Jazz Articles about Ethan Helm

About Ethan Helm

Album Review

Il nome di Rin Seo si aggiunge al numero delle talentose musiciste di origine asiatica che nell'ultimo ventennio hanno mostrato d'aver creativamente assimilato l'idioma musicale afro-americano. Tra esse non mancano le orchestratrici che ottengono risultati eccellenti anche grazie alla solida preparazione negli studi classici. Nata in Corea 36 anni fa, Rin Seo s'è laureata in composizione classica a Seul e s'è trasferita negli Stati Uniti per studiare al Berklee College of Music. Dopo il diploma ha conseguito un master ...

Album Review

Rin Seo: City Suite

Read "City Suite" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 18, 2025

There is no doubting which metropolis Korean-born composer Rin Seo had in mind when writing City Suite, the panoramic opening salvo and centerpiece on the debut recording by her fourteen-member Rin Seo Collective, as the suite's first movement is titled “The Big Apple." Seo moved to New York City, her present home, after coming to America to study jazz performance and composition at Boston's Berklee College of Music. The suite's three movements are thematic, and Seo's portrayal ...

Album Review

Russell Scarbrough: Fun Times

Read "Fun Times" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 25, 2023

Bandleader Russell Scarbrough has an intriguing motto: “If it's not fun, we're not doing it right!" He also had an intriguing way of recording his debut album, Fun Times, to which an entire review could be devoted. Suffice to say that the individual parts were taped in isolation owing to the Covid pandemic and sent to Scarbrough for inclusion on the album, sometimes taking up to a year to complete. Scarbrough “could afford to be patient," he writes, “as [he] ...

Album Review

Cowboys & Frenchmen: Our Highway

Read "Our Highway" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 20, 2021

Okay, the name may be rather out of the ordinary (Cowboys & Frenchmen?), but once past that, what remains is a burnished New York City-based quintet whose music might best be described as decidedly liberated and contemporary. This isn't “free" jazz wherein each member of the group goes his own separate way; there is, however, a large share of free-lancing within the established boundaries of melody, harmony and rhythm that moderate all save the most ungoverned forms of the music. ...

Album Review

Sukyung Kim: Lilac Hill

Read "Lilac Hill" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
July 2, 2020

Lilac Hill, Korean-born, Brooklyn based pianist/composer Sukyung Kim's five song, self-produced, engaging debut EP fervently introduces a musical sensibility that is an airy, traditional blend of youthful wit and studied style with a lean, casual sense of swing at its heart. The title track starts the proceedings confidently enough with tight and dynamic group interplay, proving an early and undeniable testament to Kim's solid understanding that as one player shines so too shines the whole ensemble. “Stargazer" opens ...

Album Review

Sukyung Kim: Lilac Hill

Read "Lilac Hill" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

by Friedrich Kunzmann
May 13, 2020

There is a lot to admire about Brooklyn-based pianist Sukyung Kim's debut outing, whether it be the thoroughly narrated elements forming the individual compositions, the crystalline transparency of the recording, the dexterous performances by all involved, or the equal amount of innovation and traditional savoir-faire which defines these five original cuts. At just over half an hour, this first contact with the pianist might be short, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. ...