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Brent Jensen: Trios
by Dan McClenaghan
Alto saxophonist Brent Jensen reinterprets seven classic, time-tested standards on Trios; and if the word “standards" makes you think “mainstream," don't be surprised if the sound here incorporates a free and elastic vibe.The Idaho-based reedman--the Director of Jazz Studies and Woodwinds at College of South Idaho in Twin Falls--employs two very different trios on this, his fourth Origin Records release. Three tunes feature Jamie Findlay on guitar and Zac Matthews on bass--both from the Los Angeles-based Acoustic Jazz ...
Continue ReadingBrent Jensen/Rob Walker Quintet: Art of the Groove
by Dan McClenaghan
It seems fitting that Art of the Groove came out in mid-May, about a week before the late Miles Davis's birthday. The set spends some time—and spends it well—saluting the late trumpeter, most notably on the opener, with “Straight From Miles." Flugelhornist Rob Walker wrote the tune with phrases from the '58 recording of Davis's take on Thelonious Monk's “Straight, No Chaser." If this one doesn't have you thinking of Davis's '58 Milestones set, especially when Walker holds a horn ...
Continue ReadingThe Brent Jensen/Rob Walker Quintet: Art of the Groove
by Jack Bowers
The Brent Jensen/Rob Walker Quintet opens in a mellow groove and stays there much of the way on this backward- glancing yet quite contemporary album that wouldn’t have been out of place in the bop-based Blue Note / Prestige catalogs of the late ‘50s–early ‘60s. Alto saxophonist Jensen and trumpeter Walker offer an earnest tribute to their musical predecessors—especially the legendary Miles Davis—without imitating them, choosing instead to invoke the spirit of the bop era while giving it their own ...
Continue ReadingThe Brent Jensen/David Sills Quartet: Stay Cool
by Dave Nathan
It's good to see that there are talented jazz artists who are willing to keep the "cool" school alive and well if for no other reason (and there are others) than to memorialize those great artists starting with Lester Young who brought this jazz genre to prominence. Riding on the featherweight, tuneful approach to improvisation and the slow almost invisible vibrato, artists such as Miles Davis, Lee Konitz, MQJ, Bob Brookmeyer and others became full-fledged members in the school or ...
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