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Ron Rieder: Dia Precioso!
by Jack Bowers
Dia Precioso! is the second album of exuberant Latin Jazz designed by Massachusetts-based composer Ron Rieder, gliding in on the heels of his well-received debut recording, Latin Jazz Sessions (2024). As before, Rieder leads a more-or-less octet comprised of topnotch Boston-area musicians; and as before, Rieder's music is for the most part arranged by percussionist Ricardo Monzon. While personnel remains roughly the same as on the earlier album, more brass (trumpeters Yaure Muniz or Greg Hopkins, trombonist ...
Continue ReadingRon Rieder: Latin Jazz Sessions
by Jack Bowers
Even while pursuing a long and successful career in the physical sciences, Bostonian Ron Rieder never abandoned his life-long love for jazz, especially the tantalizing melodies and lively rhythms of Latin America, composing music at every opportunity before returning to writing full-time and at long last recording his debut album, Latin Jazz Sessions It was worth the wait. Rieder's colorful tunes ensnare the ears from the outset and never let go, while his septet plays Latin jazz about ...
Continue ReadingClub d'Elf: As Above - Live At The Lizard Lounge
by Doug Collette
The music of Club d'Elf's debut album, As Above, speaks volumes in terms of the group's mystical and stylistic roots. In fact, it is perfectly reflective of the actual ancient quote from which the title is taken; 'As above, so below...' suggests how the rhythm motifs are as fully and completely developed as the melodic themes. Recorded in 1999 and 2000, at the Lizard Lounge in Boston, which has become Mike Rivard and company's home base over the ...
Continue ReadingMiles Donahue: Just Passing Thru
by Jack Bowers
Miles Donahue is a versatile musician, a talent that serves him well on Just Passing Thru, an album wherein he not only plays soprano, alto and tenor saxophones, trumpet and keyboards but also wrote all but one of the session's nine selections. This is basically a quintet with guitarist Mike Stern added on the last three tracks, guitarist Sal Difusco and accordionist Joey Barbato on one each. Barbato is an especially welcome addition on the closer, “Ireland," a nod to ...
Continue ReadingAlain Mallet Mutt Slang 2: A Wake of Sorrows Engulfed in Rage
by Paul Rauch
The art of jazz would seem to be a mystery to most, and at the same time, a language understood by many. In the entirety of its history, it has served as a central location for idiomatic change, a virtual jumping off point for explorative ventures into both new and traditional world forms. The wide lens of the music of pianist/composer Alain Mallet mirrors in a way, the large embrace of all humankind necessary globally to build a meaningful dialog ...
Continue ReadingAlain Mallet: Mutt Slang
by Troy Dostert
Pianist/keyboardist Alain Mallet has been known as much for his work as a producer as for his pianistic accomplishments. Having served as a sideman for Madeleine Peyroux, Phil Woods and Paul Simon, he's also produced music by vocalists Jonatha Brooke and Grace Kelly. And his compositions have been performed by musicians as diverse as Gary Burton, Dave Samuels and Paquito D'Rivera, which gives a sense of the breadth of his musical affinities. That wide-ranging spirit is certainly the defining characteristic ...
Continue ReadingHerbie Mann & Phil Woods: Beyond Brooklyn
by George Kanzler
Herbie Mann and Phil Woods met when they were two barely adult beboppers jamming together at a joint called Tony's Bar on Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn in 1951. A couple years later, Woods would play on Mann's Yardbird Suite LP. They finally shared the front line on an album again with this CD, the last Mann made before he died on July 2, 2003.Beyond Brooklyn is a fine envoi to Mann's career, featuring the flutist in many of ...
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