Jazz Articles about Dave Miller

About Dave Miller

Album Review

Chad McCullough: In These Hills, Beyond

Read "In These Hills, Beyond" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 12, 2024

Trumpeter Chad McCullough started his recording career in Seattle at Origin Records, releasing five albums between 2009 and 2015 under his name or as a co-leader with pianist Bram Weitjers. It was a successful run that earned him the “Rising Star" tag. A move to Chicago to teach, the release of his “Best of Year" pick, 2020's Forward (Outside In Music), and the subsequent starting up of his Calligram Records that has taken his artistry and his career to the ...

Album Review

Christian Dillingham: Cascades

Read "Cascades" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo

by Maurizio Zerbo
April 9, 2024

Questo CD può rappresentare una bella sorpresa per chi non segue i mille rivoli del copioso panorama discografico statunitense. Ne è protagonista il bassista Christian Dillingham, già distintosi per la rara versatilità nel padroneggiare la cultura eurocolta, la tradizione jazzistica e il mondo del gospel grazie alla pluripremiata collaborazione discografica con il cantante Kirk Franklin. Nel brano d'apertura si individuano i principali orizzonti espressivi di un progetto fondato sulla semplicità tematica, sull'esplosione gioiosa e innodica di una musica ...

Album Review

Christian Dillingham: Cascades

Read "Cascades" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
September 7, 2023

Chicago bassist Christian Dillingham is a truly versatile musician. In addition to excelling at various genres, including jazz, western classical and gospel, he appeared on singer Kirk Franklin's Grammy winner Long Live Love (RCA 2019). Dillingham is also an accomplished educator, composer and bandleader. He demonstrates these skills as he leads his quartet on his debut Cascades, a cohesive and original work which is intense, thought-provoking, and soulful. A dramatic ambiance permeates the captivating “South State Line Road"; ...

Album Review

Arman Sangalang: Quartet

by Jack Bowers
August 20, 2023

Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Arman Sangalang, still in his mid-20s, makes his recording debut with Quartet, wherein his talented four-member ensemble uses delicate textures and shadings in lieu of heated fire and brimstone to amplify its even-tempered musical purpose. That was clearly Sangalang's idea, as he wrote all save one of the album's ten by and large tranquil themes (chaperoning the lone standard, Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen's “Polka Dots and Moonbeams"). Sangalang's unaccompanied intro to that ...

Album Review

Rebecca DuMaine: Someday, Something

Read "Someday, Something" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
September 21, 2021

It is odd that Rebecca DuMaine should have chosen “Alone Again (Naturally)" to decorate a pandemic-influenced recording. Quite a few musicians have, almost perforce, referred to the circumstances of the Covid months, but this song can be oddly compelling for someone who remembers the contrasting emotional environment in which it was recorded in 1972. It was about personal loss, and powerfully so, but certainly not about widespread disappearances, a modern version of a plague year. DuMaine's matter-of-fact delivery here is ...

Album Review

Dave Miller: Old Door Phantoms

Read "Old Door Phantoms" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 5, 2016

Guitarist Dave Miller has been all over the jazz, rock and improvisational map, performing with the progressive rock band Algernon and stints with Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls amid collaborations with many artists for numerous record labels. However, Old Door Phantoms is Miller's his first solo outing, where he draws upon numerous jazz, pop and rock influences. It's an explosive set recorded at famed producer Steve Albini's Chicago studio, Electrical Audio. According to the press release, [the audio] “has ...

Album Review

Lena Bloch: Feathery

Read "Feathery" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
October 14, 2014

Moscovita di nascita ma giramondo per natura dopo un primo trasferimento alla volta di Israele datato 1990, Lena Bloch è una solida tenorista formatasi studiando, fra gli altri, con Yusef Lateef, Joe Lovano e in fondo più di tutti Lee Konitz, che l'ha introdotta all'estetica tristaniana, forgiando per sempre il suo linguaggio (e la sua pronuncia, la sua sonorità), che si avverte oggi inequivocabilmente imparentato con quello del grande Warne Marsh. Per questo che risulta essere il ...