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Jazz Articles about Darek Oles
Liz Cole: I Want to Be Happy
by Richard J Salvucci
"Unfortunately, I became entangled in a variety of day jobs and set music on the backburner for a shameful number of years. Finally, I have realized that I don't want to work in an office." How often has some frustrated artist said just those words, or some variant? The music business is a tough one, and how many singers, pianists or other instrumentalist have harbored similar thoughts? Yes, everyone pays dues, but some pay more than others, and for a ...
Continue ReadingAlan Pasqua, Peter Erskine, Darek Oles: Live In Italy
by Jim Worsley
Pianist Alan Pasqua and drummer Peter Erskine have been playing together for over fifty years now. For over twenty years Darek Oles has completed the trio on double bass. While brilliant upper-echelon musicians in their own right, the magic that ensues in this trio is remarkable. Could playing together for so long, performing thousands of shows over the years lead to burnout or it becoming “old hat?" Not for these three true jazz cats. The conversations just get deeper, their ...
Continue ReadingChris Standring: Wonderful World
by Richard J Salvucci
Many years ago, there was a radio station, WJBR, broadcasting from Wilmington, Delaware. The call sign stood for Just Beautiful Radio and that was precisely what you got. No-one called it easy listening or anything like that--it was the early 1960s--but listeners got a predictable dose of Percy Faith, Ray Conniff, Frank Chacksfield, nothing too challenging. The announcers had a predictable style as well—modulated, mellow, reassuring. In those days, with the possibility of nuclear war never far from anyone's mind, ...
Continue ReadingChris Standring: Wonderful World
by Pierre Giroux
Chris Standring is a Los Angeles-based contemporary jazz guitarist who was originally raised in Buckinghamshire, England. He has always had an itch to record an album of standards and that was scratched with the release of Wonderful World . Through the marvels of technology, Standring was able to record the trio tracks in several locations in California with some bold face names such as Peter Erskine, Chuck Berghofer and Randy Brecker, while the orchestral input was arranged and conducted by ...
Continue ReadingChris Standring: Wonderful World
by Jack Bowers
Wonderful World, the fourteenth album as leader by British guitarist Chris Standring, was no doubt recorded with the best of intentions. And make no mistake, the music is warm and lovely, furnishing an opulent showcase for Standring's mellow guitar. Aside from that, however, there's not a whole lot to say. Standring's “orchestra" consists of a nineteen-member string section, while Geoff Gascoyne's syrupy arrangements call to mind popular string-laden sessions from the 1950s and '60s, “easy listening" albums for “late-night lovers" ...
Continue ReadingL.A. Jazz Quartet: Live at The Baked Potato
by Jim Worsley
The Baked Potato in Studio City (Los Angeles) is an iconic little jazz club that has been serving it up hot, both live music and scrumptious baked potatoes, for a half century now. The intimate space has played host to a long and impressive list of jazz elites. With a pre-pandemic capacity of not much more than seventy-five people, the BP recently reopened with a maximum of just twenty patrons inside! It amounts to a private show. For the record, ...
Continue ReadingJeff Ellwood: The Sounds Around The House
by Pierre Giroux
As a professional musician hoping to have a meaningful career, hiding one's light under a bushel, may not be the best way to recognizable success. Such might be the case for tenor saxophonist Jeff Ellwood. He may have fallen into the trap evinced by the Dave Frishberg ditty “I Want To Be A Sideman." But as the saying goes; “better late than never" as Ellwood released a self-produced debut, The Sounds Around The House. ...
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