Jazz Articles about E.J. Strickland

About E.J. Strickland

Album Review

Curating the elders while clearing his own path, there is an urgent, blue ease to alto and soprano sax man Eric Person's resonance. As a matter of fact, there is a blue urgency to all of Person's compositions: His wiry lines have stories to tell and tell them he does, with a soulful urban sovereignty. Witness “Fallout," the second of the nine Person-penned that shape both the last and latest go-rounds for Extra Pressure. What is so cool about ...

Album Review

Eddie Allen's PUSH: Rhythm People

Read "Rhythm People" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 21, 2026

Brooklyn-based trumpeter Eddie Allen and his well-groomed sextet, PUSH, truly are Rhythm People, as they prove time and again on Allen's ninth recording as leader of his own group. Whatever the tone or tempo, PUSH swings its merry way through a dozen bright and upbeat tunes, most written and all arranged by Allen, wherein strong and dazzling rhythms are almost always front and center. The lone exception to that rule is the brief “Psalms 150," the only meditative ...

Album Review

Eddie Allen: The Rhythm

Read "The Rhythm" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 25, 2026

Brooklyn-based trumpeter Eddie Allen and his well-groomed sextet, PUSH, truly are rhythm-focused, as they prove time and again on Allen's ninth recording as leader of his own group. Whatever the tone or tempo, PUSH swings its merry way through a dozen bright and upbeat tunes, most written and all arranged by Allen, wherein strong and dazzling rhythms are almost always front and center. The lone exception to that rule is the brief “Psalms 150," the only meditative item ...

Liner Notes

Altin Sencalar: Unleashed

by C. Andrew Hovan
April 19, 2025

Often overshadowed by other solo instruments, the trombone boasts a rich history in jazz--one so vast it could fill volumes. New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, also gave rise to Kid Ory, a pioneer of the “tailgate" style of trombone playing. In the early 1900s, bandleaders often promoted their shows by parading through town on horse-drawn wagons. Trombonists, needing space to extend their instrument's slide, would sit at the back on the open tailgate, projecting their bold, brassy sound into ...

Liner Notes

Altin Sencalar: Unleashed

by Altin Sencalar
February 23, 2025

Unleashed is an album that captures my overall headspace as an individual. This year I turned 30 years old and welcomed my firstborn child into the world, John Altin Sencalar. Two major milestones in any person's life, but especially mine this year. Unleashed represents my playing, my personality, and my overall attitude towards my career development. When thinking about this album, I take many chances that I would not have done in the past specifically playing the trombone in an ...

Album Review

David Weiss Sextet: Auteur

by Edward Blanco
September 24, 2024

Trumpeter, composer and bandleader David Weiss delivers the fourth album from his exquisite sextet entitled Auteur, a French term originally used to define film directors as the “author' of the film and in musical respects here, to mean the director or “scene setters" of the music. A master of the bebop sound Weiss, as stated in the excellent liner notes from author Aidan Levy, “is dedicated to the proposition that there are still new stories to be told from within ...

Album Review

Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix Reimagined (Live)

Read "Phoenix Reimagined (Live)" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
July 7, 2024

The certifiable beauty of Phoenix Reimagined (Live) is that it all happens in very very real time as Lakecia Benjamin comes fiercely into her immediate own and then, in a tear of a performance that blisters the paint on the wall, surpasses herself. It is a momentous achievement. One that we rarely get to hear up close, personal and live. Benjamin cuts through the malaise of an empire falling, burning down the ministry of b.s. as she wields ...