Jazz Articles about Corey Fonville

About Corey Fonville

Album Review

Nicholas Payton / Butcher Brown: A Supreme Blue

Read "A Supreme Blue" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
July 26, 2026

Is it an act of bravery or simple foolhardiness to revisit two of the most revered albums in jazz history--records that transcend popularity and occupy a near-mythic place in the music's collective psyche? In this centennial moment for both Miles Davis and John Coltrane, the question carries not only artistic weight but commercial implications as well. Nicholas Payton joins forces with the Richmond-based collective Butcher Brown on A Supreme Blue, a thoughtful and stylistically hybrid reimagining of Kind ...

Album Review

Seamus Blake: The Electrifying Seamus Blake Plays The Music Of Eddie Harris EH!

Read "The Electrifying Seamus Blake Plays The Music Of Eddie Harris EH!" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
July 3, 2026

Some musicians seem incapable of standing still, their curiosity drawing them towards unexplored corners of the music world. Seamus Blake may well be one of them. A formidable tenor saxophonist rooted in the post-bop tradition, Blake has spent much of his career quietly erasing stylistic borders. On The Electrifying Seamus Blake Plays The Music Of Eddie Harris EH!, he finds the perfect muse in Harris, another restless spirit who refused to recognize the fences others built around jazz.

In Pictures

Corey Fonville R&B Organ Trio at The Annex in Norfolk, VA

by Mark Robbins
March 2, 2026

The first time I heard Corey Fonville was in March 2013 at the now defunct Havana Nights Jazz Club in Virginia Beach, Va. He was playing with John Toomey on piano, Jimmy Masters on bass and Joe Locke on vibes. Since then Fonville has been a member of the Nicholas Payton Trio, Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah's Quintet and his own band Butcher Brown. Add to his credits his association with Kurt Elling, guitarist Charlie Hunter and fellow Butcher Brown member DJ ...

Album Review

Lawrence Fields: To the Surface

Read "To the Surface" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
March 15, 2024

As if chomping at the bit, pianist Lawrence Fields launches into his proper debut as a leader with “Parachute," a tune of his own making that strikes that perfect chord between piano trios past and present. And right away the listener is immersed in To The Surface. A fixture on Rising Star category since 2019, Fields, who has made his name in the piano chair for such determined and willful creators as Joe Lovano, Chris Potter, Terri Lyne ...

Album Review

Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter: SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree

Read "SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
June 14, 2023

As Shakespeare said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Kurt Elling and Charlie Hunter follow up their Grammy-nominated 2021 album, SuperBlue (Edition), with another sublime blend of jazz and groove. As on the first disc, jazz is represented by Elling, groove by Butcher Brown keyboardist DJ Harrison and drummer Corey Fonville. Hunter, who has had a foot in both camps for over two decades, acts as marriage broker. Some jazz fans have an aversion to singers, ...

Album Review

Kurt Elling: SuperBlue

Read "SuperBlue" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
December 6, 2021

Nel pieno delle restrizioni Covid, la condizione artisticamente più difficile dopo la seconda guerra mondiale, Kurt Elling ha realizzato uno dei suoi album migliori, quello dal groove più intenso e coinvolgente.Il merito va condiviso col chitarrista Charlie Hunter e con gli altri due partner, il tastierista DJ Harrison e il batterista Corey Fonville. Chi segue la scena della black popular music attuale sa che i due sono membri del collettivo Butcher Brown, la band jazz/funk/hip-hop di Richmond che ...

Album Review

Chad Lefkowitz-Brown: Quartet Sessions

Read "Quartet Sessions" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 24, 2021

The Quartet Sessions (there are two of them) mark the eighth recording as leader by New York-based tenor saxophonist Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, an heir-apparent to an acclaimed dynasty of hard-boppers whose monarchs include Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Gene Ammons, Charlie Rouse, Hank Mobley, Sonny Rollins and their peers, and embraces such contemporaries as Eric Alexander, Don Menza and Josh Redman, among others. In fact, it's hard to listen to Lefkowitz-Brown (or Chad LB, as he is often called), especially on the ...