Jazz Articles about James Reynolds

About James Reynolds

Album Review

New York-based pianist Jamie Reynolds set himself up with the challenge of conveying the realities of certain emotions musically. The result is Grey Mirror, a piano trio enhanced by the contributions of guitarist Matthew Stevens and The Westerlies, a two trumpet, two trombone quartet. Reynolds proves himself a fine conceptualist, with some tunes featuring his trio--often shined up with the Wurlitzer--others embellished with the brass guys, and the rest emboldened by Stevens modernistic guitar work. Reynolds also present ...

Album Review

Jamie Reynolds: Counterpart

Read "Counterpart" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 1, 2014

The space between traditionalism and experimentalism is a tough place to live. The bulk of the attention usually goes to those who work at these polar extremes, either bowing to the altars of tradition or knocking them down with sledgehammers. Pianist Jamie Reynolds does neither when he writes and plays. Reynolds' debut--Time With People (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2012)--found him working out his own language and concepts within a piano trio setting. It wasn't a run-of-the-mill trio ...

Album Review

Jamie Reynolds Trio: Time With People

Read "Time With People" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 25, 2012

Pianist Jamie Reynolds completed his studies at the University of Toronto in 2004, but his work was hardly done at that point. Reynolds headed to New York a year later and, thanks to a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, began studying with pianist Fred Hersch. A second grant afforded him the opportunity to study with Craig Taborn in 2007, giving him the chance to learn from another modern day master, but Reynolds' playing doesn't really bear the ...

Album Review

Melissa Stylianou: Silent Movie

Read "Silent Movie" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
March 20, 2012

Silent Movie è il quarto album per Melissa Stylianou. La cantante canadese si destreggia con la sua voce vellutata e intimista tra standard di jazz e cover di classici pop, blues e folk, offrendoci un disco molto variegato ma omogeneo grazie anche ad arrangiamenti impeccabili che sanno valorizzare al meglio il suo grande talento. Basta già il brano di apertura, “Smile" di Charlie Chaplin, in cui la Stylianou riesce a far suo il pezzo trasmettendo all'ascoltatore un grande senso di ...

172

Album Review

Suresh Singaratnam: Lost in New York

Read "Lost in New York" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
November 13, 2010

The breathtaking narrative of Lost in New York is couched in an abstract interplay between performers and their instruments, as they describe what must have been a most challenging newcomer's journey to that often forbidding city. Trumpeter Suresh Singaratnam's high-wire act documents every nuance with some of the most rarefied excursions to emerge from a horn. An astute observer of his own life and those around him, Singaratnam allows the angst of being, and observing, to permeate the heated rush ...

322

Album Review

Suresh Singaratnam / Gretchen Parlato / Jamie Reynolds: That Is You

Read "That Is You" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
September 29, 2010

The art of the ballad seems almost forgotten in today's environment of programmed beats, Auto-Tune and sampled music. But in the hands of three gifted young artists--trumpeter Suresh Singaratnam, singer Gretchen Parlato, and pianist Jamie Reynolds--the magic of intimate songwriting and beautiful music can still capture the heart as heard in the lovely “That Is You." Its warm ambiance is perfected: first by the trumpet's glowing introduction; then by Parlato's supple and poignant voice, softly pouring out heartfelt lyrics of ...

266

Album Review

Suresh Singaratnam: Lost In New York

Read "Lost In New York" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
July 30, 2010

Born in Zambia but brought up in Toronto, Canada, trumpeter Suresh Singaratnam is formally trained in both jazz and classical music, latterly at the Manhattan School of Music. Lost In New York is an album of original compositions that chronicles the young musician's early years in the city. It's a mix of experiences and emotions that are reflected in the tunes, which are divided into three groups of three to reflect the major changes in those early years.