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Brian Lynch: 7X7BY7
by Jack Bowers
The number seven, which for reasons shrouded in mystery, has long been considered a symbol of good luck, lies at the core of trumpeter Brian Lynch's latest album, 7X7BY7, which consists of seven themes performed by seven musicians with each number clocking in at precisely six seconds past seven minutes. Furthermore, it is said, “the...process [of creating the album] was designed to facilitate the smooth reassembly of elements...into new pieces. Shaped by these attributes along with their constraints, the music ...
Continue ReadingThe Headhunters: The Stunt Man
by Doug Collette
With the half-century anniversaries of Herbie Hancock's work with the Headhunters having passed in roughly the last year--Head Hunters (Columbia, 1973) and Thrust (Columbia, 1974)--it is appropriate the current configuration of the group has continued regular activity. In fact, under the fitting tutelage of drummer Mike Clark and percussionist Bill Summers, the band has issued two albums of new material in this span of time. Speakers in the House (Ropeadope, 2022) is an album of dashing panache and ...
Continue ReadingBill O'Connell: Live In Montauk
by Richard J Salvucci
A rhythm section which includes Santi Debriano and Billy Hart is nothing if not part of a potential dream band. In Craig Handy, one finds a post-bop saxophonist who played with virtually everyone worth hearing over the last third of the twentieth century. For a variety of reasons pianist Bill O'Connell may be a little less well known outside the New York City metropolitan area, but his signal contributions to Latin jazz with Dave Valentin, Jerry Gonzalez and Mongo Santamaria ...
Continue ReadingBill O'Connell: Live In Montauk
by Jack Bowers
After years of gigging in the New York City area, while honing his credentials as a first-call contemporary jazz pianist, Bill O'Connell and his family moved to Montauk, the easternmost point on Long Island, where he expressed his appreciation of the area's many wonders by recording this impressive album at the celebrated Gosman's Dock, during the annual Hamptons Jazz Festival in August 2021. It is essentially a quartet date with trumpeter Randy Brecker sitting in on two numbers, ...
Continue ReadingJoe Chambers: Moving Pictures Orchestra: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola
by John Kelman
It's one thing to have an established `place in the jazz pantheon, another to continue redefining that position, long after others might be content to rest on their laurels. Joe Chambers' work behind the drum kit with artists including Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, and McCoy Tyner has already ensured a prominent place in jazz history. His output as a leader may be small, but he's delivered two outstanding Savant recordings in 2006's The Outlaw ...
Continue ReadingBill O'Connell: A Change Is Gonna Come
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Bill O'Connell, who has been at the top of his game for more than four decades with no signs of slowing down, says each of his albums is a snapshot of how he is feeling at a particular time in his life. A Change Is Gonna Come expresses O'Connell's frame of mind after enduring more than two years of the Coronavirus pandemic. By and large, the mood is optimistic, underscoring his belief that the worst of the pandemic could ...
Continue ReadingConrad Herwig: The Latin Side of Horace Silver
by Jack Bowers
New York-based trombonist Conrad Herwig began exploring the “Latin side" of various jazz musicians in 1996, with The Latin Side of John Coltrane, which earned him the first of four Latin Grammy Award nominations. Since then, Herwig has done the same for Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson and, now, pianist Horace Silver. The formula is trim and solid; choose several of an artist's more notable compositions and recast them in a rhythmic Latin framework. For The Latin ...
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