Jazz Articles about Edward Perez

About Edward Perez

Album Review

Michael Eckroth had clear goals in mind for this project--"to create music that was lyrical, modern, true to its Afro-Latin roots, but never purist in its approach"--and he's accomplished his mission with gusto. Through Plena, this Grammy-nominated pianist/composer delivers a program of original music that, while acknowledging folkloric traditions, doesn't buy into their formal strictures and structures. Instead, Eckroth deals in forward-thinking offshoots and branch realities that beautifully extend on--and past--those points. Essentially working with two different ...

Album Review

Roxana Amed: Ontology

Read "Ontology" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
April 19, 2021

Per il titolo del suo settimo album Roxana Amed ha scelto un termine filosoficamente pregnante, la cui analisi risale ai presocratici. Ovviamente la cantante non s'interroga sull'essere in quanto essere ma restringe il campo alla sua dimensione personale, al suo essere cantante di jazz argentina, con un'identità in equilibrio tra due mondi. «Mi ci è voluto un po' di tempo per trovare la parola che potesse riflettere questo viaggio—ha detto Roxana -che potesse tradurre anni di domande, rivelazioni, ...

Album Review

Jason Palmer: The Concert: 12 Musings for Isabella

Read "The Concert: 12 Musings for Isabella" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
February 10, 2021

Formatosi sui modelli dell'hard bop e di grandi trombettisti come Clifford Brown e Booker Little, il quarantenne Jason Palmer pubblica un secondo disco per la Giant Step Arts, dopo Rhyme and Reason del 2018. Quella di Jimmy e Dena Katz è molto più di un'etichetta ma una coraggiosa organizzazione no-profit che sostiene i musicisti lasciando loro piena libertà. Mentre sono confermati il sassofonista Mark Turner e il batterista Kendrick Scott, il quartetto del precedente lavoro si amplia al ...

Album Review

Julian Shore: Where We Started

Read "Where We Started" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
August 19, 2020

A pianist of uncommon sensitivity and graceful temperament, Julian Shore crafts music with atmosphere and feeling, aiming for emotional depth rather than settling for typical jazz devices. On Where We Started, his third release, he offers eight well-honed tracks which are both evocative and nuanced; while they might not win over the uninitiated in a crowded club, they offer plenty of introspective delights to listeners prepared to settle in with the music. Joined by a fine ensemble, Shore ...

Album Review

Jason Palmer: The Concert: 12 Musings for Isabella

Read "The Concert: 12 Musings for Isabella" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
May 3, 2020

On March 18, 1990, two thieves went into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and made off with thirteen works of art, paintings and drawings by masters such as Rembrandt, Degas and Vermeer plus a couple of antique artifacts. To this day, the works have never been recovered and the museum still keeps the empty frames that held them on its walls. One day trumpeter Jason Palmer visited the museum and noticed the empty frames. He eventually learned the ...

Album Review

Jason Palmer: The Concert: 12 Musings for Isabella

Read "The Concert: 12 Musings for Isabella" reviewed by Doug Hall

by Doug Hall
April 16, 2020

As infamous as the 1990 heist of thirteen works of art from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was, an approach to address the void has not been pursued artistically. Trumpeter Jason Palmer's release “The Concert: 12 Musings for Isabella" has taken on the challenge of composing original interpretations of these paintings and several other fine art objects. Palmer describes his reaction to the vacant frames left on the wall at the Gardner as “empty forms." With the 30th anniversary of ...

Album Review

Oscar Penas: Music Of Departures And Returns

Read "Music Of Departures And Returns" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 3, 2014

In putting together his fourth album, guitarist Oscar Penas looked to composers he connects with, songs that speak to him, and originals that fit comfortably with the rest. That's the concept here, plain and simple, and the end result is a thirty-eight minute beauty that's alluring and completely accessible. Two different rhythm sections and three guests come and go during these eight tracks, but Penas' presence ties everything together. The first three numbers--a cheery choro featuring clarinetist ...