Jazz Articles about Dave Laing

About Dave Laing

Album Review

The title of Canadian alto saxophone maestro PJ Perry's album does not mean that Perry wants No Hugs, rather that the Covid pandemic that arrived in 2020 meant there would be “no hugs" between Perry and his beloved grandson, Atticus, in the “big brown chair" that served as their hangout until the quarantine was over. On the plus side, it gave Perry and longtime friend and colleague, bassist Neil Swainson, ample time to work together on new material, the result ...

Album Review

PJ Perry: No Hugs

Read "No Hugs" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
December 21, 2022

PJ Perry is a survivor. Now, in 2022, eighty-one years old, he has been playing saxophone since he was fourteen, when he joined his father's dance band as a baritone saxophonist. During the course of his lengthy career, he has lived in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and a couple of European cities, before settling in Edmonton, Alberta. As a technically accomplished and eloquent alto saxophonist, he has played with the likes of Rob McConnell's Boss Brass, Dizzy Gillespie, Slide Hampton and ...

Album Review

Mike Rud: Salome's Dance: The Mike Rud Trio Invites Peter Bernstein

Read "Salome's Dance: The Mike Rud Trio Invites Peter Bernstein" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 9, 2020

Calling guitarist Mike Rud one of the best kept secrets on his instrument is only a bit off the mark. Rud's Notes on Montreal (Self Produced) took home a Juno Award, after all, so his presence has most certainly been felt in his native Canada. Yet his work and name haven't traveled like they should, making a bigger mark below and beyond his homeland. Whether painting with thematic tones as a leader, serving as a sideman with pianist Peter Hum, ...

Album Review

Lara Driscoll: Woven Dreams

Read "Woven Dreams" reviewed by Jordan Penney

by Jordan Penney
May 28, 2020

Woven Dreams is the debut album of pianist and Illinois-based university instructor, Lara Driscoll. The disc's uncluttered piano, bass and drums format encourages the clarity and luminosity of her compositions to shine forth, and they do. The format also draws attention to the richness of the group's internal dynamics. The influence of Bill Evans is felt strongly in Driscoll's style. It is evident, first, in her lyrical and measured playing which, like that of Evans, exhibits poise in ...