Jazz Articles

Steve Tavaglione: Silent Singing

by Dave Nathan
October 1, 2000

P>I barely know how to characterize the music on this album. A notch above Kenny G? Music to soothe and stroke while in a dentist's chair? Music to coax a cobra out of its wicker basket? Other? Don't misunderstand me. This music, all originals, can be pretty and melodic. There's even something close to Miles Davis' trumpet by Jeff Beal on “Arabesque". But for the most part, I found most of the CD cloying and eventually boring and depressing. Riddled ...

Jeff Beal: Alternate Route

by Dave Nathan
October 1, 2000

P>A review of this album is out of place in a jazz setting. It is classical music through and through and crystallizes the main differences between the two genre. This music is written down, all by Jeff Beal, and not subject to improvisation. There are no opportunities to play variations on a theme, which would be out of place and unwelcome.

The first four tracks are really movements in a concerto for trumpet/flugelhorn and orchestra. According to Beal, this concerto ...

Patrick Leonard: Rivers

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 2000

The inspiration to create can be drawn from the most diverse sources; some can get inpiration from listening to the works of a great master composer or improviser, others from a beautiful painting or other great work of art. Still others derive their artistic motivations from nature itself; the landscapes, the mountains, the flora and fauna. Pianist Patrick Leonard summoned up the motivation to record this CD entitled Rivers , from a fishing expedition that led him to many of ...