Jazz Articles

Dave McMurray: Soul Searching

by Jim Santella
September 1, 2001

His soulful saxophone melodies add a contemporary charm to age-old romance. Tap your hands lightly on the backbeat and relax, while Dave McMurray explores the smooth jazz arena with a little help from Bob James, Mark Isham, Chuck Loeb, the Ridgeway Sisters, and others.

“What cha gonna do with my lovin?" “Tell me now."

Complete with turntable scratches and tightly mixed overdubs, McMurray's session walks the walk and turns on the charm. On tenor, alto and soprano, he's ...

Lenny White: Edge

by Ed Kopp
March 1, 1999

I regard Lenny White's Present Tense as one of the best fusion recordings of the '90s, so I had high hopes for this one. Edge is an appropriate title for this latest from the ace drummer. It definitely bites harder than White's last two Hip Bop releases, but some tracks suffer from technology overkill. Edge is more overtly influenced by hip-hop and contemporary R&B than White's other '90s releases, and fans of all those two genres will find ...

The Essence All-Stars: Bongo Bop

by Douglas Payne
September 1, 1997

A good organ summit that could have been great, Bongo Bop more or less unites B-3 legends Lonnie Smith and Reuben Wilson with wunderkind Joey DeFrancesco and a Hammond player unknown to me by the name of Doug Carn (one wonders who forgot to call John Patton). The disc is something of a follow-up to last year’s Organic Grooves on Hip Bop. Rather than focus on groove tunes, though, the guys try their hand at bop and blues here.

Mostly, ...

Kenny Burrell, Leny White, et al.: Primal Blue

by Douglas Payne
February 1, 1997

Drummer Lenny White never shortchanges his listeners on star talent--or tremendous musical combinations. Here, he nominally leads a dream band featuring guitarist Kenny Burrell (who, by virtue of the alphabet, gets first billing), pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Ron Carter, trumpeter Tim Hagans and reedman Craig Handy. This set of easy, relaxed blues seems, at first listen, predictable and as programmatic as White's other Hip Bop all-star aggregates (Essence of Funk with Tom Browne and Benny Maupin and Afro Cubano Chant ...