Jazz Articles about Billy Mintz

About Billy Mintz

Album Review

Hal Galper Trio: Invitation To Openness

Read "Invitation To Openness" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 17, 2022

Pianist Hall Galper turned away from the life of touring in 2000, and eased into “the shed," to work on some innovative ideas that would change the shape of the piano trio. Rubato is where he went--a style of playing that stretches time, making it flexible, unpredictable and free. It takes special trio mates to assist in this, and he found them in his East Coast Trio, with bassist Tony Marino and drummer Billy Mintz, eventually, the group responsible for ...

Album Review

Lena Bloch & Feathery: Rose Of Lifta

Read "Rose Of Lifta" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 28, 2021

Saxophonist Lena Bloch knows something about the pain of separation from one's homeland. Born in Russia, she emigrated to Israel in 1990, then to Europe and, finally, in 2008, to the United States, setting up shop in New York City's fertile jazz ground. In 2014, Feathery, (Thirteen Note Records), the album and her quartet of that name, came into being. The group's second album, Heart Knows (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2007), cemented her distinctive horn-and-rhythm-section approach, with bassist ...

Album Review

Jeff Pearring/Pearring Sound: Socially Distanced Duos

Read "Socially Distanced Duos" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
August 5, 2021

Jeff Pearring's background in jazz, classical, reggae and other genres has informed his creative process in ways that are not always apparent. That turns out to be a good thing as his ability to encapsulate influences without genuflecting is part of his music's appeal. The alto saxophonist, a Brooklyn-based Colorado native, is a Connie Crothers protégé with a similarly independent mindset. Billed as “Pearring Sound," the saxophonist surrounds himself with a rotation of players varying on three previous, self-produced albums, ...

Album Review

Dahveed Behroozi: Echoes

Read "Echoes" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 7, 2021

On his sophomore effort, West Coast-based pianist Dahveed Behroozi goes into a deeply atmospheric mode on Echoes. He is joined by a pair of blue ribbon sidemen in this piano trio affair. Drummer Billy Mintz, as a drummer-texturalist, is in a league with past greats Paul Motian and Jon Christensen, creating off-kilter, unsettled weather systems of his own, whether on one of his own too-infrequent recording or his work with pianist Roberta Piket, saxophonist John Gross, or pianist Hal Galper. ...

Album Review

Lena Bloch: Heart Knows

Read "Heart Knows" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
January 2, 2018

Tenor saxophonist Lena Bloch has a cool, cerebral style and a definite and captivating lyricism. Her second release Heart Knows demonstrates this quite well. In addition, Bloch showcases her inventive compositional skills as she contributes four intriguing originals to the album. One of Bloch's mentors, multi-reed player Yusef Lateef inspired the poetic and multilayered “Lateef Suite" that opens with a contemplative duet with pianist Russ Lossing. Bloch's intelligent and introspective saxophone “monologue" flows languidly over the darkly percolating ...

Album Review

Lena Bloch: Heart Knows

Read "Heart Knows" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
November 7, 2017

Sostituendo la chitarra di Dave Miller col pianoforte di Russ Lossing, Lena Bloch dà vita al suo secondo album, a tre anni da Feathery, che oggi dà il nome al suo stesso quartetto. Di quel lavoro, che l'aveva rivelata come una tenorista di bella presenza sonora, soprattutto ottima esponente di un jazz di mezzo molto ben strutturato, compositivamente sofisticato, questo nuovo capitolo, inciso in piena estate 2017, conferma ogni risultanza, compresa una sostanziale volontà di non tradire certi modelli, in ...

Album Review

Lena Bloch & Feathery: Heart Knows

Read "Heart Knows" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 22, 2017

Lena Bloch mocks the “sophomore jinx" myth with her second CD release, Heart Knows. The tenor saxophonist's debut, Feathery, drew a good deal of well-deserved praise. With her saxophone intertwined with a responsive guitar/bass/drums rhythm section, Bloch paid tribute--in part--to pianist Lennie Tristano, via her relationship with alto saxophonist Lee Konitz. On Heart Knows, Bloch moves along in the same loose groove, adding at times some flexible Middle-Eastern motifs, and stretching her own compositional skills to the highest limits, having ...