Jazz Articles

Monika Herzig: Come With Me

by Edward Blanco
July 10, 2011

Pianist Monika Herzig presents her second Owl Studios album in combination with award-winning documentary filmmaker Susanne Schwibs. Come With Me is a unique CD/DVD project that includes a 30-minute story of her work including an interview, concert footage and special features of live performances. The music though, is the main course of this dish served warm, tender and delicious with every tasting. Offering a majority of originals, Herzig was astute enough to also include fresh arrangements of covers by Bob ...

Pharez Whitted: Transient Journey

by Mark F. Turner
July 17, 2010

The intimidating yet dapper looking man on the cover plays his horn in the same striking manner of his appearance. Chicago trumpeter Pharez Whitted as they might say on the street, “Ain't No Joke" as witnessed by his serious musicianship-- chops that are emotive, filled with technique and touch, and soulful swagger. It's hard to believe that Transient Journey is only his third release as a leader. A musician, band leader, and educator currently serving as Director ...

Garaj Mahal: More Mr. Nice Guy

by Woodrow Wilkins
May 14, 2010

There is different, and there is distinct. Either can describe More Mr. Nice Guy by Garaj Mahal, although the latter is probably more telling. Several genres of music are mixed, matched and pushed around in this effort. Garaj Mahal features guitar and sitar virtuoso Fareed Haque, bass master and educator Kai Eckhardt, gospel-inspired keyboardist Eric Levy and drummer Sean Rickman. The group blends jazz with rock, Middle-Eastern sounds and funk. The members have associated with a number of ...

Frank Glover: Abacus

by AAJ Staff
May 5, 2010

Every once in a while a musician comes along that lives and breathes the music. It comes out of his brain, his fingers, his mind and heart. Having debuted with Politico (Owl Studios, 2009)--a reissue of his 2004 self-produced release--clarinetist Frank Glover might just be one of those musicians. Full of soundscapes that reflect the inner as well as the outer life, Abacus takes his music one step farther in textured, deeply colored ways.

Glover, relatively ...

Garaj Mahal: More Mr. Nice Guy

by AAJ Staff
April 3, 2010

American funk, jazz, African-based rhythms and Middle Eastern modalities are all part of the collective sound of Garaj Mahal's More Mr. Nice Guy. That, perhaps, is the “nicest" characteristic of this CD, where there's a multitude of voices sounding from the corners of our blue marble--although “smoking hot" might be a better description. Reminiscent of Return to Forever, fusion and world music, these musicians have a vast tapestry of stories to tell.

The Flat Earth Ensemble, ...

Frank Glover: Politico

by AAJ Staff
February 4, 2010

First released independently but now re-released by Owl Studios, classically trained clarinetist Frank Glover's Politico is a smashing debut; an atmospheric, concatenated narrative.

The clarinet is a peculiar wind instrument with a smooth, sometimes guttural sound that's either loved or hated. Not as bold as a trumpet, it could get overwhelmed in a quartet setting, or at least take a back seat, as it does sometimes in a classical Philharmonic orchestra. Not so with Glover's hands ...

The Dixon-Rhyne Project: Reinvention

by John Kelman
June 19, 2008

The configuration may be conventional, but Reinvention is the perfect title for The Dixon-Rhyne Project's debut. Sax/organ/guitar/drums quartets date back to the 1950s and organist Melvin Rhyne brings direct cred to this group, having played on some in the late 1950s and early 1960s including Boss Guitar (Riverside, 1963) and The Wes Montgomery Trio (Riverside, 1959). But the rest of this group--most notably co-leader/saxophonist Rob Dixon--consists of relative youngsters for whom the music Rhyne made in his youth is a ...