Jazz Articles about Eliot Zigmund

About Eliot Zigmund

Album Review

Vince Guaraldi: It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown

Read "It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown" reviewed by Joshua Weiner

by Joshua Weiner
September 11, 2026

The winsome series of pianist Vince Guaraldi's soundtracks for the original Peanuts television specials is a gift from Lee Mendelson Film Productions that keeps on giving. Arriving just in time for “spooky season" is the premiere release of music from 1974's It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown, with three colored vinyl pressings unique to individual retailers (Urban Outfitters, Barnes & Noble, and Think Indie) available on September 11, 2026, followed by the wide release of black vinyl, CD, and digital versions ...

Album Review

Michel Petrucciani / Dave Holland / Eliot Zigmund: Kuumbwa

by Jack Bowers
August 11, 2026

Michel Petrucciani was not blessed with a long life. What the French-born jazz pianist was blessed with was an enormous talent, one most people could not amass in several lifetimes. Petrucciani was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disease that led to brittle bones, stunted his growth and left him in almost constant pain--the sort of ailment that would cause many lesser men to simply throw in the towel and retreat. Petrucianni never even gave that a passing ...

Album Review

Michel Petrucciani: Kuumbwa

Read "Kuumbwa" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
July 13, 2026

Alla fine del suo ricordo personale, contenuto nel libretto di questo doppio album, Enrico Pieranunzi si rammarica di come, in qualche modo, Michel Petrucciani sia stato dimenticato dal mondo del jazz. Il mondo a cui aveva donato tutto se stesso. Escluso da una vita “regolare," condannato dall'osteogenesi imperfecta a far convivere intelligenza e sensibilità sopraffine in un corpo dolente, Michel trovava nella musica il suo riscatto emozionale, un elemento da controllare e dominare a piacimento, consapevole invece che il tempo ...

Album Review

Michel Petrucciani: Kuumbwa

Read "Kuumbwa" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
April 18, 2026

Michel Petrucciani's Kuumbwa is the type of release that reminds us why live jazz recordings still matter. This is not a vault-cleaning exercise, nor just a historical note. Recorded at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, California, in 1987, it is now released by Elemental Music, first as an exclusive two-LP Record Store Day set, with CD and digital editions to follow. This excellent recording captures Michel Petrucciani in one of his most exciting trio settings, alongside longtime drummer ...

Album Review

Michel Petrucciani: Kuumbwa

by Jack Kenny
April 16, 2026

Recorded live on May 11, 1987, at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, California, this album catches pianist Michel Petrucciani during an inspired phase of his career. It was not his first visit to the venue. While living in Big Sur--about an hour south of Santa Cruz--Petrucciani had befriended saxophonist Charles Lloyd, who was on a hiatus from music. Encouraged by the young French pianist, Lloyd gradually resumed playing, eventually forming a duo with Petrucciani that performed at the ...

Album Review

Vince Guaraldi: It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!

Read "It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown!" reviewed by Joshua Weiner

by Joshua Weiner
April 6, 2025

The series of complete Peanuts television special soundtracks put out by Lee Mendelson Film Productions continues to thrill fans of Vince Guaraldi, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and all the gang. After the highly successful Christmas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving animated specials, the stage was set for 1974's It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown! Recorded over two days at Wally Heider Studios in Guaraldi's hometown of San Francisco, the soundtrack--resurrected for the first time from the 16-track master tape and freshly mixed--features the ...

Album Review

Bill Evans: You Must Believe In Spring (Hybrid SACD)

Read "You Must Believe In Spring (Hybrid SACD)" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
September 16, 2022

The quietude with which “B Minor Waltz (For Ellaine)" opens You Must Believe In Spring belies the hearty homage this release constitutes in recognition of the title's forty-fifth anniversary. As a means of righteous and deserving tribute to his seventieth studio album, the late Bill Evans' debut for the Warner Bros. label is enhanced in a number of ways. First and foremost is the sonic upgrade for hybrid-SACD (as well as the vinyl LP configuration). Using the Plangent ...