Jazz Articles about David Leon

About David Leon

Album Review

Veronica Swift: Veronica Swift

Read "Veronica Swift" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
September 13, 2023

Leave it to the irascibly spirited and octane-charged Veronica Swift to release the party record of the year! From the pure joy scatting of the blast-off opener “I Am What I Am" (from Broadway's grand musical La Cage aux Folles) to the rabble rousing, mad-cap Joan Jett jam with The Ramones finale “Don't Rain On My Parade" (only available on the CD and digital versions), the incredibly talented and free-swinging Swift swings for the fences and wins the home-run derby ...

Album Review

Veronica Swift: Veronica Swift

Read "Veronica Swift" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright

by Katchie Cartwright
September 1, 2023

Veronica Swift is a masterful jazz singer. Her craft is immaculate. She scats like nobody's business and her texted improvisations are inventive. What's more, she always seems to sing straight from the heart. All that might be enough for some people, not Swift. She is an artistic adventurer who wonders aloud on social media: “What would it sound like if you put together Ella Fitzgerald and--I don't know--Jimi Hendrix?" An answer is the third track on her self-titled ...

Album Review

Lesley Mok: The Living Collection

Read "The Living Collection" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
May 20, 2023

Percussionist and composer Lesley Mok is a restless explorer who has also been called a sound artist. However, that designation does not give a full picture of her creative vision. Mok deftly maintains the singular balance between the notated and the improvised as well as abstraction and accessibility, thus breaking out of narrow genreist designations, to make music which is urgently relevant. All this and more is clearly demonstrated on her debut as a leader, the provocative The Living Collection. ...

Album Review

Cory Smythe: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Read "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
January 31, 2023

The startling molten sounds which open pianist Cory Smythe's Smoke Gets In Your Eyes signal that this will be no ordinary journey. On the first four cuts he draws on a stellar 11-strong squad which matches leading cutting edge figures such as saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, trumpeter Peter Evans and cellist Tomeka Reid, with colleagues from the International Contemporary Ensemble, hailed as America's foremost new-music group by The New Yorker, such as violinist Josh Modney and sadly deceased saxophonist Ryan Muncy, ...

Radio & Podcasts

David León, Sean Conly, Thomas Heberer & more Jerry Granelli

by Maurice Hogue
September 8, 2021

Aire De Agua from saxophonist David León is a very impressive recording. It's one of the highlights of this episode. Bassist Sean Conly keeps his string of fine recordings going with his latest, The Buzz, and you'll hear samples from other new releases from two Argentinians, drummer Axel Filip and saxophonist Rodrigo Dominguez, trumpeter Thomas Heberer, and two from Portugal, saxophonist José Lencastre's Nau Quartet and vibraphonist Paulo Santo. Some Jerry Granelli for you as well. Playlist Ches ...

Album Review

South Florida Jazz Orchestra: Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza

Read "Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 10, 2020

In 2019, the acclaimed Michigan-bred, Paris-based tenor saxophonist Rick Margitza thought he was being asked to contribute a couple of charts to the University of South Florida Jazz Orchestra's fifth recording in its fifteen-year history as a working ensemble. But when SFJO founder and leader Chuck Bergeron looked at the charts he had an even better idea, and asked Margitza to write and / or arrange everything on the album, which thus became Cheap Thrills: The Music of Rick Margitza. ...

Album Review

South Florida Jazz Orchestra: Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza

Read "Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
October 8, 2020

The concept of a large, tightly-knit big band in a recording studio, on a concert or jazz club stage may just be a plug-in memory in today's environment. Fortunately there is the fifteenth anniversary recording of The South Florida Jazz Orchestra directed by bassist/bandleader Chuck Bergeron, entitled Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza, to remind us what a disciplined inventive big band sounds like. With the exception of George and Ira Gershwin's “Embraceable You," all the other ...