Jazz Articles about Howard Leshaw

like 477

Howard Leshaw Quartet: Shadow Song

by Norman Weinstein
June 28, 2007

This highly engaging album brings to mind the enduring impact of John Coltrane's legacy in terms of spiritual lyricism. In the case of Howard Leshaw, whose other band is a spirited klezmer band, Coltrane's spiritually-charged lyricism is mingled, as in the case of Andy Statman's music, with a comprehensive immersion in a variety of sacred and secular Jewish musical styles. While the indebtedness to Jewish melodies was only obvious in the first of seven ...

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Howard Leshaw: Bronx Volume II: Yiddish On The Edge

by Budd Kopman
September 12, 2006

Howard Leshaw is not only the swinging jazz master of the delightful Shadow Song, he is also a klezmer master. Yiddish On The Edge is the followup release to the more traditional Yiddish, which is closer to what is customarily thought of as klezmer. If you hail from Tulsa or Boise or Reykjavik, you might (probably) not fully appreciate the full meaning of what it meant to grow up in the Bronx in the '50s, but Leshaw's ...

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Howard Leshaw: Shadow Song

by Budd Kopman
March 12, 2006

In Shadow Song, Howard Leshaw has created a finely balanced disc of originals. His saxophone sound, which is very pure and bit on the thin side, has a soft edge with the hint of vibrato at the end of a phrase; it's seductive, but not overtly so. The swing of “Sayief" sits so easily in the groove that it can easily swallow you up and float you away. This is not something that can be learned, but ...

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Howard Leshaw: Shadow Song

by Stephen Latessa
June 12, 2005

Shadow Song is by and large a mellow, reflective album. Yet there are moments when a more searching, restive sound emerges, transporting Howard Leshaw's quartet to another level of intensity and interplay.

Tenor saxophonist Leshaw, who also happens to be a world-class klezmer clarinet player, composed the album's seven songs. The opening track, “Sayief, sounds like an outtake from the mid-period Coltrane quartet. Leshaw offers an insistent solo, then is capably answered by pianist Jon Davis with a ...