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Jazz Articles about J.D. Parran
Jabbo Ware - The Me We & Them Orchestra: Vignettes in the Spirit of Ellington
by AAJ Italy Staff
La prima domanda che si pone dopo l’ascolto di Vignettes in the Spirit of Ellington riguarda questo Jabbo Ware che riesce a mobilitare una big band con aggiunta di archi, percussioni e corni francesi e presenta un omaggio a Duke Ellington così forte, denso, logico e coinvolgente. Dopo una breve ricerca si scopre che ha un curriculum di lungo corso e tutto rispetto: all’inizio sassofonista r&b, poi in collettivi d’avanguardia come il Black Artists Group of St Louis, ma senza ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Hill: A Beautiful Day
by C. Michael Bailey
Dusk was only the beginning to this part of the story...I cannot listen to Andrew Hill’s new big band recording without thinking of him and his band as a relatively well-behaved Sam Rivers and the Rivbea Big Band. Of course, that horribly shortchanges the 65 year-old Chicago native who’s Palmetto debut, Dusk, was considered by many critics as the best jazz recording on the year. Add to that that Blue Note’s Alfred Lion considered Hill his last great ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Hill: A Beautiful Day
by Jack Bowers
"There is plenty going on," designated cheerleader Stanley Crouch informs the reader, on composer / pianist Andrew Hill's latest album, A Beautiful Day, which showcases Hill's sixteen-piece big band in a concert performance last January at New York's famed Birdland nightclub. “With a vision given to great plasticity," Crouch writes, “[Hill] has found his own ways to reinterpret 4/4 swing, the blues, the romantic or meditative ballad, and the Afro-Hispanic rhythms that have almost invariably connected one generation of Jazz ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Hill: A Beautiful Day
by Jon Wagner
Sometimes a live recording captures the dynamism and vibe of a band that's really “on." In ideal situations, the musical energy is obvious right off the bat, continues throughout the set, and winds up on a disc. The listener thinks: “Man, I would love to have been at that gig." Andrew Hill's new release A Beautiful Day is one of those recordings. Hill is a pianist who's been around for a long time and played in many different ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Grenadilla
by Jack Bowers
Ken Peplowski, who has done some experimenting of late within the big-band and classical spheres, comes home to a straight-ahead quartet groove for Grenadilla, on which he plays only clarinet (grenadilla is the name of the wood from which the world's finest clarinets are made). This is clarinet all the way, with Peplowski's group augmented by guests Kenny Davern ("Farewell Blues"), Marty Ehrlich ("Copi," “The Reconsidered Blues," “Variations," “The Soul in the Wood"), J. D. Parran and Scott Robinson ("Variations"). ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Grenadilla
by Robert Spencer
Here clarinetist extraordinaire Ken Peplowski takes on some challenges: alongside his sidemen pianist Ben Aronov, bassist Greg Cohen, and drummer Chuck Redd, are guests Howard Alden on acoustic and electric guitars (on five tracks), Marty Ehrlich on clarinet and bass clarinet (four tracks), Kenny Davern on clarinet ("Farewell Blues"), and Scott Robinson on alto clarinet and J. D. Parran on contrabass clarinet ("Variations"). Ehrlich and Parran have played in recent years with Anthony Braxton, and are not quite the guests ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Grenadilla
by Jim Santella
Ken Peplowski shares his clarinet artistry on Grenadilla, his 15th album as leader for Concord Records; the title comes from the particular type of wood used in making most clarinets. Working with the mainstream piano trio of Ben Aronov, bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Chuck Redd, Peplowski presents an eclectic session. Guitarist Howard Alden guests on five songs and several clarinet virtuosos appear elsewhere. Peplowski works with Scott Robinson, Marty Ehrlich, and J.D. Parran on Greg Cohen's composed piece “Variations" ...
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