Jazz Articles

Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our future articles page. Read our daily album reviews.

153

Album Review

Bob Mintzer: Gently

by Elliott Simon
December 6, 2003

There are instances as a guy gets older when he thinks he is turning into his father. I had just such a moment as I began to listen to Gently from tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer's Big Band. I saw myself as my father, listening to his mood music that came in large boxes from Reader's Digest every month. Whereas I used to make light of this particular aspect of his musical taste, as the classical sounding “Gently" with its soft ...

436

Album Review

The Bob Mintzer Big Band: Gently

by Jack Bowers
February 3, 2003

Bob Mintzer, who is known to favor fiery Latin rhythms and big-band charts with an abundance of punch and power, has a softer side too, one that is laid bare on this understated but no less invigorating new release, his fourteenth (or fifteenth? I've lost count) on the dmp label. 'I think I've... reached a point,' Mintzer writes, 'where I can appreciate the subtlety factor in music and in life, where I would just as soon be gently caressed rather ...

158

Album Review

The Stockholm Jazz Orchestra: Tango

by Jack Bowers
December 1, 2001

Stockholm isn’t as far from Buenos Aires as one might have assumed. Faced with the daunting task of adapting Argentina’s most popular dance music to a big–band framework, the Swedes who comprise the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra perform like native–born South Americans in a persuasive session that would no doubt have brought a smile to the lips of the late great tango master Astor Piazzolla. The SJO is staunchly supported in its endeavor by three Argentinians — conductor / arranger Carlos ...

Album Review

The Stockholm Jazz Orchestra: Tango

by Jack Bowers
November 1, 2001

504

Album Review

The Bob Mintzer Big Band: Homage to Count Basie

by Jack Bowers
January 1, 2001

Anyone who can take my least favorite Basie recording, “April in Paris,” and make it sound as captivating as Bob Mintzer does on Homage to Count Basie (no “one more time!” or “one more once!”) has earned an enthusiastic thumbs–up without taking another step. But the talented tenor overlord doesn’t stop there; he “Mintzerizes” four other tunes associated with the Basie band and blends in three of his own compositions to produce a banquet fit for (the ears of) a ...

165

Album Review

Vivino Brothers Blues Band: Vivino Brothers Blues Band

by Ed Kopp
November 1, 2000

The Vivino Brothers (guitarist Jimmy and reedman Jerry) front one of the most in-demand session bands in blues today. The brothers also claim one of the best gigs in New York City: They're integral members of the Max Weinberg Seven, Conan O'Brien's house band on NBC. By night Jimmy Vivino is Conan's chief musical arranger. By day he works as a first-call producer (Shemekia Copeland, Son Seals, Johnnie Johnson, Phoebe Snow). Vivino Brothers Blues Band is actually the ...

332

Album Review

Bob Mintzer: Big Band Trane

by Douglas Payne
February 1, 1997

Talented Bob Mintzer, no slouch as a leader, arranger, writer or saxophonist, delivers one disappointing tribute to one of his heroes. The idea is certainly noble -- though it's too easy to compare Mintzer's less favorable work here to Eric Dolphy's `arrangements' during the Africa/Brass sessions. And certainly many lesser Trane tributes exist. But this one seems less from the heart than from the Las Vegas lounge fakebook. Only “My Favorite Things," “A Love Supreme-Acknowledgment" and “Impressions" come from the ...