Jazz Articles about Andy Watson

About Andy Watson

Album Review

Gin, pianist Jill McCarron says of the title of her second recording as leader of the Jill McCarron Trio, refers to the card game of that name, and not to the alcoholic beverage. She balances the joy of winning with the luck of the draw in her entrancing three-part suite. While McCarron leads an admirable threesome (Paul Gill, bass; Andy Watson, drums), this is a trio album with an asterisk, as saxophonist Vincent Herring sits in on four numbers (including ...

Album Review

Scott Reeves: The Alchemist

Read "The Alchemist" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
October 8, 2021

Trombonist, composer and band leader Scott Reeves once performed a live concert at the City College of New York with his then quintet, which has now been documented as his newest offering entitled The Alchemist. However, new is not the operative word here, as this musical event took place on May 5th, 2005. While concentrating on compositions and recordings for his jazz orchestra over the last ten years, the pandemic provided Reeves with the opportunity to review the music he ...

Album Review

Scott Reeves Quintet: The Alchemist

Read "The Alchemist" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
July 21, 2021

Devastating as it has been, the global Covid-19 pandemic has produced a few upsides as well, one of which is the rediscovery by versatile Scott Reeves of a concert that his quintet performed sixteen years ago, in May 2005, at the City College of New York. With time on his hands as a result of the scarcity of gigs during the pandemic, Reeves visited his archives and found the recording, which he never intended to release owing to audio issues. ...

Album Review

Jill McCarron Trio with Will Anderson: Jazz Motif

Read "Jazz Motif" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 27, 2021

Pianist Jill McCarron's latest recording, Jazz Motif, gets off to a flying start with Will Anderson's irrepressible alto saxophone setting the pace on a fiery rendition of “All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" and his radiant flute showcased on John Lewis' groovy “Concorde." Alas, Anderson isn't heard again until Tracks 7 (Clare Fischer's “Ontem a Noite") and 9 (Antonio Carlos Jobim's “Chovendo Na Roseira"), both on flute, and uncases the alto only one more time, on Horace Silver's buoyant “Cool Eyes." ...

Album Review

Peter Bernstein & Guido Di Leone Quartet: Tribute to Jim Hall

Read "Tribute to Jim Hall" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo

by Maurizio Zerbo
February 9, 2021

Tribute to Jimmy Hall è ad oggi uno dei più riusciti omaggi discografici all'arte di questo grande maestro della chitarra jazz, scomparso otto anni fa. La dimensione live, ricca di momenti felici, ne ha ricreato tutto l'intenso lirismo apolinneo che rendeva ogni sua nota indispensabile. L'affinità stilistica che lega Peter Bernstein e Guido Di Leone produce un raffinato dialogo musicale in cui prevalgono le proverbiali sottigliezze melodiche e timbriche che Hall amava riversare anche nei brani dal mood ...

Album Review

John Hart: Act Three

Read "Act Three" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
June 5, 2020

Guitarist John Hart has long had an affinity for working with groups that feature the organ as a primary instrument. Having worked with Jimmy Smith and logged a 16-year tenure with organist Jack McDuff, the guitarist now presents Act Three, yet another project with another organ master, this time New York-based keyboardist Gary Versace on the Hammond B3 organ. Versace is one of the most in-demand musicians on the jazz scene today. Rounding out Hart's new band ...

Album Review

John Sneider: The Scrapper

Read "The Scrapper" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 18, 2020

If you expected a trumpeter whose nickname is “Scrapper" to come out swinging on his first album as leader in twenty years, give yourself a gold star and a hearty pat on the back. That is precisely the modus operandi on The Scrapper, wherein New York-based John Sneider leads a first-rate quintet through its paces on what in many respects seems like a homecoming, as everyone save tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm was present and accounted for on Sneider's earlier recording ...