Jazz Articles about Billy Hart

About Billy Hart

Album Review

Brian Landrus, Fred Hersch, Drew Gress, Billy Hart: For Now

Read "For Now" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
March 17, 2021

Due anni dopo il sontuoso progetto orchestrale pubblicato nell'album Generations (Blueland 2018) il compositore e multistrumentista allievo di Bob Brookmeyer, è tornato a incidere con un piccolo organico, aperto a suggestioni cameristiche (con l'aggiunta di un quartetto d'archi) o di taglio neo-bop (con il trombettista Michael Rodriguez). Quand'era adolescente Brian Landrus era una testa calda, il peggiore della scuola, sempre pronto a picchiarsi coi coetanei. Poi il jazz l'ha molto cambiato e risulta difficile crederlo oggi, di ...

Album Review

Noah Haidu: Doctone

Read "Doctone" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 8, 2020

Pianist Kenny Kirkland never seemed particularly interested in attaining the high level of fame enjoyed by two of his early employers, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and saxophonist Branford Marsalis. He worked first for Wynton, playing on four of the trumpeter's albums between 1981 and 1985, before moving into Branford's orbit, for eight albums between 1983 to 1998. These were breakout times for the famous brothers, burst-out-onto-the-scene times that were critical to their ultimate successes. And Kenny Kirkland was there, contributing his ...

Album Review

Brian Landrus: For Now

by Doug Hall
May 30, 2020

Low-register reed specialist and multi-instrumentalist and composer Brian Landrus confronted a difficult period in his life and used adversity to inspire a passionate declaration in song on his 2020 release For Now (BlueLand Records). He took advice from the late valve-trombonist, composer and educator Bob Brookmeyer, “book a recording session before you have the music composed—then you have a goal." Alternating between the baritone saxophone and the bass clarinet, Landrus creates wonderful lower-range tones and compositions with instruments ...

Album Review

Brian Landrus: For Now

by Jack Bowers
May 20, 2020

On For Now, his tenth album as leader, multi-reed specialist Brian Landrus gives voice to the many faces of romance, using as his means of expression a talented core quintet, amplified on several themes by a four-member string section, with arrangements by the notable opera composer Robert Aldridge. While Landrus plays four instruments including flute and alto flute, he sticks for the most part to baritone sax and bass clarinet, soloing on one or the other on almost every one ...

Album Review

Billy Hart & The WDR Big Band: The Broader Picture

Read "The Broader Picture" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
May 4, 2017

A dispetto della notorietà e del prestigio ottenuti nell'attività di batterista e insegnante, le doti compositive di Billy Hart sono relativamente poco note. Il trombonista e compositore svizzero Christophe Schweizer, già suo allievo al Mannes College of Music di New York nel 1992, rende omaggio al maestro arrangiando alcuni suoi brani ed eseguendoli con la WDR Big Band. La scelta è caduta su otto temi scritti da Hart per gli album Enchance, Rah e Oceans of Time, in ...

Album Review

Yelena Eckemoff Quartet: Leaving Everything Behind

Read "Leaving Everything Behind" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
March 23, 2017

Continua a mostrare gusto, classe e capacità di scegliersi i compagni di avventura l'eclettica pianista russo-americana Yelena Eckemoff, la quale dopo album con partner nordeuropei -Glass Songs, in trio, e Everblue, in quartetto -realizza adesso questo lavoro con musicisti statunitensi. Rispetto al precedente CD cambia drasticamente anche il primo strumento solista -là il sassofono di Tore Brunborg -qua il violino di Mark Feldman. Alla ritmica, per non far rimpiangere Arild Andersen e Jon Christensen, troviamo uno storico protagonista ...

Album Review

Billy Hart & The WDR Big Band: The Broader Picture

Read "The Broader Picture" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
October 8, 2016

A great teacher's influence can be unusually powerful and completely unbound, fixed to specific moments and lessons in a student's mind while also reverberating through time and space. You simply never know where it may lead, what doors it may unlock, or what wonders and worlds it may help to create. That's the subtext in the story behind this engrossing and brilliant affair. Back in 1992, Christophe Schweizer was a promising student at the Mannes College of ...