Jazz Articles about Drew Gress

About Drew Gress

Album Review

Phil Haynes: Return to Electric

Read "Return to Electric" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 18, 2025

Phil Haynes, a drummer who possesses an extensive and heralded resume, unleashes Return to Electric, a semiavant-garde fusion-fueled romp that feels like a love letter to the electric guitar's golden era, delivered with a sly wink. This album displays Haynes, guitarist Steve Salerno, and bassist Drew Gress capturing the experimental spirit of 1970s jazz-rock while demonstrating their mastery over modern styles. Haynes provides near-flawless support, punctuated by colorific cymbal accents, off-kilter deviations and polyrhythmic fills. The trio kicks ...

Album Review

Jason Robinson: Ancestral Numbers

Read "Ancestral Numbers" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
May 14, 2025

Unica seduta di registrazione dal 23 al 25 agosto 2023, due CD, Ancestral Numbers I e Ancestral Numbers II, usciti a qualche mese di distanza, stessa fonte di ispirazione--il ricordo della nonna materna e la sua influenza nella famiglia--stessa ricerca di relazioni tra numeri, genealogie e storie dettate dallo scorrere del tempo. È questa la prima parte di un progetto musicale pensato da Jason Robinson nel quale una serie di composizioni sarà pensata per appositi organici strumentali. Sassofonista e flautista ...

Album Review

Phil Haynes: Return to Electric

Read "Return to Electric" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 29, 2025

The band Return to Forever was a seminal jazz fusion group led by pianist Chick Corea. The eponymous first album, on ECM Records, was released in 1972, opening doors for scores of other like-minded ensembles. Electricity was a main aspect of the move away from acoustic jazz. The Fender Rhodes piano and plugged-in bass and guitars of fusion took hold and, to some degree, seemed to be ushering the old (acoustic) guard out the door. But that did ...

Album Review

Marc Copland Quartet: Dreaming

Read "Dreaming" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
March 25, 2025

Si pone per così dire al centro del guado questo quartetto del settantaseienne pianista di Filadelfia Marc Copland, qui (il quartetto) al suo secondo album dopo Someday (2022, stessa etichetta). Il guado è la centralità dell'idioma jazzistico proposto, in bilico (in equilibrio, forse più correttamente) fra rispetto per il déjà écouté, tratti originali e sete di ricerca. Qui, magari, le percentuali pendono più verso il primo aspetto che verso gli altri due, però tutto è condotto in porto con estremo ...

Album Review

Marc Copland: Dreaming

Read "Dreaming" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 5, 2025

Jazz man Marc Copland is known primarily for his piano albums, solo and trio outings. He is considered by some, rightly so, as the premier jazz pianist of our day, closer to the supple touch and refined harmony of Bill Evans than the bouncing, joyous near-bombast of Bud Powell. But he is no stranger to playing with horns, teaming with trumpeter Ralph Alessi on Zenith (InnerVoice Jazz, 2015), saxophonist Dave Liebman on Contact (Pirouet Records, 2015) and saxophonist Greg Osby ...

Album Review

Christopher Zuar Orchestra: Exuberance

Read "Exuberance" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
December 30, 2024

È decisamente un periodo d'oro per l'orchestrazione jazz. Ai molti bandleader e arrangiatori emersi nel nuovo millennio, si aggiunge decisamente Christopher Zuar, che firma il secondo album confermando le doti espresse in Musings (Sunnyside), il debutto di otto anni fa. Con un diploma al New England Conservatory e un master alla Manhattan School of Music, Zuar aggiunge una spiccata fantasia nell'arricchire il modern mainstream orchestrale di nuove suggestioni. Questo progetto è stato concepito tra il 2017 e ...

Album Review

Randy Ingram: Aries Dance

Read "Aries Dance" reviewed by John Chacona

by John Chacona
December 27, 2024

No one would suggest that a car stereo in a rush-hour traffic jam is an ideal environment to evaluate a recording--or even to squeeze much enjoyment out of one. Yet even in this setting the graceful, gliding waltz that opens Randy Ingram's Aries Dance immediately dispelled the frustration and tension of the highway like an offshore breeze drives away the midsummer heat. As traffic crept toward Columbus, Ohio at the Polaris Parkway exit, a quick check of the title: it ...