Jazz Articles about Billy Mintz

About Billy Mintz

Album Review

Samuel Blaser has established himself as one of Europe's most compelling trombonists, a Swiss musician whose artistic identity has been shaped as much by formal study as by the Italian folk traditions that surrounded him in childhood. In recent years, he has spoken openly about reconnecting with those roots, particularly the songs his grandmother sang, simple melodies carrying equal measures of tenderness and resilience. Rosina, named in her honor, reflects that personal journey while filtering those influences through a contemporary ...

Album Review

Jim Doherty: Jim Doherty's Spondance

Read "Jim Doherty's Spondance" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
April 10, 2025

Jim Doherty never lacked ambition, but a suite for jazz ballet or even jazz dance was always going to be a difficult sell in '80s Ireland. All was not lost for the pianist and composer, however. A few strings pulled here and there saw Doherty and his long- term collaborator, Louis Stewart decamp to Los Angeles, where they spent two days with top session musicians. One day of rehearsals and another in the recording studio resulted in Spondance, a jazz ...

Liner Notes

Jeff Johnson: My Heart

by Jeff Johnson
May 17, 2023

Minneapolis... circa 1972 is where this story begins. People ask me, “where did you go to study music?" I always answer, “Minneapolis / St.Paul, Minnesota." Then they ask, “yes... but what school?" My reply, “the streets, night clubs, and music scene of Minneapolis / St. Paul. I have a bastard's degree in music from Minneapolis / St. Paul." The “Twin Cities" as they are called in Minnesota, was extremely fertile musical ground at the time I ...

Album Review

Jeff Johnson: My Heart

by Paul Rauch
April 10, 2023

What could possibly be so interesting about a thirty-two-year old session of first takes, recorded live to 2-track DAT by a quartet led by a Seattle- based bassist who is not exactly a household name? A quick answer would include superlatives such as “masterful," or “historic." A brief history of bassist and composer Jeff Johnson creates a better sense of understanding. Johnson is perhaps best known as a pioneering member of pianist Hal Galper's revolutionary rubato trio of the '90's, ...

Liner Notes

Hal Galper Trio: Invitation to Openness

by Paul Rauch
January 28, 2023

Two and a half hours outside of New York City, the tiny Delaware River town of Callicoon, New York is home to little more than three thousand people. On Upper Main Street, Rafter's Tavern has been a part of this upstate hamlet since the late nineteenth century. In current times, this local eatery, bar and music venue welcomes in forty five year local resident and jazz piano legend Hal Galper and his trio for a weekly matinee performance. Bassist Tony ...

Album Review

Karl Berger, Max Johnson, Billy Mintz: Sketches

Read "Sketches" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
December 31, 2022

An exquisitely palatable sense of dance permeates the gregarious music bassist Max Johnson brings to the fore on Sketches, the second of two heady 2022 releases. Whereas the first, Orbit of Sound (Unbroken Sounds), teams him up with the rule-elusive sax and flute of Anna Weber and drummer Michael Sarin, Sketches presents a slightly more straight ahead approach with pianist and vibraphonist Karl Berger and drummer Billy Mintz. But straight ahead is not quite fair, or descriptive enough ...

Album Review

Alan Broadbent Trio: Like Minds

Read "Like Minds" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
July 21, 2022

Alan Broadbent, a superb New Zealand-born pianist who has made his home in America for more than fifty years, has mapped out another impressive trio album, Like Minds, his twenty-seventh as leader or co-leader and third for Savant Records. The term “pianist" is used here because that is Broadbent's most conspicuous role on this recording. He is as well-known at home and abroad as a Grammy-winning composer-arranger for an array of jazz luminaries including but not limited to Sue Raney, ...