Jazz Articles about Allan Mednard

About Allan Mednard

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 ...

Album Review

Alex LoRe & Weirdear: Evening Will Find Itself

Read "Evening Will Find Itself" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo

by Maurizio Zerbo
March 14, 2024

Attraverso questo CD, gli appassionati italiani di jazz potranno conoscere e apprezzare Alex LoRe, uno dei più talentuosi sassofonisti emergenti dell'area newyorkese. Ispirato ai grandi modelli della grande tradizione jazzistica degli anni Sessanta, Evening Will Find Itself propone una musica ben costruita, interpretata col giusto pathos. Armonicamente e ritmicamente complesse, le dieci tracce del CD ed in particolare l'evocativo “Face Unseen" attualizzano la sontuosa lezione shorteriana, facendo leva sulle fantasiose doti improvvisative del quartetto. Oltre al ...

Album Review

Lucas Pino: Covers

by Jack Bowers
January 1, 2024

Covers is a quartet date in which New York-based tenor saxophonist Lucas Pino “covers" half a dozen generally pleasing songs written by his contemporaries, alongside one each by Charlie Parker ("Relaxin' at Camarillo") and Duke Pearson ("New Girl"). Pino's smooth, articulate tenor saxophone is reinforced by guitarist Alex Goodman, bassist Rick Rosato and drummer Allan Mednard. This represents something of a departure for Pino who usually records with larger groups--including his No Net Nonet--and seldom covers other ...

Album Review

Marta Sanchez: SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum)

Read "SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum)" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
January 20, 2023

La giovane pianista madrilena Marta Sanchez, ormai da tempo di stanza a New York, dirige in questo suo nuovo lavoro, inciso nel marzo 2021, un agguerrito quintetto con doppio sax che in un brano, “Marivi," si allarga a ottetto con l'ingresso di tromba (e che tromba: Ambrose Akinmusire), voce/chitarra e synth, dando sempre la precisa impressione di riuscire a dire ciò che sta nelle sue attuali corde. Il dialogo--l'interscambio--è per lo più fitto, vitale, ma sempre dall'alto ...

Album Review

Michael Blake: Combobulate

Read "Combobulate" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
November 5, 2022

The instrumentation alone promises something out of the ordinary. Saxophone, two tubas, trumpet, trombone, drums. Then there are the musicians, luminaries of downtown New York jazz. Michael Blake, Bob Stewart, Marcus Rojas, Steven Bernstein, Clark Gayton, Allan Mednard. And within seconds of the needle descending on track one, side one, Combobulate starts delivering on the promise. The album is one of four marking the return of audiophile-vinyl label Newvelle after a two-year hiatus. The approximate meaning of its ...

Album Review

The Relay: The Relay

Read "The Relay" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 2, 2022

Artistic cooperation and cohesion are evident from the first notes of The Relay's eponymous debut. With saxophonist Dan Pratt's “Four for," the composer and pianist Michael Eckroth— this quartet's co-leaders—sync up with a bright and fragmented melody line which seeds overlapping solos that sprout when bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Allan Mednard enter the picture. Referencing a collective chemistry in both sound and name, that engaging opener sets the stage for a program that's pure magic. The ...

Album Review

Jeremy Pelt: Soundtrack

Read "Soundtrack" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 25, 2022

Although Soundtrack is the name of trumpeter Jeremy Pelt's latest album (more about that in a moment), there is another selection that more readily summarizes Pelt's lyric philosophy: “I Love Music." And while there is ample contrast, camaraderie and color on the album, there is no doubt that Pelt's clear and creative commentaries are the focal point. As for that title, “Soundtrack" is simply the name of a twenty-year-old ballad written for but never recorded by one of Pelt's earlier ...