Jazz Articles

like 272

Steve Davis: Images - The Hartford Suite

by Bruce Lindsay
June 6, 2010

Trombonist/composer Steve Davis was commissioned by the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz to compose Images: The Hartford Suite, with track dedicated to a contemporary or historical Hartford figure or place. Thankfully, a detailed knowledge of Hartford, Connecticut is not a prerequisite for the enjoyment of this music; the talent and enthusiasm of the musicians accentuate this set of upbeat, positive, swinging tunes. This is the Davis quintet's second album, following Outlook (Posi-Tone Records, 2008). Every member of ...

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Ethan Mann: It's All About A Groove

by Dan Bilawsky
June 6, 2010

While plenty of jazz fans are schooled musicians, an even greater number doesn't have significant training--or any training, for that matter--in music. These people might not know chord progressions or specific rhythmic patterns, but they do know if music feels good. When songs are stripped to their bare essence, the groove is often what creates the groundwork for everything else and allows the music to take shape. Guitarist Ethan Mann clearly agrees with this idea and made it the central ...

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Dana Lauren: It's You Or No One

by Woodrow Wilkins
June 6, 2010

It's impossible to predict when chance will smile favorably, so it's important to be prepared for when that opportunity arrives. Vocalist Dana Lauren seized chance by the proverbial throat when, at the age of 17, she met Arturo Sandoval at a jazz festival. That encounter led to Lauren performing with Sandoval at his Miami club, and to her debut recording, Stairway to the Stars, which the trumpeter produced. Inspired by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae and ...

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Lew Tabackin: Jazz na Hrade

by Ken Dryden
June 6, 2010

Lew Tabackin began to make his mark in the '60s, touring or recording with Maynard Ferguson, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Duke Pearson, Joe Henderson, Elvin Jones, Donald Byrd and The Tonight Show Band. From 1968-69, he was a main soloist with the Danish Radio Orchestra. He helped his wife, Toshiko Akiyoshi, to form her long-running jazz orchestra not long after they moved to California, taking part as its star soloist during its three decades of existence, though the veteran ...

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Carol Sudhalter: The Octave Tunes

by Donald Elfman
June 6, 2010

The notes to this thoughtful and beautifully executed disc suggest this is the first collection in which the tunes share the trait of all starting with an octave interval. True, perhaps, but what sets it apart is smart music passionately and intelligently played by musicians committed to the fine art of communication. Carol Sudhalter is a talented multi-reed instrumentalist and her work on tenor, baritone and flute is of a piece--keen on melody, finely proportioned and always ...

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Brandon Wright: Boiling Point

by Elliott Simon
June 6, 2010

A talented young saxophonist, Brandon Wright came to NYC from Miami and honed his craft in its intimate uptown and downtown venues, while taking advantage of the Petri dish nature of its musician collegiality. And Wright obviously did more than just show up and play. He had to have listened, learned, practiced and sweated to master the full-throated sound that so impresses on each of Boiling Point's eight cuts. As is obvious from both the compositional strength of the originals ...

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Bryan and the Haggards: Pretend It's the End of the World

by Dan McClenaghan
June 5, 2010

Can a saxophone “twang?" If it's a set of music celebrating the sounds of Bakersfield, California's county music legend, Merle Haggard, it had better do just that. And strangely, with Pretend It's the End of the World, by Bryan and the Haggards, the saxophone blowing of altoist Jon Irabagon and the tenorist/leader Bryan Murray find that country twang via drawn out whiny lines, in an odd marriage of the country music's iconic Bakersfield sound with free jazz, in, at times, ...

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The Ted Nash Quintet at Dizzy's

by Nick Catalano
June 5, 2010

It seems just yesterday that Wynton Marsalis filled the chairs in the new Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with young unknown musicians. But here it is 2010 and most of the initial personnel have gone on to become important jazz figures leading their own groups and recording prolifically.

Among the most notable of these is Ted Nash. Born and raised in L.A. under the early tutelage of his father trombonist Dick and his uncle reedman Ted, young Nash played piano at ...

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Thomson Kneeland: Mazurka For A Modern Man

by Bruce Lindsay
June 5, 2010

Bassist Thomson Kneeland leads an impressive array of musicians on Mazurka For A Modern Man. It's a strong collection of tunes, characterised by Kneeland's lively bass rhythms and by the gorgeous melodies that emanate from David Smith's trumpet and Nate Radley's guitar. Kneeland's liner notes make it clear that this album is dedicated to his band mate and friend, the drummer Take Toriyama, who took his own life barely 2 weeks after recording was completed in 2007. ...

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Corey Christiansen Quartet: Outlaw Tractor

by John Barron
June 5, 2010

Guitarist extraordinaire Corey Christiansen displays a crisp attack with scorching solos on Outlaw Tractor, a disc full of no-nonsense, organ-based, groovy jazz. Christiansen, who is also a well-known educator and author of guitar-related instructional material, recruits the talents of organist Pat Bianchi to create a rollicking vibe reminiscent of the classic pairing of Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith in the 1960s. The irresistible boogaloo, “Down Time," and Larry Young-style blues waltz, “Carefree," set the tone of the session ...