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Roberto Magris Trio & Herb Geller: An Evening with Herb Geller & the Roberto Magris Trio: Live in Europe 2009
by Edward Blanco
Italian pianist Roberto Magris pays tribute to one of the most unheralded and exceptional alto saxophonist of our time on An Evening With Herb Geller & The Roberto Magris Trio: Live In Europe 2009, documenting the last recording before his passing in late 2013. A traditional old-style American saxophonist prominent as a West coast jazz master, Geller left the United States fifty-years ago after the death of his first wife and had been living in Hamburg, Germany making a living ...
read moreRoberto Magris Trio & Herb Geller: An Evening with Herb Geller & the Roberto Magris Trio: Live in Europe 2009
by C. Michael Bailey
Italian pianist and bandleader Roberto Magris has been on dual trajectories in the past number of years. The first is his recent study of hard bop as evidenced by his recent J-Mood releases including Mating Call (2010), Morgan Rewind: A Tribute to Lee Morgan Vols. 1 & 2 (2012, 2013) and One Night in With Hope and More...Vols. 1 & 2 (2012, 2013). His second, sub-trajectory is the rediscovery of overlooked masters as in the release of Sam Reed Meets ...
read moreRoberto Magris: Ready for Reed
by Edward Blanco
Alto saxophonist Sam Reed is legend in the Philadelphia jazz scene who was leader of the 1950s band, Sam Reed and the All-Stars, worked uptown theatre for a while, performed with pop and R&B stars and served as the musical director for Teddy Pendergrass just to mention a few highlights from his long musical resume . On the boppish Ready for Reed, Italian paints of note, Roberto Magris joins forces with the sax man in a a tribute to one ...
read moreRoberto Magris: Ready for Reed
by Jack Bowers
Italian-born Pianist Roberto Magris, never one to let labels stand in the way of tasteful and invigorating music, skates from funk to fusion, blues to bop and even ballads on this prismatic album with guest alto Sam Reed, a longtime trouper on the Philadelphia scene who cut his musical teeth with the likes of trumpeter Ted Curson, pianist Bobby Timmons and the redoubtable Heath brothers (Albert, Percy and especially saxophonist Jimmy). Reed, now well into his seventies, holds his own ...
read moreRoberto Magris: Sam Reed Meets Roberto Magris: Ready for Reed
by C. Michael Bailey
Italian pianist Roberto Magris has become the hard bop keeper-of-the- flame with recent J-Mood releases including Mating Call (2010), Morgan Rewind: A Tribute to Lee Morgan Vol. 1 (2012) and One Night in With Hope and More...Vol. 1 (2012), volume designations making clear there is more to come. On Sam Reed Meets Roberto Magris: Ready For Reed, Magris reintroduces Philadelphia saxophonist Sam Reed, who, after a lifetime in music, took some time off but was ultimately rediscovered. ...
read moreRoberto Magris Quintet: Mating Call
by Jack Bowers
Even though drummer Idris Muhammad may be the only member of the group to elicit nods of recognition here in the States, Italian pianist Roberto Magris' quintet is world-class in every respect, consistently affirming its singular prowess on Mating Call, the second release from Paul Collins' Kansas City-based J-Mood Records. Magris also headlined the label's initial recording, presiding over a quartet (including the late bassist Art Davis) on Kansas City Outbound in 2007. Three of the album's ...
read moreRoberto Magris Quintet: Mating Call
by Jerry D'Souza
Pianist Roberto Magris has never shied away from exploring, whether bringing European and American jazz musicians into the ambit of his Europlane Orchestra, or merging hip-hop, new age music and new jazz with his Alfabeats Nu Jazz. For Mating Call, Magris set his sights firmly on mainstream jazz, with three of his originals and four other tunes making up the program. Magris writes with flair. “Europlane Blues," which swings breezily, features an arrangement expansive enough to allow his ...
read moreRoberto Magris: Mating Call
by C. Michael Bailey
For the contemporary jazz composer, inclusion of standards on a recording can sweeten the offering for those more traditional tastes. If the standard is treated with invention and grace, it can also inform those tastes, encouraging further listening. Italian pianist/composer Roberto Magris achieves both with Tadd Dameron's “Mating Call." Dameron's performance of his composition appeared on the same-titled album made with saxophonist John Coltrane in 1956 and released of Prestige Records. Squarely a hard bop anthem, in ...
read moreRoberto Magris Quintet: Mating Call
by Edward Blanco
In 2008, Italian jazz pianist Roberto Magris came to Kansas City to record Kansas City Outbound (PCAMI 2008) in a trio setting with the late bassist, Dr. Art Davis. Mating Call builds on that success; a straight-ahead project reconnecting with the area on the upstart Kansas City-based J-Mood Records, another evolution from Paul Collins of PCAMI Records. This time, Magris returns to the area, bringing with him jazz drummer Idris Muhammad from New York, saxophonist Paul Carr from Washington, D.C., ...
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