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Dida Pelled: A Missing Shade Of Blue
by Dan Bilawsky
In a way, A Missing Shade Of Blue is a throwback to an earlier era, when Grant Green, “Brother" Jack McDuff, Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith, and numerous others were bringing the guitar and organ together to create beautiful music for the people. Yet this record doesn't necessarily fit with the work of those artists. Why, you ask? Well, for one, we live in a different time. But the era isn't necessarily the crux of the matter. The scope of ...
read moreDida Pelled: A Missing Shade of Blue
by C. Michael Bailey
Guitarist and vocalist Dida Pelled previous Red Records release, Dida Pelled: Plays and Sings (Red Records, 2011) was one of my pics for Best-of-the-Year in 2011). That recording was so refreshingly organic that it has remained in my listening rotation since that time. Pelled snuck in a self-produced Modern Love Songs (2015) between Plays and Sings and the present A Missing Shade of Blue. It is as exceptional as the first recording. That said, expectations for A Missing Shade of ...
read moreVittorio Gennari: Blues
by C. Michael Bailey
Italian alto saxophonist Vittorio Gennari manages to keep together his band from his 2010 Melodies for another run on Blues, a recording he nominally shares with vibraphonist Daniele Di Gregorio. The two survey the sacred twelve bars much in the same way as Jackie McLean on his 1961 Bluesnik (Blue Note) or Jimmy Smith on Six Views of the Blues (1958, Blue Note). In these cases, the principles were putting their personal mark on the blues, uniquely and definitely. Gennari ...
read moreVito Di Modugno: East Side
by C. Michael Bailey
Italian organist Vito Di Modugno has made a solid name for himself with several well-received Red Records releases that include, Organ Trio Plus Guests (2007), Organ Grooves (2008), Organ Trio, Volume 2 (2009), and now the delightfully swinging East Side. Di Modugno is first among a progressive group of B3 specialists who are charging mainstream jazz with a well-developed vision that is neither too traditional nor overly experimental. Di Modugno opens his recital with the titled original, ...
read morePablo Bobrowicky: Southern Blue
by C. Michael Bailey
Argentinian guitarist Pablo Bobrowicky has a beautifully unadorned and organic tone, as naked as an electrified guitar can be. He makes it a point not to hide behind reverb, sustain, or overdrive, producing a plectrum sound halfway between electric and acoustic. On Southern Blue, his fourth Red Records recording as a leader, Bobrowicky returns to the trio format he so successfully led on 2001's Where We Are (Red Records), spinning out an excellent collection of standards and originals, rendered like ...
read moreMarkelian Kapedani Trio: Balkan Bop
by C. Michael Bailey
Were we able to quantitate talent density as a function of label catalog size, Sergio Veschi's Red Records would doubtless be close to the top. His generosity to Italian and foreign musicians alike has resulted in a great jazz label. Albanian activist/pianist/composer Markelian Kapedani adds to this fine catalog with Balkan Bop, a standard piano trio performance of ten original compositions, marking his second recording for the label, after 2008's solo Balkan Piano. Choosing a single track ...
read moreDida Pelled: Plays and Sings
by C. Michael Bailey
Youthful precociousness is one thing. There is typically an element of immaturity present. Fully developed and evolved at a young age is something else entirely. Israeli Dida Pelled has emerged fully formed as singer and instrumental soloist in New York City, after completing her obligation to the Israeli military and relocating there (not unlike fellow countryman/saxophonist Idit Shner). In New York, Pelled made the acquaintance of trumpeter Fabio Morgera who, in turn, brought her to the attention of Red Records' ...
read moreDida Pelled: Plays And Sings
by Dan Bilawsky
While no “one size fits all" prescription exists for molding and educating unique artists, some schools seem to have an exceptional track record. A large segment of the who's who of jazz greats from Detroit went through Cass Technical High School and more than a few Texas jazz titans received their education at Booker T. Washington High School For The Performing And Visual Arts. Another, less likely source--The Thelma Yellin High School Of The Arts in Tel Aviv, Israel--wasn't really ...
read moreVittorio Gennari: Melodies
by Chris Mosey
Altoist Vittorio Gennari is scarcely a household word among jazz fans in his native Italy, let alone the wider world. Arriving on the scene late in life, after a long career playing in dance bands, Gennari was in his seventies when he cut his first record as a leader, The Sound (Red, 2006). Now, aged 76, he's followed it up with Melodies; a small gem of an album and the distillation of a lifetime's adoration of jazz that began when ...
read moreThe Jazz Tribe: Everlasting
by Chris Mosey
The vogue for Latin jazz began in the 1940s when Dizzy Gillespie hired Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo to play in his big band. At the time, most critics dismissed it as a passing fad. However, percussionist Ray Mantilla, part of a “goodwill ensemble" Gillespie took on a tour of Castro's Cuba in 1977, is today elder statesman of a still thriving genre. With Kansas City saxophonist Bobby Watson, Mantilla fronts The Jazz Tribe, a sextet successfully blending jazz with Cuban ...
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