Jazz Articles about Bernard Purdie

About Bernard Purdie

Album Review

Charlie Rouse: Cinnamon Flower: The Expanded Version

Read "Cinnamon Flower: The Expanded Version" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
March 20, 2026

Il decennale sodalizio con Thelonious Monk ha dato ampia notorietà a Charlie Rouse ma ne ha anche oscurato l'immagine e le potenzialità che aveva espresso negli anni cinquanta (quando suonò nelle orchestre di Duke Ellington e Count Basie, si unì al quintetto di Bennie Green e fondò con Julius Watkins i Jazz Modes). Dopo aver lasciato Monk nel 1970, Rouse lavorò per un decennio come freelance realizzando cose diverse per rientrare nel decennio successivo nell'orbita monkiana (senza più Monk, deceduto) nel gruppo ...

Album Review

Charlie Rouse: Cinnamon Flower : The Expanded Version

Read "Cinnamon Flower : The Expanded Version" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
September 19, 2025

Cinnamon Flower: The Expanded Edition is a reissue of The Charlie Rouse Band's 1977 Brazilian-inspired album originally released by Douglas Records. Now, nearly 50 years later, Resonance Records presents a deluxe, definitive edition of the album featuring previously unreleased versions of the songs from the original release. Recorded during a prolific period in Rouse's post-Thelonious Monk career, this project reveals a rarely heard side of the tenor saxophonist: a rhythmic sensuality and melodic elegance inspired by Brazil's vibrant music scene. ...

Liner Notes

Hank Crawford: Help Me Make It Through The Night

by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
July 17, 2025

One of the first artists signed by Creed Taylor for CTI's subsidiary Kudu label, Hank Crawford suffered violent criticism during the period (1971-1978) he recorded for the label, being accused of making mellow and commercial albums. On the other hand, Hank achieved a new level of popularity during his CTI/Kudu years. Some of the eight albums he cut for the label sold over 100,000 copies with almost no promotion. And his Kudu debut, Help Me Make It Through The Night, ...

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Liner Notes

Johnny "Hammond" Smith: Wild Horses Rock Steady

by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
November 3, 2024

Born John Robert Smith on December 16, 1933 (in Louisville, KY), formerly known as Johnny Hammond Smith, and later as Johnnny Hammond, one of the all-time best jazz organists passed away on June 4, 1997, in Chicago, Illinois. For some of his early fans, some of the best albums he recorded were done for Prestige in the Sixties. A younger generation, who grew up listening to the hip-hop influenced jazz sounds of the 1990s, prefers Johnny's over-produced sessions for Milestone ...

Multiple Reviews

Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf: Bernard Purdie and David Axelrod

by C. Andrew Hovan
April 5, 2023

As part of Concord Music and Craft Recordings, the Jazz Dispensary line was developed in 2016 to mine some of the funkier and more soul-influenced music housed in the catalogs of Prestige, Milestone, and Fantasy. Their initial offerings were mix tape-style collections frequently tapping into the mystique of the '70s and often appearing on Record Store Day. Previous projects have included reissues from Azymuth, Charles Kynard, and Johnny Hammond Smith. The label's Top Shelf series gets underway in ...

Liner Notes

Larry Coryell: Improvisations: Best of the Vanguard Years

by Josef Woodard
February 6, 2023

There have been many smoother operators in the world of jazz guitar than Larry Coryell, the brainy rough rider who was a natural-born fusioneer, in the best sense. There have been cleaner technicians on the instrument, with a more lucid sense of identity and careers that have followed a logical, rolling landscape. But not many have quite attained Coryell's strange, madly eclectic state of grace: into music he came, he saw and heard things not yet articulated, he conquered on ...

Album Review

Benjamin Koppel: The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue

Read "The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki

by Chris M. Slawecki
April 21, 2021

Listen to music long enough, and it's almost bound to happen: You're not sure exactly what you want to listen to, but you know that whatever you listen to needs must bump and groove. The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue, an anthology of American jazz, soul and R&B recorded live at a Copenhagen music festival by Danish saxophonist Benjamin Koppel and his big band, is some first-rate scratch for that itch. Ultimate Soul & Jazz neatly packages Koppel's ...