Jazz Articles

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Roberta Gambarini: Easy To Love

by Richard J Salvucci
June 27, 2023

In 2007, All About Jazz reviewer Michael Caratti wrote: “This debut outing from Roberta Gambarini sees the Italian-born jazz vocalist pair up with two star-studded rhythm sections and legendary tenor saxophonist James Moody, to present what has to be one of the best vocal jazz albums of the decade. Opening with Cole Porter's classic title track Gambarini's exquisite tone and masterful rhythmic phrasing are immediately on display in the first a capella section. The gradual addition of bass and brushes ...

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Jenny Scheinman: Crossing the Field

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
November 14, 2008

Celebrating the release of 12 Songs (Cryptogramophone, 2005), violinist Jenny Scheinman assembled a string orchestra to augment her septet in performance at New York's Tonic. The addition enlivened the buoyant melodies and spurred the soloists with lush accompaniment. The thrilling results prompted Scheinman to write more for this instrumentation on Crossing the Field, her fifth and most ambitious CD to date. She uses the string section as an integrated voice that interacts with, rather than playing alongside, ...

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Jenny Scheinman: Crossing the Field

by John Kelman
August 2, 2008

With the release of the singer/songwriter-driven Jenny Scheinman (Koch, 2008), violinist Jenny Scheinman entered new territory as a vocalist. Crossing the Field, released the same day in digital download-only form (a hard CD version will be released September 9, 2008, also by Koch), expands on the forward motion of 12 Songs (Cryptogramophone, 2005) with an even larger ensemble and a unified concept. A sweeping, 13-piece suite--with the inclusion of a string orchestra--it's her most ambitious project to date, and demonstrates ...

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The Brubeck Brothers Quartet: Classified

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
March 24, 2008

This is the follow-up to the well-received Brubeck Brothers Quartet's Intuition (Koch, 2006), which spent three months in the jazz top 20. There are some obvious similarities: Classified is also unusually bountiful, weighing in at over 78 generous minutes; the band (aka the BBQ) features three of the same stellar players, now with regular touring partner Chuck Lamb rather than wunderkind Taylor Eigsti at the piano; and the music is uniformly excellent in its composition, execution, and recording quality. Now ...

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Cyrus Chestnut: Cyrus Plays Elvis

by J Hunter
December 8, 2007

"Elvis isn't dead until we say he's dead! That was the defiant proclamation on a billboard advertising a Bay Area Oldies station. An immediate reaction would be: “Which Elvis are we talking about? Fat Elvis? Thin Elvis? Hollywood Elvis? Vegas Elvis? With Cyrus Plays Elvis, pianist Cyrus Chestnut has added a new category to that list: Jazz Elvis.

The concept isn't all that far-fetched: Presley's early recordings came from the same country-blues space Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash called ...

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Cyrus Chestnut: Cyrus plays Elvis

by Francis Lo Kee
October 17, 2007

Certainly a concept designed to push peoples' buttons, the fact is that if you don't know Elvis Presley's music, this CD doesn't sound radically different from a lot of soul jazz recordings from Blue Note in the 1960s. One of the big differences between rock and jazz is harmony: while jazz, partially built on the standards of the Great American Songbook, loves shifting, chromatic voice-leading, rock tends to be harmonically more static, either using other qualities to build and release ...

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Roberta Gambarini: Easy To Love

by Michael Caratti
September 5, 2007

This debut outing from Roberta Gambarini sees the Italian-born jazz vocalist pair up with two star-studded rhythm sections and legendary tenor saxophonist James Moody, to present what has to be one of the best vocal jazz albums of the decade.

Opening with Cole Porter's classic title track Gambarini's exquisite tone and masterful rhythmic phrasing are immediately on display in the first a capella section. The gradual addition of bass and brushes does little to prepare you for what happens next, ...

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The Brubeck Brothers Quartet: Intuition

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
November 11, 2006

The prospect of reviewing an all-original release can strike apprehension--if not actual fear--in a critic's heart. With the growing ease of self-production, it's increasingly likely that such recordings will be monuments to tuneless self-indulgence.

This is one reason why Intuition is such a treat: the compositions are not only fresh, melodic and memorable, but they're rendered with sublime expertise and considerable joy. From guitarist Mike DeMicco's swinging “West of One" through the tipsy second-line groove of “Parade du Funk" and ...

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Jon Faddis: Teranga

by Marcia Hillman
August 16, 2006

"Teranga" is the word for hospitality in the Wolof language of Senegal, and on his release of the same name, Jon Faddis invites you into his musical world. Faddis (trumpet and flugelhorn) is joined by pianist David Hazeltine, bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Dion Parson, as well as several guests: Alioune Faye (sabor), Abdou Mboup (djembe and talking drum), Russell Malone (guitar), Gary Smulyan (baritone saxophone), Frank Wess (alto flute) and Clark Terry (flugelhorn and vocals). All but one of ...

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Roberta Gambarini: Easy To Love

by Suzanne Lorge
August 10, 2006

If Roberta Gambarini had chosen to pursue opera we might be seeing her at the Met instead of in the world's top jazz clubs, so exquisite is the natural lyricism of her voice and her technical mastery of its use. Absent from her performance are the blatant shifts in registration, dicey intonation, and questionable diction that are often stereotypically associated -- rightly or wrongly -- with jazz singing. But a jazz singer Gambarini is, and a fantastic one at that.