Jazz Articles about David Kikoski

David Kikoski Quartet: Limits

by John Kelman
November 6, 2006

Limits may seem like an odd title for this disc, an unassuming but thoroughly captivating quartet session that reunites pianist David Kikoski with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Bill Stewart from his 2004 Criss Cross release, Details; it also brings back tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake from earlier Criss Cross discs, including 2002's Combinations. But while this set of all-original material situates itself firmly in the mainstream, it also exudes a sense of adventure that makes it anything but restrictive.

What ...

Pat Martino: Remember: A Tribute To Wes Montgomery

by Russ Musto
August 18, 2006

The tribute album allows an artist to document his indebtedness to another's influence on his own style with a more fully formed personal approach and individual voice. It shines a spotlight on the honoree's body of work in a way that no single record in that artist's discography did during his lifetime. And it introduces a new generation to the efforts of a player from a previous era. This album achieves success on these planes in a way that few ...

Pat Martino: Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery

by Nic Jones
April 28, 2006

Make no mistake--this is a tribute not only to Wes Montgomery, but also the resilience of human creativity. While this might smack of hyperbole, it should be remembered that Martino completely forgot how to play the guitar some 26 years ago as a result of brain surgery, and if diligence and application can supply the kind of results heard here, then any suggestion of hyperbole is surely questionable.

To hear a musician as in touch with his or her instrument ...

Pat Martino: Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery

by Chris May
April 26, 2006

The safest course of action on encountering a tribute album is usually to run like hell in the opposite direction. Which is why this beautiful album stayed unplayed for a couple of weeks before finally, thank God, finding the deck.

This recording is just lovely. If Wes Montgomery was alive today, this is almost certainly what he would sound like. But he isn't. It's what Pat Martino sounds like today, when revisiting his primary formative influence. And that's what validates ...

Pat Martino: Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery

by John Kelman
April 21, 2006

Guitarist Pat Martino has overcome far more than his share of obstacles. Emerging in the mid-1960s, he released a string of acclaimed albums starting with the classic El Hombre (Prestige, 1967) and ending with the overlooked fusion classic Joyous Lake (Warner Bros., 1977). Then a brain aneurysm literally stole his identity and for the next decade he struggled to regain who he was, both as a person and as a musician.

Since then Martino's dark-toned and rapid-fire but always swinging ...

Pat Martino: Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery

by AAJ Italy Staff
April 11, 2006

Gli appassionati di jazz conoscono la sfortunata storia di Pat Martino: voce tra le più significative della chitarra jazz negli anni Settanta, nel 1980 viene colpito da aneurisma cerebrale; operato, perde quasi completamente la memoria, anche quella chitarristica. Riparte così da zero, con i suoi vecchi dischi e l'aiuto del computer come compagni di viaggio nel tentativo di recupero della sua maestria strumentale, che alla fine ne guadagna in pulizia e linearità, andando a confluire in una sorta di stile ...

David Kikoski: Details

by AAJ Staff
October 5, 2004

David Kikoski has earned his chops backing everyone from legends like Roy Haynes (two decades and counting) to young gun David Sanchez. Though he can commandeer a set when he wants (an astoundingly fractured, nearly chaotic barrelhouse blues piano solo is all that remains in memory of the last Pat Martino gig I caught), by nature he's a team player: gently tenacious exploration and ethereal post-bop empathy are this Berklee grad's true bread and butter. Thus Details , ...