Jazz Articles about Ben Markley

About Ben Markley

Album Review

When high-caliber musicians invest time and effort to produce music they believe in, one is loath to dismiss it as anything less than persuasive. On the other hand, any assessment of Colorado-based drummer Andy Wheelock's album, View from Here, must be tempered by an awareness that this is his special view, and that of his group, and that the overall result may not be embraced with equal fervor by every ear. That is one way of saying ...

Album Review

Dan Jonas: The Spirituality Suite

Read "The Spirituality Suite" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 29, 2020

Utah-based trumpeter Dan Jonas says The Spirituality Suite was written as a response to his own struggles with spirituality in the twenty-first century. The music is thus largely conceptual, or as Jonas explains it, “Much of the inspiration . . . lies in the musical interval of a perfect fourth. The interval can be either consonant or dissonant, where the context in which it appears is the determining factor. Additionally, on one side lies a major third, one of the ...

Album Review

Ben Markley Quartet: Slow Play

Read "Slow Play" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 10, 2019

The jacket cover on this splendid new studio recording from OA2 Records reads “Ben Markley Quartet Featuring Joel Frahm," and for good reason: the New York City-based saxophonist lends considerable improvisational weight to Slow Play, which would be a far different animal without him. That's not to say that pianist Markley, bassist Marty Kenney and drummer Jim White couldn't succeed or even prosper without him, only that Frahm's strong and persuasive voice is so inseparable a part of the package ...

Album Review

Ben Markley: Slow Play

by Paul Rauch
October 29, 2019

Pianist/composer Ben Markley has shown deft touch in hand picking projects that express the broad range of his relationship with the music. Since 2017 he has produced a rousing big band tribute to Cedar Walton, and a slick quartet record with saxophonist Greg Osby. Clockwise: The Music of Cedar Walton (OA2, 2017) featured Markley's insightful arrangements of the beloved pianist's tunes, utilizing fellow faculty members at the University of Wyoming, and players from the vibrant jazz scene in Denver. Basic ...

Album Review

Ben Markley Quartet: Basic Economy

Read "Basic Economy" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
August 4, 2018

Pianist/composer Ben Markley has enough jazz pedigree to draw interest from jazz fans on an international level. After all, he has performed with such notables as Brian Lynch, Terell Stafford, and Eddie Henderson. His work on the jazz scene in Denver is well regarded, as is his work as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, not what one would call a hotbed of jazz music. It was Markley's most recent recording Clockwise: The ...

Album Review

Ben Markley Big Band, featuring Terell Stafford: Clockwise: The Music Of Cedar Walton

Read "Clockwise: The Music Of Cedar Walton" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 19, 2017

Pianist Cedar Walton (1934-2013) is one of the giants, as well known for his compositions and arranging as he is for his piano chair stints in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, his steering vocalist Etta James to an Emmy Award for Mystery Lady: The Songs Of Billie Holiday, (RCA, 1994), and his prolific recording career, beginning with Cedar! (Prestige Records, 1967) through The Bouncer (Highnote Records, 2011). Like many of us, pianist Ben Markley got hooked on the music ...

Album Review

Ben Markley: Clockwise: The Music Of Cedar Walton

Read "Clockwise: The Music Of Cedar Walton" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 11, 2017

Cedar Walton, whose long and illustrious career ended with his passing in August 2013, was not only one of his era's most celebrated jazz pianists but a musician whose impressive talents as a composer were often beclouded by his remarkable success as a performer. One of those whose admiration for Walton the composer is as earnest as it is for Walton the pianist is Ben Markley, himself a pianist and director of Jazz Studies at the University of Wyoming. To ...