Jazz Articles

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Dan Dean: 2 5 1

by Dan McClenaghan
April 11, 2010

Bassist Dan Dean is no stranger to the format of the intimate duo. His teaming with vibraphonist Tom Collier on the superb and aptly titled Duets (Origin Records, 2005) was a bright sparkling gem of a recording. On 2 5 1 he goes for a broader exploration of that sound, pairing up with four of his favorite keyboard players. The generous set, coming in at nearly eighty minutes, opens with the tried and true American Songbook jewel, ...

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Jim Staley: Scattered Thoughts

by Kurt Gottschalk
April 11, 2010

Jim Staley's career has been either made by or hastened by (or more likely both) his work as a producer and promoter. He rarely performs outside of Roulette, the longstanding Downtown venue he oversees and appears there only a few times a year at best. His recorded output is largely limited to occasional releases on Einstein Records, the label run as a part of Roulette Intermedium. His work keeping Roulette afloat through four decades of changing landscapes in new music ...

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Edmar Castaneda: Entre Cuerdas

by Russ Musto
April 11, 2010

Although jazz aficionados have become accustomed to the regular expansion of the music's vocabulary coming from the Caribbean and South America, virtually nothing in the history of the increasingly diverse genre known as “Latin jazz" has prepared audiences for the uniquely innovative sound of Edmar Castaneda. A native of Colombia, Castaneda plays “el arpa llanera," the folk harp commonly heard in his country's indigenous music, but there is nothing common about his virtuosic command or the music he performs. Possessing ...

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Marc Mommaas: Landmarc

by Thomas Conrad
April 11, 2010

It has been said that if you throw a quarter off the Empire State Building you are almost as likely to hit a tenor saxophonist as concrete. But in the Selmer-toting multitudes of Manhattan, Marc Mommaas has established a unique voice and vision. He was born into an artistic family in Amsterdam in 1969 and took a Masters degree in Business in the Netherlands. But he has lived in New York since 1997 and earned a second Masters from the ...

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Ken Peplowski: Noir Blue

by C. Michael Bailey
April 10, 2010

Noir Blue is a slight coloring outside the lines for clarinetist/saxophonist Ken Peplowski. His most recent recordings (with Arbors and Nagel Heyer) have focused on older swing forms and repertoire. Presently, Peplowski is playing pure jazz quartet music with pianist Shelly Berg, bassist Jay Leonhart, and drummer Joe La Barbera. The song choice is anything but standard, thought it never ventures too far from Peplowski's comfort zone.

Noir Blue is heavy on the Ellington/Strayhorn book, clocking in with a third ...

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April 2010

by AAJ Staff
April 10, 2010

Myron Walden Jazz StandardNew York, NY March 9, 2010One of saxophonist Myron Walden's four new albums this year is called To Feel and, indeed, if a single quality stands out in Walden's music, it is deep and palpable feeling, a big emotional sweep carried off with great finesse by his quintet In This World. In their second set at Jazz Standard (Mar. 9th), Walden and the group drew on music from the ballad-centric To ...

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Phish: The Biography

by Doug Collette
April 10, 2010

Phish: The Biography Parke Puterbaugh Hardcover; 352 pages ISBN: 9780306814846 DaCapo 2009

When Phish completed its triumphant return to the stage in March 2009 in Hampton, Virginia, it was the first in a sequence of events in which the seminal jamband revisited virtually all the significant touch-points of its history. A biography was inevitable, but Phish: The Biography is one of the least successful contributions to Phish lore in a ...

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Keith Pray's Big Soul Ensemble: Live at the Lark Tavern

by Alexander M. Stern
April 10, 2010

Live recording can be a mixed blessing. On a live album, an artist has an opportunity to capture the raw energy created in performance before an audience. When the band is cooking and the audience is whooping it up, it is clear that while music is made in rehearsal halls and recording studios, it lives onstage. On the other hand, recording live presents its own unique set of challenges. Getting the best possible sound in the controlled environment of the ...

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Elizabeth Shepherd: Heavy Falls the Night

by Raul d'Gama Rose
April 10, 2010

There is something so totally alluring about Elizabeth Shepherd's album Heavy Falls the Night that it bears very close listening. Every word and each note resonates with a certain swagger and at times, a soulful intensity that makes it impossible to give it a casual listen. Whether it is the manner in which Shepherd holds onto a spry note just out of her vocal range as if her life depended on it, or the unusual harmonies she overlays onto her ...

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Tenor Sax Legend: Live and Intimate

by Michael Steinman
April 10, 2010

Ben Webster Tenor Sax Legend: Live and Intimate Shanachie 2009

Although he looked like a frog or a bullmastiff (hence his nicknames Frog and The Brute), saxophonist Ben Webster was splendidly photogenic, his emotions nakedly on his face. This DVD brings together three concert performances and one documentary from his last decade in Europe. He purrs, snarls and moans with a rhythm trio, a big band, a string section, in a casual ...