Jazz Articles about Chris Symer

About Chris Symer

Liner Notes

Following two successful big band projects--the swinging and swaggering Time Within Itself and Origin Suite--drummer-composer-bandleader Michael Waldrop has brought things down to a more intimate level on Native Son. In some ways a return to his first album as a leader, 2002's Triangularity, a sterling piano trio outing which he reissued in 2019, Native Son finds Waldrop in an interactive piano trio setting, augmented by veteran percussionists Brad Dutz and former Weather Reporter Jose Rossy. Together, the percussive ...

Album Review

Nancy Erickson Lamont: Through the Passages

Read "Through the Passages" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
May 16, 2024

On occasion with so many artists presenting recordings, a reviewer may innocently fall into the trap of bypassing a jewel by an unfamiliar singer. Such was the case here. The subsequent discovery was fortuitous. Seattle-based vocalist and composer, Nancy Erickson Lamont's Through the Passages is a thoroughly fascinating, absorbing 12-original-track session with the artist surrounded by an A-1 crew of the Pacific Northwest's best. It is undoubtedly a pearl of a find. “Tick Tock" opens the date ...

Album Review

Bill Anschell: Improbable Solutions

Read "Improbable Solutions" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
January 9, 2024

Most fans of Seattle-based pianist Bill Anschell will not see this one coming. His comfort zone on his own recordings has been as a mainstream acoustic jazz artist, on albums like Shifting Standards (2018), a piano trio affair, Rumbler (2017) and Figments (2011), a solo piano outing. All of these were released on Origin Records. Anschell, who formerly worked as vocalist Nnenna Freelon's musical director, crafts his recordings with a high polish and does not generally rock the ...

Album Review

Bill Anschell: Improbable Solutions

Read "Improbable Solutions" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
December 31, 2023

Pianist and composer Bill Anschell has made his mark in jazz as a distinctive pianist with a notable body of work. His time in Atlanta, and his extensive residency in Seattle, has produced ten recordings as a leader or co-leader, and a well-deserved following on live dates with two distinctive trios, plus his “Rumbler" band. His previous two recordings define the past decade of his career, with Shifting Standards (Origin, 2018) bearing witness to his trio prowess with partners Jeff ...

Album Review

Brent Jensen: More Sounds of a Dry Martini

Read "More Sounds of a Dry Martini" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 27, 2021

Two decades have passed since alto saxophonist Brent Jensen recorded his debut album for Origin Records, Sounds of a Dry Martini: A Tribute to Paul Desmond, in 2001. To Jensen's surprise, the album became so enormously popular that the possibility of a sequel was envisioned. There was, however, one large stumbling block—by 2007, Jensen had sold his alto sax and switched to soprano. It was not until 2017, after he had moved to Seattle, Washington, and bought another alto, that ...

Album Review

Henry Robinett Quartet: Jazz Standards Volume 2: Then Again

Read "Jazz Standards Volume 2: Then Again" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
February 23, 2021

Guitarist Henry Robinett is a patient man. In April 2000, when he was between gigs and bands, he brought together several top players from Northern California and, in two days, recorded two albums the first of which was called Jazz Standards, Volume 1: Then (Nefertiti 2019) . Now with the release of Jazz Standards Volume 2: Then Again we have the complete output from this aggregation which, in addition to Robinett, includes Joe Gilman on piano, ...

Album Review

Henry Robinett Quartet: Jazz Standards, Volume 1: Then

Read "Jazz Standards, Volume 1: Then" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 9, 2020

Back in April of 2000, guitarist Henry Robinett convened a quartet in The Hangar, a Sacramento studio where he had been working as an engineer and producer. An intentionally casual session, it was all standards all the way. Over the course of two days, tracks were called, solos and some other specifics were sorted out, and the music just flowed. When all was said and done, Robinett left and put the material on the shelf...where it sat for nearly two ...