Jazz Articles

Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.

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Album Review

Russ Kassoff: Bird Fly By

Read "Bird Fly By" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 30, 2010

Bird Fly By opens, appropriately enough, with Russ Kassoff's unaccompanied piano establishing an easygoing vibe on Gus Kahn / Walter Donaldson's flapper-era standard, “Yes, Sir, That's My Baby." He's soon joined by bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Dennis Mackrel for a groovy romp that's all but certain to leave the listener smiling. Listening to that prefatory number is all that's needed to understand that Kassoff clearly loves what he is doing--and that he does it remarkably well. ...

219

Album Review

Russ Kassoff: Bird Fly By

Read "Bird Fly By" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
June 20, 2010

As of this writing, jazz pianist Russ Kassoff is the pianist and conductor of a seventeen-piece big band, and the musical director of Come Fly Away the Twyla Tharp Broadway dance musical tribute to Frank Sinatra. These associations became the inspiration and, as Kassoff states, the “final piece of impetus...needed," for recording Bird Fly By. Not surprising, however, considering an impressive musical résumé that includes touring with Sinatra for over a decade, culminating in the 1989 “The Ultimate Event" world ...