Jazz Articles
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Albany Jazz Big Band: Moonlight Rhapsodies
by Jack Bowers
Even though “road bands" are by and large a relic of the distant past, big bands continue to persevere and perform in cities across the country, from Los Angeles to Chicago, Dallas to Atlanta, and even in Albany, California, a pocket-sized city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay whose population is only slightly more than 20,000. The Albany Jazz Big Band, now almost 30 years old, entered a studio in June 2024 to record its first ...
Continue ReadingChad LB: The Shadow Of Your Smile
by Jack Bowers
Chad LB (for Lefkowitz-Brown), a shining star and technical wizard on the saxophone who has already recorded a full album with strings, uses them on only one number (the hymn “Ave Maria") on The Shadow of Your Smile, leading an able quartet the rest of the way on this generally pleasing studio date. While his choices of material are diverse (Eric Clapton, Bill Withers, Johnny Mandel, Buck Ram, and J.S. Bach among them), Chad LB is pretty much ...
Continue ReadingThe Scott Silbert Quartet: Dream Dancing
by Jack Bowers
The year 2025 marks the centenary of the birth of John Haley Sims, known around the world by his singular nickname, Zoot, a colossus of the saxophone who left this world far too soon in March 1985. Yet even though Zoot's physical presence is absent, his insuperable spirit lives on via Dream Dancing, a marvelous tribute by saxophonist and Sims enthusiast Scott Silbert and his masterful quartet.While there is no debating that there was only one Zoot Sims, ...
Continue ReadingJosh Nelson / Kevin Van Den Elzen: West Coast Echoes
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Josh Nelson and drummer Kevin Van Den Elzen (with bassist Eric Sittner) revisit the glory days of West Coast jazz in the 1950s and '60s on West Coast Echoes, a generally smooth and pleasing glance backward at the “cool" school of jazz championed by such legendary artists as Shorty Rogers, Art Pepper, Stan Getz, Shelly Manne, Gerry Mulligan, Bob Cooper, Chet Baker, Chico Hamilton, Bud Shank, Russ Freeman and many others. The “echoes" become louder and more ...
Continue ReadingYogev Shetrit: Way of Tradition
by Anastasia Bogomolets
Ever miss music quizzes? This album is the perfect way to test your musical intelligence. It keeps its jazz roots while weaving in all sorts of global influences. Some Central Asian rhythms and melodies emerge in “Bishkek Ancient City." A different kind of vibe, though from the same region, appears in “Uzbekistan." Distinct Moroccan influences shape Way of Tradition. Listeners might notice echoes of Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Roy Haynes, Art Blakey, or Max Roach. However, the next bar suggests ...
Continue ReadingAlex Chadsey: Invocation
by Paul Rauch
The fourth album from the trio Duende Libre is entitled Invocation, the act of summoning a deity or the supernatural. The band's name itself is rooted in flamenco culture, a term of great emotion that identifies a magical quality in an artist. The concept was famously theorized by Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, identifying elements that quantify this conception--irrationality, earthiness, a heightened awareness of death, and a touch of the diabolical. It is both a gift and a burden, a ...
Continue ReadingThe Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective: Cortadito
by Jack Bowers
The Afro-Caribbean Collective is a high-energy nonet led by Puerto Rican-born guitarist Jose Guzman. On Cortadito, the ensemble's fourth album, the accent as always is on the lively rhythms and charming melodies of Guzman's home country and nearby equatorial locales. There is one immediate problem, as Guzman writes that his composition “Orchard Downs" is the opening number, whereas the album's jacket places his “Holande Pa Uste" in the lead-off spot and lists “Orchard Downs" as the finale. From ...
Continue ReadingRavita Jazz: Alice Blue
by Jack Bowers
Alice Blue is a pleasant, no-frills session neatly performed by Ravita Jazz, a co-op sextet (or quintet plus vocalist) from Maryland whose presumed overseer is bassist Phil Ravita, as his is the only name that coincides with the name of the group as a whole. Ravita also wrote half of the studio date's ten numbers, all of which are original compositions save for Deirdre Jennings's vocal rendition of the standard “On the Sunny Side of the Street." ...
Continue ReadingOrlando Molina: Autorretrato en tres colores
by Ian Patterson
Autoretratto en Très Colores--A Portrait in Three Colors--the debut of Venezuelan guitarist and composer Orlando Molina as a leader, and it is a work steeped in experience. Though recorded over two years, these compositions feel like the product of a much longer journey--one shaped by study, migration, and growth. The album traces the emotional arc of Molina's move from Venezuela to Ireland, carrying with it echoes of loss and distance, discovery and renewal. Melancholy and hope coexist throughout, bound by ...
Continue ReadingYetii: Inner Worlds
by Peter Jones
The thriving jazz scene in Bristol, UK, has brought forth many fine musicians in recent years, as has nearby Cardiff, another smallish but fertile hub for music. Yetii, a piano trio led by pianist and composer Alex Veitch, has built up a loyal local following with its monthly residency at Bristol's Greenbank pub, where its gigs regularly sell out. Despite this, the band's progress to date has been slow, but the word is finally on the street: Yetii is something ...
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