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Mike Jones: Mike Jones With Strings
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Mike Jones' With Strings does not denote a sizable orchestral design but a piano-jazz trio in which a guitar replaces the drums, a format introduced in the 1930s by Nat King Cole's peerless trio and favored for years by the legendary Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson with Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel or Joe Pass on guitar. One thing that Jones, bassist Alex Frank and guitarist Graham Dechter share in common with those earlier groups is an unambiguous capacity--one ...
Continue ReadingMike Jones: Mike Jones With Strings
by Pierre Giroux
There is something refreshingly honest about a drummerless trio. Without the cushion of cymbals and snare to drive the pulse, every note matters a little more. This format dates back to the Nat King Cole Trio in the 1930s and to the Oscar Peterson-celebrated groups of the 1950s, in which the guitar and bass took responsibility for keeping the music moving. Mike Jones clearly understands that tradition, and Mike Jones with Strings embraces it with confidence and style.
Continue ReadingAlex Frank: Jeff Goldblum's Bassist on Swing and the Ray Brown Tradition
by Mike Jones
Alex Frank grew up in the room while the music was being made. The son of an LA film composer, he was a kid at recording sessions who traded the clarinet for an upright the moment he heard Ray Brown . Now he's the musical director of Jeff Goldblum's jazz band and one of the most in-demand bassists working the drummerless-trio tradition that ran from Nat King Cole to Oscar Peterson. He joins host Mike Jones for a conversation about ...
Continue ReadingAdrian Galante: Introducing Adrian Galante
by Jack Bowers
The late Phil Woods used to argue that of all the members of the woodwind family, the clarinet is by far the most difficult to manage, saying it was “designed by six guys who had never met one another." If Australian-born, New York-based clarinetist Adrian Galante has any problems with the instrument, they are in no way apparent on his debut album, Introducing Adrian Galante, wherein listeners are introduced to a talented and versatile young artist whose growth to date ...
Continue ReadingJudy Whitmore: Isn't It Romantic
by Richard J Salvucci
"Take a page out of Judy Whitmore's playbook for life, and be inspired by a true modern-day Renaissance woman--cabaret and recording artist, best-selling author, and licensed jet pilot--whose passion for adventure has audiences and readers across America abandoning their fears and reawakening to long-forgotten dreams and new desires." Thus Judy Whitmore, her web page. Ms. Whitmore, you may gather, is not a professional jazz singer Of course, it would be hard to know what exactly qualifies someone as ...
Continue ReadingJudy Whitmore: Isn't It Romantic
by Jack Bowers
Sometimes it is a pleasure to listen to an album simply because the quality of the music is so consistently gratifying. And if the music is sung as well as Judy Whitmore sings it on Isn't It Romantic, well, that is icing on the cake, as are the superb performances by her supporting cast, especially pianist Tamir Hendelman and saxophonist Rickey Woodard. The music is taken for the most part from the Great American Songbook, and much ...
Continue ReadingJudy Whitmore: Isn't It Romantic
by Pierre Giroux
It seems that for most singers at some point in their career, delving into the Great American Songbook is “de rigueur." And why is that? Perhaps it's because the melodies are captivating, the lyrics are meaningful, and the quality of the compositions has proven to be timeless. In any event singer Judy Whitmore has added her name to that long list of vocalists who have taken the up the challenge with her third release. There are ...
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