Jazz Articles
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Danny Grissett: Travelogue
by David Weiner
On Travelogue, pianist Danny Grissett leads a trio through a rich set of performances distinguished by his evocative themes, diverse song structures, and lovely, dancing approach to the keyboard. Grissett's inventive and highly interactive bandmates are drummer Bill Stewart and bassist Vicente Archer. This is the trio's third Grissett-led outing, and Archer has accompanied the pianist on all seven of the recordings he's led. Grissett composed most of Travelogue's tracks. His tuneful compositions easily deliver on the promise ...
Continue ReadingNicole Glover: Plays
by Paul Rauch
Tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover has been having an impact on modern jazz since she was a tenor phenom coming out of Portland, Oregon, before arriving in the New York metro area to study and eventually have a career in jazz. She was often seen at festivals playing with several different artists, prompting the obvious questions of who she was and “Where in the dickens did she suddenly appear from?" In 2024, such notions are a thing of the ...
Continue ReadingJim Snidero: For All We Know
by Dan McClenaghan
The cover photo on Jim Snidero's For All We Know features the saxophonist holding his horn out in front of his body as if he is offering it to us as a holy relic. Holy it is when he plays it; a relic it is not. The album is Snidero's first recorded offering in a trio setting--sax, bass and drums. No chording instrument. His partners in chordlessness, Peter Washington and Joe Farnsworth--bass and drums, respectively--are a perfect choice, ...
Continue ReadingRichard Baratta: Off The Charts
by Jack Bowers
Drummer Richard Baratta's third album, Off the Charts, is a play on words, as he and his bandmates have taken lesser- known themes from a number of jazz masters that flew under the radar--in other words, were “off the charts"--and given them a fresh coat of paint, so to speak, to help redeem them from what Baratta considers an undeserved obscurity. The composers in question are Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Farrell, McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Charles ...
Continue ReadingRichard Baratta: Off The Charts
by Pierre Giroux
The premise for Richard Baratta's Off The Charts is to give new life to some of the lesser-known works by boldface composers such as Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson and Chick Corea, among others. Assisting in this voyage of rediscovery are several top-notch jazz luminaries such as tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi, pianist David Kikoski, bassist John Patitucci and percussionist Paul Rossman. All of the arrangements are by Baratta, save one, and that is the opening Hutcherson number “Herzog," which ...
Continue ReadingRichard Baratta: Off The Charts
by Neil Duggan
After more than three decades as a Hollywood film producer, drummer Richard Baratta seemed ideally placed to bring together the worlds of film and jazz, releasing two albums focusing on songs from the movies. The first of these, Music In Film: The Reel Deal (Savant Records, 2020) gained a Grammy nomination for pianist Bill O'Connell's arrangement of the Euphemia Allen composition, “Chopsticks." Baratta followed this up with Music in Film: The Sequel. His third album, Off The Charts, changes focus ...
Continue ReadingBill O'Connell: Live In Montauk
by Richard J Salvucci
A rhythm section which includes Santi Debriano and Billy Hart is nothing if not part of a potential dream band. In Craig Handy, one finds a post-bop saxophonist who played with virtually everyone worth hearing over the last third of the twentieth century. For a variety of reasons pianist Bill O'Connell may be a little less well known outside the New York City metropolitan area, but his signal contributions to Latin jazz with Dave Valentin, Jerry Gonzalez and Mongo Santamaria ...
Continue ReadingBill O'Connell: Live In Montauk
by Jack Bowers
After years of gigging in the New York City area, while honing his credentials as a first-call contemporary jazz pianist, Bill O'Connell and his family moved to Montauk, the easternmost point on Long Island, where he expressed his appreciation of the area's many wonders by recording this impressive album at the celebrated Gosman's Dock, during the annual Hamptons Jazz Festival in August 2021. It is essentially a quartet date with trumpeter Randy Brecker sitting in on two numbers, ...
Continue ReadingLafayette Harris Jr.: Swingin' Up in Harlem
by Jack Bowers
It would cost top dollar to see and hear jazz musicians as busy and talented as pianist Lafayette Harris Jr., bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash up-close and personal. On Harris' new album, Swingin' Up in Harlem, the trio cannot be seen but can definitely be heard and appreciated, which is the next best thing. The session was recorded in February 2022 at the celebrated Rudy van Gelder studio in New Jersey, which is all that ...
Continue ReadingJoe Chambers: Moving Pictures Orchestra: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola
by John Kelman
It's one thing to have an established `place in the jazz pantheon, another to continue redefining that position, long after others might be content to rest on their laurels. Joe Chambers' work behind the drum kit with artists including Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, and McCoy Tyner has already ensured a prominent place in jazz history. His output as a leader may be small, but he's delivered two outstanding Savant recordings in 2006's The Outlaw ...
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