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Ron Rieder: Dia Precioso!
by Jack Bowers
Dia Precioso! is the second album of exuberant Latin Jazz designed by Massachusetts-based composer Ron Rieder, gliding in on the heels of his well-received debut recording, Latin Jazz Sessions (2024). As before, Rieder leads a more-or-less octet comprised of topnotch Boston-area musicians; and as before, Rieder's music is for the most part arranged by percussionist Ricardo Monzon. While personnel remains roughly the same as on the earlier album, more brass (trumpeters Yaure Muniz or Greg Hopkins, trombonist ...
Continue ReadingFernando Huergo: Relentless
by Jack Bowers
Argentine-born bassist and composer Fernando Huergo's heavy-duty Massachusetts-based big band delivers the goods on Relentless, a taut and vibrant review of oppression, discrimination, environmental challenges and other social issues, interwoven with Huergo's lively tribute to the saxophonist Ornette Coleman and a charismatic and thought-provoking survey ("La Vida Sigue") on life after the Covid-19 pandemic, with all compositions and arrangements by the leader. This is well-designed, no-holds-barred big-band jazz, delivered with verve and enthusiasm by eighteen well-prepared musicians ...
Continue ReadingGreg Hopkins Quintet: Quintology
by Craig W. Hurst
Quintology , the newest release by the Greg Hopkins Quintet, in many respects is a quintessentially exemplary jazz recording. The CD provides an aural snapshot of a veteran group of highly skilled musicians in an environment of long-term familiarity, creating communally made music. That the New England-based Greg Hopkins Quintet has been performing together for going on twenty years is reflected in not only how even the most technically challenging levels of musical difficulty are made to sound near effortless, ...
Continue ReadingGreg Hopkins: Okavongo
by Ben Ohmart
Put together from twosessions in January 1997 and January 1998 at Berklee Studios in Boston, Greg Hopkins' more than 16 piece machinery elicits a big band movement with less swing and more contemporary jazz. The 7 minute 'Infant Eyes' is a perfect example of using a lot of people in a smooth jazz setting, occasionally rising up loud and strong, but often laying a solid sax foundation onto which everything else is built. Joe Hunt's constant clicks (and this drum ...
Continue ReadingGreg Hopkins: Okavongo
by Jack Bowers
I’m always a touch apprehensive when preparing to review a big–band album whose title is as exotic as Okavongo, but trumpeter Greg Hopkins and his New England–based Jazz Orchestra set my mind at ease immediately with a sharp and dynamic reading of pianist James Williams’ “Stretchin’” (with the author sitting in on piano) and easily held my interest throughout the remainder of a well–shaped seventy–two–minute session. Perhaps “sessions” is more appropriate, as half the album was recorded in January ’97, ...
Continue ReadingThe Greg Hopkins 16 Piece: Okavongo
by Dave Nathan
Summit Records has captured two sessions recorded in Boston by a large group of New England musicians led by trumpeter Greg Hopkins. Most of the music was composed by Hopkins and is designed to incorporate the events which have influenced him during the last 25 years, running from his work in jazz and Motown in Detroit to playing in and writing for such big bands as Buddy Rich's. The title is somewhat misleading. The music is less African than European ...
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