Jazz Articles about Alan Pasqua

About Alan Pasqua

Album Review

Jeff Ellwood: The Sounds Around The House

Read "The Sounds Around The House" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
March 8, 2021

As a professional musician hoping to have a meaningful career, hiding one's light under a bushel, may not be the best way to recognizable success. Such might be the case for tenor saxophonist Jeff Ellwood. He may have fallen into the trap evinced by the Dave Frishberg ditty “I Want To Be A Sideman." But as the saying goes; “better late than never" as Ellwood released a self-produced debut, The Sounds Around The House. ...

Album Review

Alan Pasqua: Day Dream

Read "Day Dream" reviewed by Jim Worsley

by Jim Worsley
March 6, 2021

When you hear that Alan Pasqua has put out a new record, the first thought--other than perhaps happiness--is what genre are we talking about? Pasqua has worn many hats in his career. To his credit, he looks quite fashionable in any of them. Maybe you think of fusion Pasqua, who mixed it up with the genre's finest, from Tony Williams to Allan Holdsworth. Perhaps it is the highest order of straight ahead jazz with the likes of Peter Erskine on ...

Album Review

Bob Dylan: Rough And Rowdy Ways

Read "Rough And Rowdy Ways" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
July 18, 2020

Bob Dylan's Rough And Rowdy Ways is a uniformly excellent piece of work. On these ten new original songs, the Nobel Laureate blends folk, blues and country music with just the slightest dash of gospel and, accompanied with sensitivity by his touring band (plus a few additional musicians including Blake Mills and Fiona Apple), the seamless sound makes this thirty-ninth Dylan studio album superior to both of the other standouts of recent years, Time Out Of Mind (Columbia, 1997) and ...

SoCal Jazz

Alan Pasqua: Keys That Unlock Many Doors

by Jim Worsley
December 6, 2019

Recently, and just a few days before Thanksgiving (2019), I was thankful for the opportunity to have two separate conversations with renown pianist Alan Pasqua. As generous with his time and candid commentary as he is talented as a musician and composer, both conversations crashed the one-hour mark. For you non mathematicians, that is over two hours of discussing, recounting, and engaging into a wide range of topics. With that in mind I will keep this intro brief ...

Album Review

George Garzone/Peter Erskine/Alan Pasqua/Darek Oles: 3 Nights in L.A.

Read "3 Nights in L.A." reviewed by Jim Worsley

by Jim Worsley
September 7, 2019

Any jazz cat will tell you that the art of improvising is the primary contributing factor in what sets jazz apart from other genres. It is the artists' ability to continuously and freely explore a composition. As they expand the notes and the feel, they expand and open our minds along with them. One of the finest examples of that process can be heard on 3 Nights in L.A.. Tenor saxophonist George Garzone, drummer Peter Erskine, pianist Alan ...

Album Review

Alan Pasqua: Soliloquy

Read "Soliloquy" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 4, 2018

Webster's Dictionary defines the word “soliloquy" as “the act of talking to oneself." In terms of solo piano recordings, it is an apt title. Pianist Alan Pasqua's Soliloquy is a sophisticated and reflective, alone-with-the piano work, a deliberative and lovely take on a batch well-chosen standards and one Bob Dylan tune. A versatile and virtuosic player, Pasqua has recorded with a wide array of top line jazz artists--Jack DeJohnette, Paul Motion, Michael and Randy Brecker, etc--as well as ...

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Album Review

Peter Erskine / Bob Mintzer / Darek Oles / Alan Pasqua: Standards 2, Movie Music

Read "Standards 2, Movie Music" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
April 11, 2011

Standards hold a particular fascination for drummer Peter Erskine, as initiated through his Grammy-nominated Standards(Fuzzy Music, 2008). Unlike that first album--comprised primarily of old jazz standards--Standards 2, Movie Music focuses on songs that are considered standards from the realm of Hollywood movies. Featuring music from Gone With The Wind (1939), considered by many to be one of the best movies ever made, to the main theme from Rosemary's Baby (1968), this unusual collection of songs, by necessity, has to leave ...