Jazz Articles about Craig Handy

About Craig Handy

Album Review

Bill O'Connell: Live In Montauk

Read "Live In Montauk" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 17, 2023

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, ...

Liner Notes

Joe Chambers: Moving Pictures Orchestra: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

by John Kelman
April 27, 2023

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 ...

Album Review

Bill O'Connell: A Change Is Gonna Come

Read "A Change Is Gonna Come" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 28, 2022

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 ...

Album Review

Conrad Herwig: The Latin Side of Horace Silver

Read "The Latin Side of Horace Silver" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 16, 2020

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 ...

Album Review

Ralph Peterson & the Messenger Legacy: Onward & Upward

Read "Onward & Upward" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
August 8, 2020

Generally speaking, legacy bands are created to preserve the music of an artist. They feature innovative interpretations of an artist's compositions or past performances to share with future generations of listeners. In the case of drummer Ralph Peterson, his ambitious efforts to honor the continuum of his mentor Art Blakey are forward thinking, about a collective gathering of resources that stress creative thought and individuality. Just as the true legacy of the Jazz Messengers portends, contributors are charged with replenishing ...

Live Review

Craig Handy Quartet at Sunset Jazz Club

by Patricia Myers
July 14, 2016

Craig Handy Quartet Hommage a Dexter Gordon Sunset Jazz Club Paris, France July 8, 2016 Tributes to noted jazz musicians are frequent throughout Europe, especially in Paris. Each “hommage" centers on the hits and compositions of a star, performed by a musician with a high skill-level for the instrument identified with the honored one. For this two-night booking, it was a salute by New York tenor saxophonist Craig Handy to Dexter ...

Album Review

Ark Ovrutski: Sounds of Brasil

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 18, 2012

Il bassista ucraino Ark Ovrutski si è trasferito a New York cinque/sei anni fa. La grande mela è una città che offre a tutti la possibilità di confrontarsi con tutti, a cominciare proprio da altri immigrati che hanno la mente aperta e la voglia di trovare nuovi spunti provenienti da altre culture. E di mischiarli con le proprie conoscenze. In questo modo le culture si fondono fra loro e compiono passi avanti. Quindi non ci dobbiamo meravigliare più di tanto ...