Jazz Articles about Erik Skov

About Erik Skov

Album Review

Emily Kuhn is a trumpet player from Chicago with a calm, lyrical tone whose music is influenced by the folk and classical worlds as well as jazz. That shows up strongly on the track “In Lieu of Certainty, Movement" here, where pianist Meghan Stagl keeps a rippling neo-classical melody going while Kuhn and guitarist Erik Skov solo in front of her with ever-increasing force and purpose. “When The World Is Young" begins with lovely drifting Spanish guitar from Skov before ...

Album Review

Matt Peterson: Better Worlds

Read "Better Worlds" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
July 1, 2023

Chicago pianist Matt Peterson is a versatile artist who defies genres. He is both an accomplished, bop-based improviser as well as a sensitive interpreter of the Western classical tradition. Both elements of his style come together on the exuberant and captivating Better Worlds, a collection of 10 of his originals as well as a unique arrangement of The Beatles' “Blackbird." One of the highlights of the uniformly superb album is “Petrichor," which opens with Peterson's smoldering chords that ...

Album Review

Michael Hudson-Casanova: Animus

Read "Animus" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
March 14, 2023

On his second release as a leader, the captivating Animus, saxophonist Michael Hudson-Casanova leads his trio on a cohesive set of eight of his originals. The contemplative, moving music is complex and nuanced, inventive and accessible. Hudson-Casanova, who has already demonstrated his superb compositional skills on his debut, goes further on the current album, creating a unique blend of a haunting ambience and provocative substance. Guitarist Erik Skov begins the title track with reverberating vamps which bounce off ...

Album Review

Gustavo Cortinas: Kind Regards

Read "Kind Regards" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
October 20, 2022

Drummer Gustavo Cortinas' previous album was cinematic in scale, and he has followed it with the more intimate yet equally enchanting Kind Regards (Saludos Afectuosos). Leading a quintet of young, intrepid, Chicago musicians, Cortinas interpretes ten of his own songs that explore themes of social justice, love, and life in general. “When I Leave You" has an effervescent cadence. Vocalist and pianist Meghan Stagl endows the lyrics with nostalgia while her keys chime with melancholy. Trumpeter Emily Kuhn ...

Album Review

Erik Skov: Liminality

Read "Liminality" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 2, 2019

Liminality is defined as “occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold." Guitarist Erik Skov had a good idea: infuse his debut album with a certain amount of liminality (ambivalence) in the form of eight long-form compositions designed to lend his able sextet weighty meat on which to chew. While Skov's essentially laid-back themes no doubt gauge the group's compatibility, what lies in their wake is a more or less decorous blowing ...