Jazz Articles about Eric Wheeler

About Eric Wheeler

Album Review

Jazz triple-threat Bria Skonberg is back, singing, scatting and playing eloquent trumpet on Indigo, the Canadian-born artist's eighth recording as leader of her own group (one of which, Bria, earned Canada's JUNO Award in 2017 for best Vocal Jazz Album of the Year). In Skonberg's ongoing back-and-forth between voice and trumpet, voice seems to have gained the upper hand here, as she sings on every one of the album's nine numbers (including one of her own) and plays ...

Album Review

Bria Skonberg: Brass

by Jack Bowers
April 28, 2026

Canadian-born and New York-based trumpeter, vocalist and composer Bria Skonberg focuses almost exclusively on the horn on her seventh recording, the aptly named Brass. Even though Skonberg may be a splendid singer, she plays trumpet so extremely well it's a pretty sure bet that no one but the most diehard lovers of vocal jazz may miss her voice, heard here only on the album's last number, Cole Porter's “You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To." Skonberg's solos ...

Album Review

Brandon Sanders: Lasting Impression

Read "Lasting Impression" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
December 21, 2025

Brandon Sanders' 2025 release, Lasting Impression, is a heartfelt reaffirmation of the core values that have shaped jazz drumming for generations. Instead of chasing novelty for its own sake, Sanders grounds the album in straightforward clarity that honours the legacy of those countless craftsmen who viewed swing as a personal responsibility. From the opening bars, he demonstrates he is a drummer dedicated to supporting the ensemble and allowing the music to breathe. The stellar band, assembled for this purpose, includes ...

Extended Analysis

Dream Manifest

by Karan Khosla
September 17, 2025

Dream Manifest: Theo Croker's Studio Invocation Theo Croker is a trumpeter whose career zigzags across genres and continents earning Grammy nominations, platinum credits, and a reputation for erasing boundaries. With Dream Manifest, he pushes farther than before: a studio album built on layers, detail, and a spirit of relentless curiosity and collaboration. For this album, Croker brought his touring band off the road and straight into the studio, in addition; he lined up guests from Gary Bartz and ...

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

Yuval Amihai: My 90s Summer

Read "My 90s Summer" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 5, 2022

This fourth album from Yuval Amihai takes inspiration from the halcyon days of a summer long past, recalling formative experiences of a youth spent in the desert city of Beer Sheva in Israel. But it also draws heavily on the guitarist's globetrotting as an adult, looking toward years spent in France and a new life in New York. A work supported by those broad interests and influences spanning decades, My 90s Summer is nevertheless a remarkably focused date showcasing a ...

Album Review

Eric Wyatt: A Song of Hope

Read "A Song of Hope" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 25, 2021

On A Song of Hope, his second album for Whaling City Sound, saxophonist Eric Wyatt offers more than hope; he offers assurance that contemporary jazz is alive and well in and around his home base of Brooklyn, NY. Wyatt, the godson of another rather well-known saxophonist, Sonny Rollins, performs in groups of various sizes, from quartet to octet, with vocals by Samara Joy on two numbers, “Fragile" and Wyatt's “Say Her Name." The almost-constants are pianist Donald Vega, bassist Eric ...