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Gary Brumburgh: Full Circle
by Richard J Salvucci
A recording dedicated to New York theater and a high school music teacher. Ho, boy, one thinks. “What could go wrong?" Actually, not much. Vocalist Gary Brumburgh is, all snobbery aside, a very pleasant surprise. He swings. He is plenty hip. He has an attractive style and a pleasant, companionable voice. So, what good can come of Nazareth (or anywhere else, for that matter), On Circle, plenty. This is a Friday- afternoon kind of recording, good for unwinding and the ...
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by Jack Bowers
Gary Brumburgh is living proof that a talented singer can sustain a respectable career in music without becoming a “star." Even though he's not a household name—or anywhere near it—Brumburgh performed in musical productions from dinner theatres to summer stock, concert stages to casinos for more than two decades before changing direction in 2003 to focus on jazz. Full Circle, Brumburgh's third album as a jazz vocalist, consists of eleven tunes he has sung in various musical productions, bedecked in ...
Continue ReadingRachel Eckroth: The Garden
by Jerome Wilson
Pianist and composer Rachel Eckroth travels a twisty road on this CD, creating an ever-changing mix of jazz, prog rock, and fusion which utilizes off- center beats and swarming electronic effects. Eckroth's music is a little different on each track. Sometimes it builds up from layers of piano and synthesizers. At other times it works out of the basic piano trio format. Everything she creates, though, has an edgy, ominous atmosphere which lends itself as much to dark ...
Continue ReadingRachel Eckroth: The Garden
by Vic Albani
Approccio numero uno: Non so se ve ne siete accorti ma esistono dischi che al primo ascolto ti fanno dire “ok." Al secondo “eh però...." Al terzo “Cribbio... Wow! Ma cosa stavo ascoltando le altre due volte?." Al quarto, se volete giocare con i maledetti voti, siamo già vicini al “beh cinque stelle e forse oltre..." Poi, necessariamente devi riconsiderare tutto e passi ad un ascolto davvero analitico, ragionato e capisci che però, forse, è proprio così. ...
Continue ReadingKate McGarry + Keith Ganz Ensemble: What to Wear in the Dark
by C. Michael Bailey
Being taken for granted is the greatest tribute and worst slight to any artist. Kate McGarry has made music that brilliantly colors outside the lines since her release, Show Me (Palmetto Records) in 2003 (there was a 1992 standards release, Easy To Love (Vital Records) that is out-of-print). Her career has provided five provocatively thoughtful and inventive recordings between that release and 2018's The Subject Tonight Is Love (Binxtown Records). Listeners have come to expect something a little different from ...
Continue ReadingKate McGarry + Keith Ganz Ensemble: What to Wear in the Dark
by Dan McClenaghan
Let us start with a nod to Steely Dan, the rock/jazz group headed up by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, a pair of tunesmiths who hit a career zenith in the early 1970s with albums like Can't Buy A Thrill (1972), Countdown To Ecstasy (1973), Pretzel Logic (1974) and Aja (1974), all on ABC Records. The group drew in top jazz artists to help craft their albums—saxophonists Wayne Shorter and Tom Scott, guitarists Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour, drummers Steve ...
Continue ReadingRachel Eckroth: The Garden
by Mike Jurkovic
One of the Phoenix's brightest lights, pianist-composer-vocalist Rachel Eckroth, who has ably added depth to the music of such polar opposites as Chris Botti, Rufus Wainwright, and St. Vincent, leaves no stone unturned in The Garden, her darkly convincing, Rainy Day Records debut. It is immediately apparent that Eckroth hears things unlike the rest of us. Her music is a prowling evolution, full of darkness yet attainable, redeemable light. Without hesitancy, she shapes and seizes, assembles, dissects, and ...
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