Jazz Articles about Charles McNeal

About Charles McNeal

Album Review

Folk/blues practitioner Taj Mahal's Savoy is to be savored. As one of the custodians of the blues, Mahal has long been a legend in his own time. This collection traverses a cultural-musical continuum in an indispensable residency in the annals of Black American music. The namesake of this album--the Savoy on Lenox Avenue in Harlem--was known as The World's Finest Ballroom and Home Of Happy Feet. In the pre-Civil Rights era, the North claimed formal equality, but segregation ...

Album Review

Taj Mahal: Savoy

by Dave Linn
May 3, 2023

Savoy, from Taj Mahal, is the latest entrant in the crowded field of pop music artists trying their hand at the fertile songbook of old big-band, swing-era standards. Unlike most, Mahal's roots show he's well suited to the task. He was born in Harlem in 1942. He grew up in a musical family, and his parents were both involved in the arts. His father was a jazz pianist and arranger, working with Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Fletcher Henderson among ...

Album Review

Dmitri Matheny: Cascadia

by Jack Bowers
July 11, 2022

Cascadia encompasses an hour of amiable, even-tempered jazz from trumpeter Dmitri Matheny who, like several of his predecessors—Chet Baker, Chuck Mangione, Guido Basso and his mentor, Art Farmer, among them—focuses exclusively on flugelhorn. Matheny uses his gorgeous tone and remarkable lyricism to paint exquisite portraits in sound throughout a program whose ten engaging numbers enfold half a dozen of his original compositions. Matheny shares the front line with saxophonist Charles McNeal whose solos (on soprano or tenor ...

Album Review

Dmitri Matheny: Cascadia

Read "Cascadia" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 7, 2022

Flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny and his quintet play perfectly on Cascadia. There is no surprise there—with a rhythm section of pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Phil Sparks and drummer Mark Ivester backing the front line of Matheny and saxophonist Charles McNeil— perfection is the expectation. Matheny grew up in Georgia and Arizona, spent a formative and near-obligatory stint in New York City, and played for a time in the band of pianist Amina Figarova—another jazz artist who knows something about ...

Album Review

The Jazz All Stars: The Jazz All Stars Volume 1

Read "The Jazz All Stars Volume 1" reviewed by Jim Worsley

by Jim Worsley
February 25, 2021

The gigless times of 2020--the year of the Covid-19 pandemic--could have brought musicians and the industry to their collective knees, gasping for air. Instead, it resulted in more new music than ever before. It filled our lungs with fresh air. It filled our hearts and souls, not to mention our ears. New businesses opening, defying the odds and pursuing their dreams, is a relevant factor. Le Coq Records, emerging in 2020, boldly presents an all-star ensemble—featuring many of ...

Album Review

Clairdee: A Love Letter To Lena

Read "A Love Letter To Lena" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
April 23, 2020

Revered decades after her passing, Lena Horne has remained an icon in the realms of music, stage & screen, and civil rights activism. With A Love Letter to Lena, San Francisco-based vocalist Clairdee assumes the task of saluting Horne by way of selections from Billy Strayhorn and other great American composers. And the inclusion of narration and quotes from Horne adds a special perspective and further poignancy to this fine musical effort. “Old Devil Moon," originally recorded ...

Album Review

Clairdee: A Love Letter To Lena

Read "A Love Letter To Lena" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 22, 2020

A fixture on the Bay Area jazz scene, Clairdee has established herself as a self-assured singer and an artist who's never content in repeating an idea. Her first three albums move from the studio to the holidays to the stage, demonstrating a high level of comfort in disparate settings and seasons. This fourth project—a tribute to Lena Horne, realized after a decade of thought on the matter—will likely extend that reputation while marking her as a strong conceptualist.