Jazz Articles

Richard Elliot: Crush

by Dave Hughes
September 1, 2001

After a decade-long string of commercially successful albums on Blue Note, smooth sax titan Richard Elliot has jumped to GRP and released his label debut, Crush. Aside from the label, not much has changed. Elliot and his composing/programming/production partners Steven Dubin, Jeff Lorber, Tim Heintz, and Paul Brown still have their collective thumb solidly on the pulse of today’s smooth jazz format. This album should do very well on the airwaves and on the charts.

But this is manufactured music. ...

Freddie Hubbard: Above and Beyond

by Jack Bowers
March 1, 1999

When the conversation turns to great trumpeters from the bop era onward — Diz, Brownie, Fats, Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw, Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham, Art Farmer, Wynton Marsalis, Booker Little and so on — Freddie Hubbard’s name sometimes slips through the cracks. Too bad, as during his heyday Hubbard could match wits with any of them without embarrassment. Above and Beyond documents a live date in June 1982 at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco. Freddie was 44, had recorded ...