Jazz Articles about David Virelles

About David Virelles

Album Review

David Virelles: Creative Inspirations

Read "Creative Inspirations" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
September 20, 2026

Though we can likely assume that any music brought to life by pianist David Virelles, with his uncanny ability to make even the most jagged improvisation sound like yesteryear's standard, bassist Reggie Workman, who at eighty-eight still plays like the young turk afire alongside John Coltrane at the Village Vanguard, and drummer Andrew Cyrille who, at eighty-six, still epitomizes free jazz drumming, to move about freely through space and time and go where it will. Creative Inspirations comes at you ...

Album Review

David Virelles: Igbó Alákọrin (The Singer’s Grove) Vol. III (Director’s Cut)

Read "Igbó Alákọrin (The Singer’s Grove) Vol. III (Director’s Cut)" reviewed by Jim Trageser

by Jim Trageser
December 11, 2025

In 2018, New York-based pianist David Virelles turned more than a few heads when he set aside his avant-garde playing style to dive headfirst into the traditional music of his native Santiago de Cuba. Igbó Alákorin Vol. 1 and II found Virelles fully immersed in the Santiago music community, recording alongside both local legends and young up-and-comers. He has now issued Vol. III in two different editions, a “theatrical cut" (with 18 tracks) and a longer ...

Album Review

Mark Turner: Reflections on: The Autobiography on an Ex-Colored Man

Read "Reflections on: The Autobiography on an Ex-Colored Man" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
November 6, 2025

Una musica molto composta, predefinita, intenzionale, il tutto da allargare all'essenza stessa di opera nella sua accezione più onnicomprensiva, è quanto ci arriva da quest'ultimo lavoro del fresco sessantenne (il 10 novembre) tenorsassofonista dell'Ohio. Non c'è solo musica, in effetti, in quest'ora e un quarto appena scarsa di suoni e parole (narrate, non cantate), perché qui c'è di mezzo una storia, che è poi quella raccontata un secolo fa da James Weldon Johnson nel volume del titolo, oggetto delle odierne ...

Album Review

Eric McPherson: Double Bass Quartet - Live

Read "Double Bass Quartet - Live" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
September 1, 2025

Drummer Eric McPherson has long been recognized as a musician who combines rhythmic ingenuity and structural awareness in any project he undertakes. With Double Bass Quartet, recorded before a quietly appreciative New York audience, McPherson has assembled an unconventional line-up of Cuban pianist David Virelles along with bassists John Hébert and Ben Street, that challenges and redefines the traditional quartet format. The ensemble's two-bass configuration immediately invites comparisons to the more exploratory aspects of jazz history, yet this is no ...

Album Review

Brandon Ross Phantom Station: Off the End

Read "Off the End" reviewed by Vic Albani

by Vic Albani
November 4, 2024

"Navigando tra luce e oscurità, con Off the End, Brandon Ross Phantom Station offre una cerimonia che è allo stesso tempo aperta e strettamente focalizzata, rivelando uno spirito impavido slegato da vincoli stilistici." Le poche parole tratte dalla recensione pubblicata da “Jazz Trail" inquadrano perfettamente e in poche parole il sunto stilistico del nuovo lavoro discografico della straordinaria creatività del signor Ross, in Italia sicuramente e purtroppo poco conosciuto a parte forse l'avventura con il collettivo avant-rock Harriet Tubman accanto ...

Album Review

Henry Threadgill: The Other One

Read "The Other One" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala

by Giuseppe Segala
October 30, 2023

Giunto sulla soglia delle ottanta primavere, Henry Threadgill non lascia sbiadire la propria splendida vitalità creativa. Lo ha fatto quest'anno sia con la pubblicazione dell'imperdibile autobiografiaEasily Slip into Another World, che con una nuova realizzazione discografica, The Other One. Pure questa imperdibile, si colloca tra i lavori che lo hanno visto impegnato esclusivamente come compositore e direttore dell'ensemble, non in qualità di strumentista e solista, sulla traccia dei precedenti Old Locks and Irregular Verbs, del 2016, e Double ...

Album Review

Johnathan Blake: Passage

by Dave Linn
August 31, 2023

The drummer Johnathan Blake was born in Philadelphia in 1976. His father was the esteemed jazz violinist and educator John Blake Jr. who played in many diverse settings, (most notably Archie Shepp and McCoy Tyner), before releasing seven albums under his name. He died in 2014. Blake (the son) began studying music at a young age, later attending William Paterson University studying with Rufus Reid and Steve Wilson. He eventually received a master's in composition at Rutgers University where he ...