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Jazz Articles about E.J. Strickland
Oleg Kireyev and Keith Javors: The Meeting
by Howard Mandel
How far must a reeds virtuoso from Bashkiria--a town in the Ural Mountains, southeast of Moscow towards Mongolia--and a pianist-composer-educator from southern Illinois, now living in Philadelphia, have to go to get together? Not very, based on the music Oleg Kireyev and Keith Javors arrive at on The Meeting. Simply to a shared sense of joy in swinging rhythms, warm, rich harmonies and singable songs. In their second co-led album Kireyev and Javors offer more delightful proof that ...
Continue ReadingLakecia Benjamin: Phoenix
by Jerome Wilson
The previous album by saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, Pursuance: The Coltranes, (Ropeadope, 2020) was a multifaceted tribute to the music of both John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane. Her new album takes on societal and human issues with similar diversity but in a more compact and organized manner. It moves from a socially aware mix of soul, R'n'B, and jazz fusion in its first half to full-blown spiritual jazz in its second. The album begins with the sound of sirens ...
Continue ReadingLakecia Benjamin: Phoenix
by Mike Jurkovic
True to her nature, saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin keeps the flame to the dynamite on her smoking follow-up to the wildfire of Pursuance (Ropeadope, 2020), her still hot-to-the-touch dedication to the music and spirituality of John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane. Co-produced with maximum female power by Benjamin and Terri Lyne Carrington, the torrential riptide “Amerikkan Skin" ambushes one's consciousness via the urgency of police sirens only to give way to the equally urgent dictum of radical thinker, activist, educator ...
Continue ReadingLynne Arriale Trio: The Lights Are Always On
by Jack Bowers
Music with “a message" need not be inscrutable or bombastic, as pianist/composer Lynne Arriale proves time and again on The Lights Are Always On, whose ten original Arriale compositions are dedicated to caregivers, healers, truth-tellers and defenders of democracy in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the brazen hoax-fueled attack on the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021. In fact, much of the music on Arriale's sixteenth album as leader is more understated than emphatic, ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Black Lives - From Generation to Generation
by Glenn Astarita
Indeed, African Americans are the architects of several musical formations, hearkening back to Scott Joplin's development of 'ragged' rhythms i.e., Ragtime, along with blues, funk, jazz, and other genres, often evolving into various tangents and offshoots. And on this comprehensively entertaining set produced by Belgian Stefany Calembert with assistance from her husband and acclaimed bassist Reggie Washington, they righteously bestow Black Music as a “source of moral truth and potent weapon against racism." Numerous stars such as saxophonist ...
Continue ReadingGabriel Vicéns: The Way We Are Created
by Mark Sullivan
Puerto Rican jazz guitarist & composer Gabriel Vicéns has been living in New York City since 2016 but, for this album, he chose to explore traditional Puerto Rican music (Bomba and Plena—music and dance styles born from African slavery and Caribbean influences) blended with his own compositional style. He was also exposed to Cuban Changüí, and began incorporating some stylistic devices from it into his guitar playing. The title tune begins the program with an infectious ostinato pattern ...
Continue ReadingLynne Arriale: Chimes of Freedom
by Jim Worsley
Melodic intelligence and inner exploration are at the core of any Lynne Arriale recording. Chimes of Freedom is no exception. It does, however, have many moments which are exceptional. Once again featuring bassist Jasper Somsen and drummer E. J. Strickland, the record weighs in at a nourishing forty-five minutes of mood enhancement. Seven Arriale originals are the backbone of this ten-song project. Vocalist K. J. Denhert joins the ensemble for the final two tracks. The trio opens by ...
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