Jazz Articles about Chris Washburne

About Chris Washburne

Album Review

Bobby Sanabria: Arsenio and Beyond

Read "Arsenio and Beyond" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 9, 2026

Much of the music on Arsenio and Beyond was written by the trailblazing Cuban composer Arsenio Rodriguez, a master of the mandolin-like Cuban tres guitar who is credited among other innovations with creating the musical design that became known as son montuno. Rodriguez, drummer and bandleader Bobby Sanabria writes, was “the true Father of Mambo and Son Montuno," without whom “there is no salsa, Afro-Cuban jazz, or, many would even argue, rock or funk." Sanabria and his Multiverse ...

Album Review

Frank Carlberg Large Ensemble: Elegy for Thelonious

Read "Elegy for Thelonious" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
April 15, 2024

Dopo aver circumnavigato la musica di Monk in diversi contesti, prevalentemente come pianista in piccoli organici, Frank Carlberg, finlandese di nascita ma newyorchese a tutti gli effetti, affronta in questo suo ultimo, ambizioso lavoro l'ineffabile Thelonious da una prospettiva diversa: dedicandogli una serie di composizioni proprie ispirate a lui e alla sua arte così fuori da ogni ovvietà (non senza scampoli tematici acchiappati al volo e titolazioni spesso molto gustose ed emblematiche, da “Scallop's Scallop" a “Wrinkle on Trinkle," in ...

Album Review

Frank Carlberg Large Ensemble: Elegy for Thelonious

Read "Elegy for Thelonious" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
March 2, 2024

Pianist Frank Carlberg has been exploring the music of Thelonious Monk for some time, most specifically on his large group album, Monk Dreams, Hallucinations, and Nightmares, (Sunnyside, 2017). This new album has Carlberg returning to the large ensemble format for more Monk investigations, but this time approaching the work in a more splintered and abstract fashion. He does not simply interpret familiar Monk tunes. He writes compositions and arrangements which stitch Monk riffs and ideas into new fabrics, ...

Album Review

Frank Carlberg Large Ensemble: Elegy for Thelonious

Read "Elegy for Thelonious" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
February 21, 2024

There was a sardonic saying circulating a few years ago that observed, “It's Frank Sinatra's world, we just live in it." While that was a backhanded compliment, tailoring it to the subject of this large ensemble recording, we would call it a commendation. Pianist, composer, and conductor Frank Carlberg is telling us, “It's Thelonious Monk's world, and (thank god) we live in it." Carlberg has been a disciple of Monk for decades, recording his music in a piano trio format ...

Album Review

Chris Washburne: Rags And Roots

Read "Rags And Roots" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
November 2, 2018

Dopo l'intrigante rilettura latina di alcuni classici del rock (Low Ridin', Zoho 2015) il trombonista Chris Washburne rilegge la musica afroamericana degli esordi, prendendo in considerazione il ragtime e il jazz di New Orleans. Washburne non è solo un trombonista e un multistrumentista ma un etnomusicologo laureatosi prima al New England Conservatory e poi alla Columbia University (dove oggi insegna). Da anni è un apprezzato autore di saggi e articoli sul jazz e la musica latina. Per questo ...

Album Review

Chris Washburne: Rags And Roots

Read "Rags And Roots" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
April 25, 2017

The year 1917 stands out in music history, for that was the year of the first jazz recording, (Livery Stable Blues by Original Dixieland Jass Band) and marks the death of ragtime pianist/composer Scott Joplin. To commemorate these events, and the century that ensued, trombonist Chris Washburne takes a musical exploration back through time on Rags And Roots, revealing the connections and contributions of not only America, but Haiti, Cuba, Mexico, and Brazil, in the early development of jazz.

Album Review

Chris Washburne & The SYOTOS Band: Low Ridin'

Read "Low Ridin'" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 7, 2015

Originals, Latin classics, and the occasional standard appear on this outfit's five previous albums, all of which were released on the Jazzheads imprint. But a new day has dawned with Low Ridin', as venerable trombonist Chris Washburne and his smoking Latin ensemble arrive at a new label--Zoho Roots--and take a new tack, delivering a program of Latin-ized Classic Rock songs. Almost all of the material presented here, save for saxophonist Ole Mathisen's “SYOTOMON," should be familiar to ...