Jazz Articles about Cory Weeds

About Cory Weeds

Album Review

Neil Gray's In The Streets is a drummer-led session that, in its traditional sense, understands the purpose of records: to document a working conception of jazz rooted in lineage, discipline, and shared memory. Seven of the eight tracks were composed by Gray and serve as portraits of people, places, and moments, conceived not as abstractions but as lived experiences. The only cover is Cole Porter's well-known standard “Night and Day." The musicians here are fluent in bebop and hard bop, ...

Album Review

Vancouver Jazz Orchestra: Vancouver Jazz Orchestra Meets Brian Charette

Read "Vancouver Jazz Orchestra Meets Brian Charette" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
January 21, 2026

The Vancouver Jazz Orchestra's debut album arrives with a sense of purpose that feels both timely and reassuringly traditional. Formed to showcase the city's rich pool of jazz musicians while creating a platform for composers and arrangers, the VJO proves itself not through rhetoric but through sound. This release features a confident, well-rehearsed ensemble playing music almost exclusively by Vancouver writers, united here by the invigorating presence of Hammond B3 master Brian Charette. Steve Kaldestad's “Equestrian Interlude" opens ...

Album Review

Vancouver Jazz Orchestra: Meets Brian Charette

Read "Meets Brian Charette" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 17, 2026

Through the years, Canada has produced an impressive number of world-renowned big bands including Rob McConnell's peerless Boss Brass, the Toronto and Winnipeg Jazz Orchestras, those led by trombonist Dave McMurdo, pianist Jill Townsend and trumpeter Steve McDade, and one of the world's foremost undergraduate bands, Montreal's McGill University Jazz Ensemble. On its debut recording, Meets Brian Charette, the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra proves beyond any doubt that it deserves inclusion in that special fraternity. Simply put, the VJO ...

Album Review

Neil Gray: In the Streets

Read "In the Streets" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 13, 2025

Saxophonist Cory Weeds, ever the entrepreneur, has never been one to let a clear opportunity raise his antenna without a response. When Weeds spots a promising jazz musician--especially one from his native Canada--he has been known to make the sort of proposal that is all but impossible to refuse. For example, Weeds may say he will produce the artist's next album, provide a recording venue, release the finished product on his Cellar Music Group label and even join the ensemble ...

Album Review

James Danderfer: If Not Now

Read "If Not Now" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
November 12, 2025

Clarinetist James Danderfer's If Not Now showcases warmth and craftsmanship. It is the kind of album that affirms jazz's enduring ability to blend tradition with personal expression. Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary Englewood Cliffs studio on November 4, 2024, the album features a select group including Steve Davis on trombone, Cory Weeds on tenor saxophone, Atley King on vibraphone, Miki Yamanaka on piano, Tyrone Allen II on bass, and drummer Kush Abadey. All nine compositions are by Danderfer, forming ...

Album Review

James Danderfer: If Not Now

Read "If Not Now" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 9, 2025

The clarinet, which once was commonplace in jazz (think Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Pee Wee Russell, Tony Scott, Buddy DeFranco, Jimmy Giuffre, Pete Fountain, Bob Wilber and many others), is all but absent these days save for a handful of adamant diehards such as Paquito D'Rivera, Eddie Daniels, Don Byron and Ken Peplowski. That is one reason why it is always a pleasure to welcome a new voice into the choir, especially one as sharp and talented as ...

Album Review

Cory Weeds: Cory Weeds Meets Jerry Weldon

Read "Cory Weeds Meets Jerry Weldon" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 14, 2025

A proper response to the statement Cory Weeds Meets Jerry Weldon could well be “it's about time!" Although widely separated geographically--Weeds is Canadian, Weldon a native New Yorker--these masters of the tenor saxophone have been brightening stages and delighting audiences at venues in the U.S. and around the world for decades. And even though they have 'met' professionally more than once, it is only now--in 2025--that Weeds and Weldon have joined forces and pooled their enormous talents to produce a ...