Jazz Articles

The Miles Donahue Quintet: In The Pocket

by Michael P. Gladstone
July 30, 2006

In contrast with the contemporaneous release Bounce, In the Pocket shows a different side of the saxonphonist, trumpeter and composer Miles Donahue. Donahue has assembled a bigger combo with even more firepower on this session, including tenor player Jerry Bergonzi, pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Jamey Haddad. They are joined by guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel on four tracks and bassist Dan Greenspan on two compositions.

On many of the tracks that feature a two-tenor front line, ...

Miles Donahue: Bounce

by Michael P. Gladstone
July 29, 2006

The release of two simultaneous albums (Bounce and In the Pocket) gives a rare opportunity to hear this saxophonist/trumpeter and composer in different settings, both showcasing his ability to straight-ahead bebop performances. On half of the tracks on Bounce, Donahue leads a quintet, and on the other half he leads a quartet plus three additional musicians. The well-equipped quartet consists of pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist John Lockwood and drummer Adam Nussbaum. The other cast features Calderazzo, bassist John Patitucci, and ...

Miles Donahue: Stranger in Paradise: Standards Vol I

by Dan McClenaghan
June 25, 2003

You've got to give the guy extra credit for sheer nerve, simultaneously offering up four CDs of great American Songbook classics. But trumpeter/saxophonist Miles Donahue doesn't need anybody's credit. The four discs stand on their own--collectively or separately. Stranger in Paradise, Volume I opens up with Irving Berlin's "Always," with a bonus: vocals by Robin McElhatten (now going by Robin McKelle). Donahue hadn't planned on using a vocalist on the four discs, but a friend suggested he ...

Miles Donahue: In The Pocket

by Dan McClenaghan
June 25, 2003

Multi-instrumentalist Miles Donahue didn't get serious about jazz until he was forty-five years old. Prior to his belated commitment, he spent nearly twenty years working weddings, functions and lounges--bread and butter jobs to pay the rent and support a family. But when he did make the decision to go for it, he went in body and heart and soul, recording a couple of first rate CDs on Ram Records before he decided to establish his own record company, Amerigo Records. ...