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Various: The International Allstars Play Benny Goodman, Volume Two
by Dave Nathan
This is the other shoe dropping on the International Allstars tribute to Benny Goodman and the various small groups he headed. This album comes from the same live concert in Hamburg that produced Volume 1 released in 2000. Obviously there was enough for two CDs and why they weren't packaged as a 2 CD set is puzzling. But no one can point the finger at Nagel Heyer claiming that they were trying to get 2 CDs where one would suffice. ...
Continue ReadingHarry Allen: Love Songs Live!
by Jack Bowers
Two words are about all that are needed to sum up the singular talents of swing–based tenor saxophonist Harry Allen — smooth and consistent, each of which aspect of his charismatic persona is abundantly present on this compilation of love songs recorded in concert between 1993 and ’96. I’m not fully conversant with Allen’s influences but Stan Getz had to be one of them (listen, for example, to Jobim’s “Once I Loved”). Others, he says, include Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins ...
Continue ReadingHarry Allen: Love Songs Live!
by Dave Nathan
Nagel Heyer has put together an album of romantic love songs performed by the Coleman Hawkins influenced, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims like tenor horn of Harry Allen. All of the tracks were compiled from previously released recordings of live concerts, mostly in Hamburg where Allen was on the stage with a variety of first rate jazz musicians. Given that virtually every song is played in that slow, ballad tempo, this album could just as well have been titled Music for ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Grenadilla
by Jack Bowers
Ken Peplowski, who has done some experimenting of late within the big-band and classical spheres, comes home to a straight-ahead quartet groove for Grenadilla, on which he plays only clarinet (grenadilla is the name of the wood from which the world's finest clarinets are made). This is clarinet all the way, with Peplowski's group augmented by guests Kenny Davern ("Farewell Blues"), Marty Ehrlich ("Copi," “The Reconsidered Blues," “Variations," “The Soul in the Wood"), J. D. Parran and Scott Robinson ("Variations"). ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Grenadilla
by Robert Spencer
Here clarinetist extraordinaire Ken Peplowski takes on some challenges: alongside his sidemen pianist Ben Aronov, bassist Greg Cohen, and drummer Chuck Redd, are guests Howard Alden on acoustic and electric guitars (on five tracks), Marty Ehrlich on clarinet and bass clarinet (four tracks), Kenny Davern on clarinet ("Farewell Blues"), and Scott Robinson on alto clarinet and J. D. Parran on contrabass clarinet ("Variations"). Ehrlich and Parran have played in recent years with Anthony Braxton, and are not quite the guests ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Grenadilla
by Jim Santella
Ken Peplowski shares his clarinet artistry on Grenadilla, his 15th album as leader for Concord Records; the title comes from the particular type of wood used in making most clarinets. Working with the mainstream piano trio of Ben Aronov, bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Chuck Redd, Peplowski presents an eclectic session. Guitarist Howard Alden guests on five songs and several clarinet virtuosos appear elsewhere. Peplowski works with Scott Robinson, Marty Ehrlich, and J.D. Parran on Greg Cohen's composed piece “Variations" ...
Continue ReadingHoward Alden, Jimmy Bruno, Herb Ellis, Joe Pass: Full Circle
by Jack Bowers
I really do appreciate the easygoing sound of a well–played guitar — even though I couldn’t separate one guitarist from another if they walked up to me, shook hands and introduced themselves. On this new two–disc set from Concord we have not one but four well–played guitars in the capable hands of a quartet of recognized masters — Howard Alden and Jimmy Bruno (Full Circle, recorded in 1995) and Herb Ellis and Joe Pass (Jazz/Concord, from 1972). Full Circle refers ...
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