Jazz Articles

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Ernesto Cervini: A Canadian Songbook

by Hrayr Attarian
April 21, 2024

Composer and drummer Ernesto Cervini is a stalwart of the Canadian creative music scene both as an artist and promoter. His ninth release as a leader, the captivating A Canadian Songbook, is a collection of seven intricate pieces, composed by him and other compatriots. Cervini, at the head of his sextet Turboprop, deftly balances collective harmony and individual expressions and delivers all with refreshing spontaneity. The leader starts off his arrangement of pianist James Hill's “Skeletons" with sparse ...

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Ernesto Cervini's Turboprop: A Canadian Songbook

by Dan McClenaghan
March 23, 2024

Toronto-based drummer, Ernesto Cervini has a “T" theme going with the groups he leads. There is the funky, forward-thinking Tetrahedron. Then we have the terrific trio (bass, drums and saxophone) TuneTown. And the third: Turboprop, presenting their fourth album, A Canadian Songbook, which digs into the musical soul of their home turf. Turboprop is a sextet with a powerhouse three-horn front line, featuring three of Canada's finest, Tara Davidson on alto saxophone, Joel Frahm on tenor saxophone, and ...

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Don Friedman Quartet: Match Point

by Dave Nathan
November 1, 2000

Born in San Francisco to a musical family, (his mother was an opera singer), Don Friedman has been known for a long time as a musician's musician, never quite achieving the public notoriety his piano styling deserves. As a young man in San Francisco, he played with the créme de la créme of the West Coast jazz society like Shorty Rogers, Chet Baker, Buddy Collette, Ornette Coleman, Dexter Gordon and Scott LaFaro, quite an eclectic group of jazz stylists which ...

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Don Friedman Quartet: Match Point

by David A. Orthmann
October 1, 2000

Taking a rare, well-deserved turn as a leader, pianist Don Friedman delivers a recording of fine, small band music. The material consists primarily of a wide sweep of American Popular Songs and jazz standards. In Friedman’s scheme of things, a swing-era favorite like “Tickle Toes” coexists comfortably with “Green Dolphin Street,” “Round Midnight,” as well as a pair of his own compositions.

Friedman’s rapport with Tom Butts is one of the disc’s strengths. In addition to improvised duets with rhythm ...

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Don Friedman Quartet: Match Point

by C. Michael Bailey
May 1, 2000

A Pleasant Diversion. I often think that all music is good, but some of it is better. Match Point is well-conceived and performed collection of standards and originals assembled by journeyman pianist Don Friedman. Friedman is an old had having played with the West Coast likes of Dexter Gordon, Shorty Rogers, Chet Baker, and Buddy DeFranco as well as a score of recordings under his own leadership. Joining Friedman is tenorist Tom Butts. Butts is a dry martini of Stan ...