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Jazz Articles about Gary Versace
Kate McGarry + Keith Ganz Ensemble: What to Wear in the Dark
by Dan McClenaghan
Let us start with a nod to Steely Dan, the rock/jazz group headed up by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, a pair of tunesmiths who hit a career zenith in the early 1970s with albums like Can't Buy A Thrill (1972), Countdown To Ecstasy (1973), Pretzel Logic (1974) and Aja (1974), all on ABC Records. The group drew in top jazz artists to help craft their albums—saxophonists Wayne Shorter and Tom Scott, guitarists Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour, drummers Steve ...
read moreJohn Hollenbeck: Songs You Like a Lot
by Angelo Leonardi
Con questo disco John Hollenbeck conclude la trilogia iniziata otto anni fa sulla reinterpretazione di famosi brani della popular music (Songs I Like A Lot, Sunnyside 2013) e proseguita due anni dopo con Songs We Like a Lot per la stessa etichetta. Nel primo album la scelta dei temi era strettamente personale, nel secondo fu condivisa con alcuni partner (i cantanti Theo Bleckmann e Kate McGarry) ed ora nasce dalla selezione di proposte giunte all'arrangiatore dal suo ...
read moreJohn Hollenbeck: Songs You Like A Lot
by Dan Bilawsky
Every ending a beginning, each conclusion an act of creation. If multi-hyphenate John Hollenbeck's Songs You Like A Lot doesn't slot within that sentiment, nothing really does. This collection marks the completion of a lauded trilogy that's stretched out across the better part of a decade, but it also signals the start of something new--the Flexatonic Arts non-profit, which will serve as an umbrella for Hollenbeck's arts and education initiatives, and the record label it houses, acting as a home ...
read moreMatt Moran Trio: Return Trip
by Jerome Wilson
Vibraphonist Matt Moran has carved out a varied musical career for himself. Among other things, he is the leader of the party band Slavic Soul Party! and a member of John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet. He also leads the atmospheric jazz trio on this CD with Gary Versace on Hammond organ and Tom Rainey on drums. This band rewrites the notion of what an organ trio can sound like. Where a similar group with this instrumentation might be extroverted ...
read moreMichael Feinberg: From Where We Came
by Jim Worsley
At the dinner table or in the studio, there are many subtle methods to interject a staunch conversation starter. Or you can always burst into the room with your hair on fire. Veteran soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman, he of many rich and complex lines past, here opted for the latter approach. After bassist and leader Michael Feinberg opened the record with a mood leveling bass intro, Liebman grabbed the attention of his younger generation bandmates in the Feinberg composition “Louisville," ...
read moreMaria Schneider Orchestra: Data Lords
by Angelo Leonardi
C'è molto da dire sul nuovo album di Maria Schneider ma la prima e più importante considerazione riguarda la musica: sorprendente per ricchezza e novità di soluzioni, tensione narrativa e sintesi tra ricerca e tradizione. È uno dei suoi dischi più avvincenti e innovativi. L'incubazione del progetto è durata alcuni anni (il precedente The Thompson Fields è del 2015) e si lega alla presa di coscienza della bandleader sui pericoli connessi alla raccolta dei dati personali dalle società dell'universo digitale. ...
read moreMaria Schneider: Data Lords
by Pat Youngspiel
Well someone doesn't seem too happy with the digital world. But that's nothing new for Maria Schneider. The Grammy-award winning composer and bandleader has been an outspoken critic of copyright abuses in the digital and streaming world of music for the biggest part of the last decade. On her newest effort, she sets her justified quarrels with the industry to music by juxtaposing the cold world of ones and zeroes, comprised on the first CD titled “The Digital World," in ...
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