first notes of “Coffee and Cones." Marcus' tenor and Sylvain Carton's alto drive this tune, with ...

Mitch Marcus Quintet: Countdown 2 Meltdown

by Glenn Astarita
April 18, 2010

Caution: The music on Countdown 2 Meltdown is not for wimps or the squeamish. With his third quintet release, saxophonist Mitch Marcus and his exciting quintet continue to dish out bold and serious-minded progressive jazz amid a mark of distinction compared to many others of this ilk. After consummating a highly-praised ten-year residency in San Francisco, Marcus returned to his native New York City in 2009. Here, the quintet pulls out the proverbial stops, blasting into the cosmos via blazing ...

The Nice Guy Trio: Here Comes the Nice Guy Trio

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
December 22, 2009

It's obvious just from this trio's composition--trumpet, accordion, and bass--that something new is going on. It's also clear that to fully appreciate this boundary-busting CD, you must let go of your usual musical signposts. Even a taste for the wildest of free jazz won't prepare you for this music, since it's far too thoughtfully conceived and constructed. If you must have some category to file this under, try “Italian film music" (think Cinema Paradiso (1988) or Federico Fellini's more benign ...

The Nice Guy Trio: Here Comes The Nice Guy Trio

by Mark Corroto
November 8, 2009

Give three imaginative artists a yearlong residency in a performance space, located in a breeding ground for creative music and the results hopefully will turn out to be something like Here Comes The Nice Guy Trio.

Canadian trumpeter Darren Johnston, now living in the Bay area of San Francisco, spent a year making music at the Red Poppy Art House in the Mission District with the aptly named Nice Guy Trio with accordionist Rob Reich and bassist Daniel ...