Jazz Articles about Jack Walrath

like 172

Mike Clark: Summertime

by Jim Santella
March 3, 2003

Pianist Billy Childs and drummer Mike Clark make a great rhythm team. Their modern mainstream journey through new originals and familiar favorites swings with a surging intensity that’s stirred gently – not shaken. It’s your daddy’s music in a new picture frame.

”Summertime,” a personal favorite, is treated to a harmonic makeover. Using darkness and mystery, a quintet with Clark, Childs, Chris Potter, Jack Walrath and James Genus presents this gem as it’s never been shown before. ...

like 220

Jack Walrath & The Masters Of Suspense: Invasion Of The Booty Shakers

by Glenn Astarita
June 7, 2002

Besides the obvious technicalities, i.e. superior musicianship and crafty arrangements, trumpeter Jack Walrath aims his aspirations towards an elevated entertainment factor with this fine release. And for the uninformed, Walrath’s resume includes high profile stints with Charles Mingus, Ray Charles, Gary Peacock and many others.

The CD cover art reminds this writer of the late Frank Zappa’s Weasel’s Ripped My Flesh LP, although the theme presented here is perhaps a tad less biting! Walrath finds a near ...

like 174

Suzanne Pittson: Blues And The Abstract Truth

by AAJ Staff
July 1, 2001

Billy Eckstine once said to an aspiring vocalist “Use your natural chops, never affect an accent that is not your own" and to her credit there is not one iota of affectation in Suzanne Pittson's vocal style. She sings with clarity and never loses the essence of the song with useless histrionics. Pittson's instrument is her voice. No Saxophones, Brasses, Strings or Percussion can duplicate the human voice, it is an entity unto itself capable of twists, turns and innuendo ...