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Jazz Articles about Brian Blade

About Brian Blade

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Album Review

Koppel, Blade, Koppel: Time Again

Read "Time Again" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 31, 2024

This multi-generational trio featuring the Danish father/son team of Benjamin Koppel (alto sax) and Anders Koppel (organ), alongside ace drummer Brian Blade, is a decidedly forward-looking affair. But it also pays homage to classic jazz's boundless joy and irreverent spirit with a sly wink and more than a few joyous surprises. Blade's often explosive, polyrhythmic cyclone meshes seamlessly with Anders' bubbling organ articulations. Benjamin's alto sax work deftly rides the grooves while jabbing in unexpected angular asides, creating ...

Album Review

Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow

Read "The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
March 26, 2024

Those of us who were going to jazz festivals in summer 1966, and were lucky enough to catch the Charles Lloyd Quartet, will likely have one tune in particular imprinted on our memories. That was because “Forest Flower" so precisely reflected the acid-drenched zeitgeist blossoming in Europe and the US. Lloyd, Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee and Jack DeJohnette recorded the piece at the Monterey festival in September 1966, and when Forest Flower was released in early 1967, it was the ...

Album Review

Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow

Read "The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
March 11, 2024

For a long, grateful while now the music of Charles Lloyd has rippled out from that rarified space where the ego does not prevail. A pool of depth and wonder which culminates in one masterful artwork after another, for example Wild Man Dance (Blue Note, 2015) and 8: Kindred Spirits Live from the Lobero Theater (Blue Note, 2019). Lloyd's eleventh Blue Note album, the double disc set The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow is also his first ...

Album Review

Chris Potter: Eagle's Point

Read "Eagle's Point" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
March 3, 2024

The question that comes to mind after listening to Eagle's Point is this: why have the four musicians, who have known each other since the 1990s, never recorded together before? For the combination of Chris Potter, Brad Mehldau, John Patitucci and Brian Blade is a real meeting of minds; the stars are in perfect alignment. Potter's previous release, Got The Keys To The Kingdom (Edition, 2023), was a live set, recorded at New York's Village Vanguard, and ...

Album Review

Joshua Redman: Where Are We

Read "Where Are We" reviewed by Dave Linn

by Dave Linn
September 24, 2023

After graduating from Berkeley High School in 1986, Joshua Redman (son of jazz legend Dewey Redman) won a full scholarship to Harvard, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1991. He was accepted at Yale Law School to become a lawyer. Instead, he embarked on a musical career which quickly turned luminous. He won the Thelonious Monk Institute's prestigious jazz saxophone competition in 1991, before moving to Brooklyn, becoming part of the thriving scene there. His debut album, Joshua Redman ...

Album Review

Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band: Kings Highway

Read "Kings Highway" reviewed by Cary Tenenbaum

by Cary Tenenbaum
July 7, 2023

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines fellowship as “community of interest, activity, feeling, or experience," which seems to state well what Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band have been doing, cultivating a certain sound for over 25 years. The community is drummer Brian Blade, pianist Jon Cowherd, saxophonist Melvin Butler, saxophonist and clarinetist Myron Walden, bassist and synthesizer player Christopher Thomas and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. The interest and activity these folks share is playing music, specifically jazz music. Finally, the feeling or ...

Album Review

Billy Childs: The Winds of Change

Read "The Winds of Change" reviewed by Neil Duggan

by Neil Duggan
May 13, 2023

Billy Childs, one of the most critically acclaimed pianists in modern jazz, is in high demand as a modern classical composer. He has played and composed music ranging from orchestral to chamber works to contemporary small ensemble jazz. This has brought him five Grammy awards to date. Starting as a pianist in his native Los Angeles, he then spent six years with Freddie Hubbard's band before becoming a leader in his own right. He has performed with a ...