Jazz Articles

Peter Bernstein: Live at Smalls

by William Carey
July 31, 2010

A live recording from an intimate venue--in this case, the well-respected Greenwich Village club, Smalls--is like comfort food.. Live at Smalls, from guitarist Peter Bernstein, doesn't disappoint, starting off with a blues to welcome everyone in, with solid solo turns from all members of the quartet, also including pianist Richard Wyands, bassist John Webber and drummer Jimmy Cobb. Yes, Jimmy Cobb on drums. Not your average, everyday sideman. These performances come from two nights in 2008 (December ...

Peter Bernstein: Peter Bernstein Quartet, Live at Smalls

by Laurel Gross
May 12, 2010

Peter Bernstein is one of the most pleasing and accomplished guitarists around, a must-hear, go-see for fans of straight-ahead jazz with a fresh, of-the-moment feel. A fixture on the New York scene and beyond, Bernstein deserves to be even better-known for his intricately beautiful melodic lines, harmonic sophistication, spot-on improvisation and good taste. Mentored early on by Jim Hall, Bernstein's never been a screamer. He plays quietly and intensely, with confidence, intelligence, elegance and rare sensitivity--all amply ...

Fat Cat Big Band: Face

by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
April 6, 2010

Face is an album with layers. Each of the ten tracks offers a nuanced explication of anticipation, heartbreak and spirituality. The glistening veneer of giddiness and celebration is attractive and reviving. But if you listen closely, there's also yearning and loneliness and a grasping for spiritual fulfillment. The entire album is soulful in the way some popular, accessible poets are soulful--you respond viscerally to the beauty of the art and only careful revisits will teach you how to appreciate it ...

Fat Cat Big Band: Face

by Edward Blanco
January 27, 2010

The house band of New York's Fat Cat jazz club in the West Village, The Fat Cat Big Band, finally delivers the last piece of its trilogy project. Face is produced from a 2008, two-night recording session of thirty-one original charts, from which the group's first two albums--Meditations On the War For Whose Great God is the Most High / You Are God (Smalls, 2009) and Angels Praying for Freedom (Smalls, 2009)--were released simultaneously. The eleven-member light ensemble, the brainchild ...

Dan Aran: Breathing

by Bridget A. Arnwine
December 16, 2009

When a CD is released, one of its most revealing aspects--and that of the artist's mindset during the recording process--is the title that has been assigned. With a title like Breathing, there are several things that can be presupposed: first, maybe the artist recorded the album in a stiflingly hot space and the title was chosen for its irony; second, perhaps making the music was as effortless a process as breathing; or third, it's possible that the process of creating ...

Dan Aran: Breathing

by David Adler
December 11, 2009

Dan Aran's Breathing arrived with a short, dour note from Luke Kaven, head of Smalls Records, on the shaky future of indie-label jazz. That's not news and yet Breathing underscores the stakes involved for artists whose work is too fine to go undocumented. Aran, an Israeli-born drummer, is such an artist. Breathing is very much a jazz record but not a straightforward band date. There are many musicians on the roster, some playing only small roles, although Aran ...

Adam Birnbaum: Travels

by Christopher Shoe
May 26, 2009

Travels is the long awaited debut album for one of the younger voices in jazz piano. The term debut, however, is ill suited for someone like Adam Birnbaum, who has spent his short career opening for, and performing with, some of the better-known names in the industry such as saxophonist Greg Osby and pianist Brad Mehldau. As a result, the music presented in this album reflects a well thought-out, technically proficient, and quite simply, talented pianist who is at the ...

Omer Klein: Heart Beats

by Jim Santella
May 5, 2009

Considering the rhythmic spark that freshens this program, it is fitting that Omer Klein's solo piano album begins with a drum solo. Sitting down at the drum set, he introduces his forte with hands on drums and a personalized muffle that contains the basic building blocks of life: Heart Beats. Elsewhere, he spends his time at the piano working up daydreams and reveries that float impressions closely identified with his song titles. “Alma" and “Ship of Fools" rely on simplicity ...

Fat Cat Big Band: Meditations On The War...

by Mark Corroto
March 10, 2009

What makes a great big band record? Is it the writing or the arranging? Or maybe it is the playing of the musicians, which of course is the product of both the writing and the arranging.

Certainly a big band (like, say, a quartet) produces great music when it performs regularly as a working unit. For composer/arranger/guitarist Jade Synstelien, the opportunity to present big band jazz every week at New York's Fat Cat jazz club to upwards of ...

Adam Birnbaum: Travels

by Marcia Hillman
January 24, 2009

Pianist Adam Birnbaum gets around a lot, both geographically and musically--touring West Africa, for example, as part of the Rhythm Road program. Here however, he and his traveling companions--Sharel Cassity (alto and soprano saxophone), Joe Sanders (bass) and Rodney Green (drums)--take a musical journey through material mostly composed by the pianist. Birnbaum's credentials are impressive. He studied at the New England Conservatory of Music's Preparatory School, graduated from Juilliard's Jazz Studies inaugural class and has won numerous ...