Jazz Articles

Bill Easley: Business Man's Bounce

by Ken Dryden
June 8, 2008

For most of his career, tenor saxophonist Bill Easley has worked as a sideman, including sessions for the Stax label. For just his fourth CD as a leader, his band includes pianist Larry Ham, bassist Hassan JJ Shakur and the seasoned drummer Michael Carvin on selections which draw from different eras of jazz. Easley soars in his opener, “Straighten Up and Fly Right" (the Nat King Cole sermon-like hit inspired in part by his preacher father), which ...

Diane Hubka: Diane Hubka Goes to the Movies

by C. Michael Bailey
February 11, 2008

Hubka, Hubka...

The marketplace is clotted with exceptional recordings by female jazz vocalists/instrumentalists, the vast majority complimenting their voices with a certain piano talent. Diane Hubka is one of the few, if not the only, female vocalist who also plays guitar. She has enjoyed considerable exposure with recordings like, Haven't We Met (A-Records, 1998), Look No Further (Naxos, 2000), and You Inspire Me (VSOJAZZ, 2002). Diane Hubka Goes to the Movies is her first release since You Inspire Me, during ...

Sonny Fortune: You and the Night and the Music

by Troy Collins
August 31, 2007

From the generation of post-bop saxophonists following in the shadow of John Coltrane, multi-instrumentalist Sonny Fortune comes closest to capturing Coltrane's spirit and intensity. Since the late 1960s, Fortune has made an indelible mark on jazz history, collaborating with Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis and Mongo Santamaria, among other luminaries. Despite his numerous side-man appearances and a fertile solo career, he remains a respected but unsung hero of the jazz cognoscenti.

Dominated by standards and traditional tunes, ...

Sonny Fortune: You and the Night and the Music

by Joel Roberts
July 16, 2007

While he's been overshadowed by other saxophonists throughout much of his career, Sonny Fortune has been an important force in jazz for many years, playing in a style that owes much to John Coltrane and was showcased in the bands of Coltrane's key collaborators, Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner--as well as in a stint with Miles Davis in the 1970s. Fortune's You and The Night and The Music shows the Philadelphia-born Fortune in fine form at the ...

Akiko Tsuruga: Sweet and Funky

by C. Michael Bailey
June 14, 2007

Jazz organ has been passing through a long period of experimentation, where well-behaved organists with superior chops have been releasing lean and muscular jazz, all well-conceived and executed. This creative direction in organ-based jazz is a positive development, expanding the application of the B3 in the vocabulary of the music. The music can be succinctly defined as “low fat (read “no grease ).

Like a bull stock market, organ jazz sometimes requires a correction, a recalibration based on ...

Akiko Tsuruga: Sweet and Funky

by Budd Kopman
May 16, 2007

Get down, watch out and dig what pours forth from the Hammond B3 organ as played by Akiko Tsuruga. The possessor of a million dollar smile and a stage presence that makes one glad to be in the audience, Tsuruga is a killer player. Sweet and Funky is a pure mainstream release representing the organ trio tradition that is steeped in the blues and swings like crazy. Together with her band mates, guitarist Eric Johnson and drummer ...

Onaje Allan Gumbs: Sack Full of Dreams

by John Kelman
April 6, 2007

The term “journeyman musician" is an often misunderstood and unjustly maligned one. Rather than its “jack of all trades, master of none" connotation, in the sphere of music it more often refers to artists who seamlessly straddle multiple genres while retaining their individual voices no matter what the style. Pianist Onaje Allan Gumbs may well be the definitive journeyman musician, having worked with everyone from Woody Shaw to Gerald Albright and Ronald Shannon Jackson. His own records have been equally ...