Jazz Articles about Doug MacDonald

About Doug MacDonald

Album Review

Doug MacDonald: Live in Hawaii

Read "Live in Hawaii" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 24, 2021

Here is a guitar-led quartet with a couple of fresh angles. First, instead of using a piano, guitarist Doug MacDonald has enlisted vibraphonist Noel Okimoto to provide the harmonic counterpoint; and second, Philadelphia-born MacDonald has temporarily forsaken his decades-long base in Southern California to return “home" to Hawaii, where he began his professional career performing with Trummy Young, Gabe Baltazar and Del Courtney. What is not new but nonetheless welcome is MacDonald's superior command of his instrument, ...

Album Review

Doug MacDonald: Mid Century Modern

Read "Mid Century Modern" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
June 6, 2020

Veteran guitarist Doug MacDonald, bassist Larry Holloway and drummer Tim Pleasant, have been performing in and around the Palm Springs, CA community since 2016. The Coachella Valley Trio began their journey with a steady gig at AJ's On The Green, in Cathedral City. Developing into a cohesive group with an impeccable sound, it was only natural that they would decide to capture their music on Mid Century Modern. For this debut, the band expands with the addition of ...

Album Review

The Coachella Valley Trio: Mid Century Modern

Read "Mid Century Modern" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 1, 2020

Guitarist Doug MacDonald had been gigging around the Palm Springs, CA, area with bassist Larry Holloway and drummer Tim Pleasant as the Coachella Valley Trio for three years when the three amigos entered a studio in 2019 to record their first album as a working group. The result is Mid Century Modern, a burnished and buoyant session in which the trio is enlarged on six of its eleven tracks by percussionist Big Black on djembe. The music ...

Album Review

Doug MacDonald & the Tarmac Ensemble: Jazz Marathon 4: Live at Hangar 18

Read "Jazz Marathon 4: Live at Hangar 18" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 14, 2019

As befits a Jazz Marathon, guitarist Doug MacDonald's Live at Hangar 18 embodies not one but two CDs, complete with shifting personnel and groups that range from quintet to septet. This is the fourth in a recorded series of marathons conceived by producer Don Thomson and led by MacDonald with a supporting cast that boasts a number of Southern California's leading jazz musicians. Hangar 18, by the way, is not a repository for aircraft but a restaurant at the Marriott ...

Album Review

Doug MacDonald: Jazz Marathon 2

Read "Jazz Marathon 2" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 20, 2017

For those who thought that guitarist Doug MacDonald's happy-go-lucky jazz marathon had crossed the finish line with the release more than a year ago of Just for Fun, the good news is that MacDonald and his talented teammates have found their second wind and the marathon continues through a second effervescent two-CD session taped at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Redondo Beach, CA. The group remains largely intact, with trumpeter Carl Saunders and saxophonist Pete Christlieb added and trombonist Linda ...

Album Review

Doug MacDonald: Solo Plus

Read "Solo Plus" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
March 4, 2016

The field of jazz guitarists seems to have exploded with variety of discs that put one sort of spin or another on the music. From Latin touches to rock and roll beats and from avant-garde dissonance to popish smoothness this releases run the range of sounds striving to be “exeptional." It is, therefore, refreshing to hear a master of the instrument perform unadorned relying solely on his virtuosity. Guitarist Doug MacDonald does just that on the intimate and engaging Solo ...

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Album Review

Doug MacDonald: Gentle Rain

Read "Gentle Rain" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 30, 2006

The long tradition of the mellow jazz guitar established by Barney Kessel, Johnny Smith, Herb Ellis, Billy Bauer, Jim Hall and others, and carried forward by Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Ed Bickert, Howard Alden and their peers, remains in the capable hands of (relatively) younger players such as John Pizzarelli, Chris Flory and Joe Cohn. Doug MacDonald, now in his 50s, falls somewhere in between, having been on the scene for more than two decades while never forswearing ...