Jazz Articles about Jay Sawyer

About Jay Sawyer

Album Review

Urbanessence, the second album as leader from Chicago-area trumpeter, composer and educator Tito Carrillo, is a rhythmic showcase for ten of his buoyant original compositions, all of which embody his love of BAM (Black American Music) and the lyric legacy of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Peru. Carrillo, a bold and burnished improviser from the Freddie Hubbard-Lee Morgan-Donald Byrd school of hard bop, shares the front line with the energetic and versatile saxophonist Troy Roberts (who plays ...

Album Review

Caroline Davis & Rob Clearfield PERSONA: Anthem

Read "Anthem" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
March 2, 2021

Disco di jazz moderno composto tutto da originali, con l'esclusione di “Miss Ann," omaggio a Eric Dolphy, Anthem ruota attorno alle personalità dei due leader, la sassofonista Caroline Davis e il pianista Rob Clearfield. Entrambi non ancora quarantenni, i due non sono ancora artisti di primissimo piano, ma hanno alle spalle diversi album a proprio nome e vantano collaborazioni interessanti: la Davis era ospite nell'ultimo disco pubblicato da Lee Konitz prima della scomparsa, Old Song New; Clearfield lo abbiamo apprezzato ...

Album Review

Tomoko Omura: Branches Vol. 1

Read "Branches Vol. 1" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

by Friedrich Kunzmann
January 7, 2021

Violinists come in many shapes, colors and sizes. In jazz, there are those who bridge the gap between classical music and a more improvised repertoire seamlessly, as seen with pioneers such as American avant-gardist Mark Feldman. There are others who go about their craft with a more rootsy approach to the improvised music tradition—as heard with virtuosos like Regina Carter. And then of course there's everything in between, from old guard veterans like Stephane Grappelli (also known as ...

Album Review

Nicholas Brust: Frozen In Time

Read "Frozen In Time" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
November 19, 2020

Want to hear somebody who means business? Just listen to Nicholas Brust deftly drive through Frozen In Time's opener, “Work Ahead." That initial offering on this, the alto saxophonist's full-length debut, explores the travails and triumphs of breaking into the jazz world in New York. Judging by the way Brust burns, flows and blows the doors wide open with his playing, it would seem that he is making significant inroads in that area. An Eastman and New ...

Album Review

Tomoko Omura: Branches Vol. 1

Read "Branches Vol. 1" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
September 10, 2020

With Branches Vol. 1, award-winning violinist Tomoro Omura dives deep into exploring textures and melodic invention drawn from Japanese folklore. This effort is a contemporized display which validates Omura's vast instrumental abilities and also channels Japanese folklore as a launch-point for her superior composition skills. The recording is seductive, deeply emotional and meditative, and, simultaneously, elegantly refined. The album offers six tracks, each a fascinating voyage. “Moonlight in Vermont" gets such a re-imagined, polyrhythmic treatment that one ...

Album Review

Tomoko Omura: Branches Vol. 1

Read "Branches Vol. 1" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
August 28, 2020

If, as you start to yield willingly to the sumptuous, hypnotic Branches, Vol. 1, you should need to walk away and attend to other home/bunker business, try to keep at least one ear on the music. From any point in any room you might hear a gypsy laugh, a lover cry, a Celtic reel. A marvelous new touch on a centuries old instrument, bringing the ages together, gathering all the ley lines into one bustling hub. A rising ...