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Frank Kimbrough: Monk's Dreams: The Complete Compositions of Thelonious Sphere Monk
by Angelo Leonardi
Fino a che punto può spingersi la rilettura del songbook monkiano senza alterare l'estetica e la profondità emotiva del suo autore? Le rivisitazioni degli ultimi decenni hanno privilegiato l'esaltazione dei suoi tratti asimmetrici (le melodie sghembe, i conflitti ritmici, le armonie dissonanti) usando quei brani come pretesto per esplorazioni d'avanguardia. Quando si è usato quel repertorio in chiave mainstream (come palestra per sequenze d'assoli sulle armonie) se n'è svuotata la specificità, l'essenza profonda. Molti hanno usato l'uno ...
Continue ReadingBilly Drummond at Attucks Jazz Club
by Mark Robbins
Billy Drummond grew up in Newport News, VA listening to his father's jazz record collection and eventually playing drums in his own and other's bands across the water in Norfolk. In the late '80s Drummond knew if he wanted to make it as a jazz drummer he would have to leave this area and, encouraged by Al Foster (another Virginian), moved to New York. It wasn't long before Drummond was playing with Out of the Blue and then when OTB ...
Continue ReadingFrank Kimbrough: Monk's Dreams: The Complete Compositions of Thelonious Sphere Monk
by Mark Sullivan
There were scores of tributes the legendary pianist and composer Thelonious Monk in 2017, the centennial of his birth. But only guitarist Miles Okazaki's six- volume solo guitar album Work: The Complete Compositions of Thelonious Monk (Self Produced, 2018) gave a clear presentation of all seventy of Monk's compositions. Pianist Frank Kimbrough's similarly comprehensive set is riskier in some ways, as the grouping of jazz quartet with a horn as the lead instrument (usually saxophone) is the one that Monk ...
Continue ReadingFrank Kimbrough: Monk's Dreams: The Complete Compositions of Thelonious Sphere Monk
by Victor L. Schermer
Thelonious Monk, though controversial in his time, was a brilliant, innovative pianist and composer with a unique way of conceiving the music that was yet remarkably simpatico with standard forms. Many of his compositions (they are much more than “tunes," though I'll use that word here as shorthand) have become a regular part of the jazz repertoire, and it is only natural that around the 2017 centennial celebration of Monk's birth, there would be heightened interest in his music.
Continue ReadingTessa Souter: Picture in Black and White
by Victor L. Schermer
New York-based vocalist Tessa Souter is becoming treasured among jazz fans and musicians alike. Equally effective in clubs, in concert and on her several fine recordings, she combines the sonority, vocal range and discipline of a classical contralto with subtle and sultry jazz inflections. Everything she sings is well thought out and in good taste. She works with the best instrumentalists and has a consummate grasp of both swing and the modern jazz idiom, as well as folk and world ...
Continue ReadingFrancis Hon: Before Dawn
by Troy Dostert
Taiwanese pianist Francis Hon didn't plan on becoming a jazz musician. But, during his doctoral studies in piano performance at the University of Texas, he met Jeff Hellmer, Director of Jazz Studies at the university, and that connection initiated Hon's pathway into the world of jazz--one he further explored during an eventual move to New York to intensively study jazz at NYU. On Before Dawn, his debut trio album, Hon shows that his thorough immersion in jazz has been time ...
Continue ReadingJim Snidero: Strings
by David A. Orthmann
By staying in touch with his roots as a hard blowing alto saxophonist and leader of razor-sharp small bands, Jim Snidero has successfully married a ten-piece string section and a conventional jazz quartet. His arrangements of six original compositions (including the three-part “River Suite”) and two standards entail a constant shifting between the relative freedom of improvisation, and the tighter organization made necessary by the larger ensemble.
The recording’s primary soloist, Snidero consistently radiates excitement and a ...
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