Jazz Articles about JD Allen

About JD Allen

Album Review

Beneath this tough tenor's exterior rests the most tender of spirits. If you need evidence, just spend some time with Love Stone. After carving out his rightful place at the apex with a series of brilliant piano-less trio outings focused on pithy originals, saxophonist JD Allen recently felt the winds of change in his horn and his habits. He reached a conclusion that originality may sit not in the song's architect but in its possessor, and he ...

Album Review

JD Allen: Americana

Read "Americana" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
November 7, 2016

Con questa profonda, austera e appassionata indagine sul blues, JD Allen intende ribadire la sua centralità nell'ambito della musica statunitense (“il blues è la porta d'ingresso -dice nelle note -per il passato e il futuro della musica americana; la fonte da cui gospel, jazz, rock, country, rhythm & blues e hip hop sono formulati. Lo spirito del blues, sia esso sottile o esplicito, riesce a manifestarsi in ogni genere di musica americana"). Non è una questione secondaria e ...

Album Review

JD Allen: Americana

Read "Americana" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner

by Franz A. Matzner
July 25, 2016

JD Allen is an artist who always delivers. He is also an artist who takes risks, willing to explore his limitations, and then break them; to expose his vulnerabilities, and reflect upon their source and meaning. His experimentation is not obvious. It spirals inwards, orbiting the central axis of jazz, while traversing its various trajectories with elegance, depth, and intense regard to produce deeply personal statements that draw in audiences and listeners like moths to flame. His latest ...

Album Review

JD Allen: Graffiti

Read "Graffiti" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
December 24, 2015

La carriera di JD Allen è sempre stata segnata dalle stigmate di appartenenza alla famiglia dei cosiddetti giovani leoni del mainstream, benché nel celebrato album di debutto per Red Record datato 1999--In Search of JD Allen--i segnali di una vivace curiosità e attenzione verso forme meno canoniche di jazz fossero ben presenti. In seguito al trasferimento dalla nativa Detroit a New York i contatti e le collaborazioni con un ampia schiera di musicisti dalle variegate collocazioni stilistiche--da Betty Carter a ...

Album Review

Gregg August: Four by Six

Read "Four by Six" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 11, 2013

Fattosi apprezzare e conoscere come componente del trio di JD Allen, il contrabbassista Gregg August porta avanti dal 2005 un percorso da leader, iniziato nel 2005 con Late August e proseguito con One Peace del 2007 e l'attuale Four by Six, inciso nell'estate 2011. Se i primi due lo vedevano a capo di sestetti, il titolo di questo lavoro allude all'alternarsi di due formazioni: un quartetto comprendente il sax soprano Sam Newsome, il pianista Luis Perdomo e il batterista EJ ...

Album Review

Francisco Mora Catlett: Francisco Mora Catlett: Afro Horn MX

Read "Francisco Mora Catlett: Afro Horn MX" reviewed by Steve Bryant

by Steve Bryant
September 16, 2012

When Afro-Mexican Drummer Francisco Mora Catlett first came to this country in the1970s, he dreamed of playing drums for the Sun Ra Arkestra. Not only did Mora achieve his dream, he also forged a lifelong relationship with drum legend Max Roach, which resulted in his performing in Roach's seminal drum ensemble, M'Boom. As a composer and bandleader in Detroit, Mora focused on creating Music of “The Afro-Americas," a vision which encompassed fusing the music of Cuba, Brazil with American modern ...

142

Album Review

J.D. Allen: Victory!

Read "Victory!" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 12, 2011

Many artists seem to move rapidly through different ensemble configurations, as if they're trying to finish off a career to-do list. While it's true that artistic reinvention using various instrumental formats--whether it be an organ group, big band project or Jazz Messengers-style outing--can help an artist gain notice in the trade magazines, using these formats as quick pit stops along the press trail can make for a shallow career that lacks in artistic depth. When an exceptional artist is willing ...