Jazz Articles about Alex Wintz

About Alex Wintz

Album Review

Grammy-nominated guitarist Alex Wintz is not only a frequent performer, both with his own group and with artists such as the trumpeters Etienne Charles and Jeremy Pelt and trombonist Nick Finzer, but also an educator on the faculty of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center Jazz for Teens program and a clever composer. Collage features six excellent original tunes along with the jazz standard “The Shadow of Your Smile" and George Harrison's “Isn't It A Pity" and follows Wintz's two ...

Album Review

Nick Finzer: The Jazz Orchestra Volume 1

Read "The Jazz Orchestra Volume 1" reviewed by Carl Medsker

by Carl Medsker
September 1, 2025

Listening chronologically to seven of Nick Finzer's preceding albums is enlightening and entertaining, making several aspects of his musicianship abundantly apparent. His trombone sound is full and expressive, his playing melodious and he can soulfully sing a ballad. Six albums, dating back to 2013, featured his highly talented sextet, a significant accomplishment that enhances the depth and confidence of the recordings. But Finzer's evolving skills in arranging his fresh compositions truly distinguish his work. He choreographs his bandmates amidst lovely ...

Album Review

Jeremy Pelt: Tomorrow's Another Day

Read "Tomorrow's Another Day" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
January 7, 2025

L'avvio non è dei più incoraggianti, lambendo abbastanza pericolosamente la deriva dell'easy listening, ma poi, per fortuna, le cose migliorano e questo nuovo lavoro di Jeremy Pelt, virgulto ormai quarantottenne di certo “nuovo" jazz, riprende abbastanza convintamente la retta via. O meglio la strada maestra, perché è questo il nuovo verbo cui il trombettista californiano fa riferimento, glissando con una certa disinvoltura su tutto quanto avvenuto dopo (o attorno a) l'epoca aurea di suoi colleghi di strumento quali Clifford Brown, ...

Album Review

Brian Lynch: 7X7BY7

by Jack Bowers
December 13, 2024

The number seven, which for reasons shrouded in mystery, has long been considered a symbol of good luck, lies at the core of trumpeter Brian Lynch's latest album, 7X7BY7, which consists of seven themes performed by seven musicians with each number clocking in at precisely six seconds past seven minutes. Furthermore, it is said, “the...process [of creating the album] was designed to facilitate the smooth reassembly of elements...into new pieces. Shaped by these attributes along with their constraints, the music ...

Album Review

Etienne Charles: Creole Orchestra Featuring René Marie

Read "Creole Orchestra Featuring René Marie" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
September 2, 2024

A 18 anni di distanza dal debutto discografico in Culture Shock il trombettista originario di Trinidad & Tobago, si cimenta come bandleader di un ampio organico, in una lussureggiante sintesi di ritmi caraibici e orchestrazioni che vanno dalla tradizione Swing all'hip hop. L'orchestra è un ampliamento della sua storica Creole Soul Band e ospita la cantante René Marie in quattro brani. Etienne ha iniziato a scrivere per ampi organici a partire dalla collaborazione con la stessa cantante ...

Album Review

Etienne Charles: Creole Orchestra Featuring René Marie

Read "Creole Orchestra Featuring René Marie" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
June 12, 2024

Trinidad-born Etienne Charles has been fortunate in his associates during his development as a jazz musician. One of the first friends he made on arrival in the U.S.A. in the early 2000s to study at Florida State University was faculty member Marcus Roberts. Among much else, the pianist taught Charles the importance of keeping in touch with his roots. “He always said make sure you put where you're from in your music," says Charles in the press materials accompanying his ...

Album Review

Jeremy Pelt: Tomorrow's Another Day

Read "Tomorrow's Another Day" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 30, 2024

Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, a force on the jazz scene for more than two decades, simply does his own thing on Tomorrow's Another Day, the twenty-fourth album as leader of his own groups, inviting any interested listeners to come on board for the ride. Pelt's thing these days apparently includes an abundance of special effects, reverb, heavy (and at times intrusive) rhythms, leavened with occasional flashes of the remarkable improviser he can be and often is. To help ...