Jazz Articles about Chris McCarthy

About Chris McCarthy

Album Review

Aubrey Johnson: The Lively Air

Read "The Lively Air" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
August 17, 2026

Dopo il notevole debutto di Unraveled (Outside in Music, 2020), penalizzato nella diffusione dalla tempesta pandemica, Aubrey Johnson ritorna alla testa di un proprio ensemble, in cui va oltre il ruolo di cantante accompagnata ma è parte integrante delle dinamiche strumentali, nonché autrice di metà del repertorio. Dal passato organico ritroviamo solo il violinista Tomoko Omura che è anche autrice e arrangiatrice di un brano. Aubrey Johnson è un soprano di eccelse doti tecniche ed espressive, le cui ...

Album Review

Jun Iida: Bellflower

Read "Bellflower" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
July 27, 2026

Bellflower, trumpeter Jun Iida's second recording, is a cordial and even-tempered survey of nine of his original compositions and one by the late Japanese composer Nujabes, ably performed by Iida's talented sextet with spoken word by Zelda Harris on Iida's heartfelt response to warfare and its anguish, “Will They Remember?" While Iida is a technically precise soloist, his repertoire does little to separate him from the legion of proficient trumpeters in his peer group. He plays (and writes) ...

Album Review

Jun Iida: Bellflower

Read "Bellflower" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
June 19, 2026

Jun Iida is a stylish trumpeter who has moved around a bit, in the process taking interpretive fragments of the jazz culture in each city he has inhabited. From his native Pittsburgh, to stops in Los Angeles, Seattle and New York City, he has remained connected to each through personal relationships with the local jazz communities he has embraced. An aerospace engineer who set his career aside to pursue his craft as a jazz trumpeter, Iida has along the way ...

Album Review

Alden Hellmuth: Good Intentions

Read "Good Intentions" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
September 29, 2025

Sempre attenta alle nuove leve internazionali, l'etichetta spagnola Fresh Sound pubblica l'album d'esordio della giovane sassofonista Alden Hellmuth, originaria del Connecticut ma da tempo residente a Los Angeles. In questo suo primo lavoro --per il quale ha già vinto in Germania un premio come miglior album di esordio del 2024 --l'artista si presenta al sax contralto alla testa di un quintetto completato dalla tastierista Yvonne Rogers, dal chitarrista Lucas Kadish, dalla contrabbassista Kanoa Mendenhall e dal batterista Timothy Angulo, formazione ...

Album Review

Chris McCarthy: Add a Zero

Read "Add a Zero" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
July 30, 2025

Chris McCarthy is a wonderfully lyrical pianist, and an unexpected joy to hear. “Unexpected" you might ask? Allow an explanation. He is imaginative, highly skilled and has gained a reputation of excellence on the New York scene. His accompaniment and solo strides on his acclaimed duo release, Life's a Gig (Fresh Sounds, 2024), with vocalist Vanisha Gould make her deep dive into old soul magic seem grounded, adorned with subtle and spacious harmony that keeps the music buoyant and free ...

Album Review

Vanisha Gould: She's Not Shiny, She's Not Smooth

Read "She's Not Shiny, She's Not Smooth" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
May 2, 2025

Vanisha Gould ha molte cose da dire, e lo fa con arguzia e vivacità. Dal suo arrivo a New York nel 2015 ha atteso quasi un decennio per un debutto discografico da leader, facendosi le ossa nei locali e in qualche incisione con altri. Quelle più significative sono state con la cantante Lucy Yeghiazaryan (nel ricercato progetto In Her Words) e con il pianista Chris McCarthy (Life's a Gig), dove si mette in luce tanto come autrice quanto come interprete ...

Album Review

Chris McCarthy: Still Time to Quit

Read "Still Time to Quit" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

by Friedrich Kunzmann
September 9, 2020

Only two minutes into “That's All You Get," the opening track to pianist Chris McCarthy's debut recording for Ropeadope Records, Still Time To Quit, and already it seems that everything that had to be said was said. Maybe that's why at this point the track coincidentally also reaches its end. A savage yet controlled display of friction and constant motion. At its core a rabidly jumping call-and-response structure, the opener displays the leader's scarily-dexterous chops on piano through speed as ...