Jazz Articles about Brent Birckhead

About Brent Birckhead

Album Review

There is something quietly disarming about Smoove Vibes. It is the kind of album that does not shout its ambitions but simply settles into the room with you. Warren Wolf working from his basement, handles an impressive range of musical duties, including vibraphone, marimba, drums, keyboards, vocals, and sampled elements that shape the music from its rhythmic foundation to its final polish. You can hear him thinking like a band, not just a soloist, building each arrangement piece by piece ...

Radio & Podcasts

Brent Birckhead, Chicago Underground Qt., Roger Kellaway and Other New Releases

by Ludovico Granvassu
February 28, 2020

Second part of this week's ride through the new releases prairie with music by artists that cover a lot of ground, from Chicago Underground Quartet to Jesse Harris, from Valentina Ciardelli's take on Frank Zappa to Roger Kellaway' interpretation of Paul Desmond, and much more For the first part of the show click here. Happy listening! Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" Matt Mayhall “Longview, TX" Fanatics ...

Album Review

Brent Birckhead: Birckhead

Read "Birckhead" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
March 25, 2019

As an alumnus of Lauryn Hill, Nas, George Duke, and Larry Graham as well as a Downbeat Award winner for outstanding instrumentalist, alto saxophonist Brent Birckhead has certainly absorbed his influences well. So it's anyone's conjecture why he would possibly want to undermine his musical intentions by intro-ing his eponymous release with a brief but utterly predictable bit of fusion before getting down to some serious business. Fleeting bits of predictability nag throughout, most noticeably on “Flux," which ...

Album Review

Brent Birckhead: Birckhead

Read "Birckhead" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
March 10, 2019

Having positioned himself at the outer limits of expression, wailing and bleeping on his alto saxophone as he hurls his long, dreadlocked hair around like a dervish, Brent Birckhead obviously feels he can now occasionally relax, cease heeding the call of his neuroses and play what is sometimes quite beautiful music. This realization has been a long time coming, but well worth waiting for. His publicist sees Birckhead's playing as a project: “Rooted in activism, introspection and ...