Jazz Articles about Dave Baron

About Dave Baron

Album Review

Nick Finzer: The Jazz Orchestra Volume 1

Read "The Jazz Orchestra Volume 1" reviewed by Carl Medsker

by Carl Medsker
September 1, 2025

Listening chronologically to seven of Nick Finzer's preceding albums is enlightening and entertaining, making several aspects of his musicianship abundantly apparent. His trombone sound is full and expressive, his playing melodious and he can soulfully sing a ballad. Six albums, dating back to 2013, featured his highly talented sextet, a significant accomplishment that enhances the depth and confidence of the recordings. But Finzer's evolving skills in arranging his fresh compositions truly distinguish his work. He choreographs his bandmates amidst lovely ...

Album Review

Alex Wintz Trio: Live To Tape

Read "Live To Tape" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
December 20, 2020

Back in the day (the 1960s), when guitarist Grant Green stepped into the studio to record for Blue Note Records, they rolled the tape. Literally. Pushed a button and the spools began to spin, the left circle feeding the right. On Live To Tape, that is how guitarist Alex Wintz rolls, too, taking his modern sound back to bygone recording mode, catching his sounds directly to tape. All that, of course, don't mean a thing if it ain't ...

Album Review

Nick Finzer: Cast Of Characters

Read "Cast Of Characters" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

by Friedrich Kunzmann
March 27, 2020

Trombonist Nick Finzer's fifth album as a leader is a strong testament to his musical influences expressed by through-designed compositions and lively interplay. On Cast of Characters , the New York-based musician, composer and label owner has gathered all of his forces together to deliver a concentrated, conceptual exercise in arrangement and instrumentation, which lives off of the impeccable performances of the individual musicians as much as it does off of the compositional material at hand. Traditional swing-and ...

Album Review

Nick Finzer: Cast Of Characters

Read "Cast Of Characters" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 20, 2020

A cryptic element lurks beneath trombonist Nick Finzer's Cast Of Characters. The theme of the album is artistic influences. But who are they... “We laugh, we cry, we celebrate, we learn, and we forge our own path on the shoulders of those who came before us. We are both the sum of our experience and the product of our influence. We are who we choose to embrace." This is from the spread out trifecta of liner notes in ...