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Jed Levy: Faces and Places
by Jack Kenny
This is a beautiful album that is fired up right from the start. The sound of the tenor is faintly reminiscent of Warne Marsh. There is no seeking after angularity. Jed Levy's way with melody is completely natural and integrated into the quintet, though there are surprises all the way through the improvisations. Jed Levy is not just a tenor player, his compositions have vivacity and a clear structure and, occasionally, an impish charm. The tuneful magic is ...
Continue ReadingThe Peter Leitch New Jazz Orchestra: New Life
by Jack Bowers
After what Canadian-born guitarist Peter Leitch has been through in the last eight years, it's little wonder he named the ensemble he now leads the New Life Jazz Orchestra. Diagnosed in 2012 with stage 4 lung cancer, Leitch faced the choice of throwing in the proverbial towel or undergoing career-ending cancer treatment. He chose the latter, reluctantly setting aside his instrument of choice and continuing his musical career as a composer, arranger and conductor of an orchestra whose library consists ...
Continue ReadingMike Clark: Blueprints of Jazz Vol.1
by AAJ Italy Staff
Ne è passata di acqua sotto i ponti da quando Herbie Hancock lanciava un giovane batterista, Mike Clarck, su Thrust, il famoso disco degli Heandhunters. Dopo l'inaspettata notorietà (e un assolo, quello contenuto in “Actual Proof," da cui tanti batteristi e DJ hanno attinto) Mike Clarck ha continuato ad incidere fusion (anche con il bassista di allora, Paul Jackson o per la 'reunion' degli Headhunters, senza Herbie Hanckock), ma non ha mai dimenticato le sue radici di jazzista. È da ...
Continue ReadingJed Levy: One Night At The Kitano
by George Kanzler
Some live jazz albums transport the listener. If you shut your eyes, you can picture the dim lights of the candles on the tables, the clinking sound of ice cubes falling into glass tumblers... you might even find yourself looking around for someone to take your drink order. One Night at The Kitano makes you feel like you are out at the midtown jazz spot. Joined by Bill Mays on piano, Ugonna Okegwo on bass and Billy ...
Continue ReadingJed Levy: Evans Explorations
by Elliott Simon
Explorations (Riverside, 1961) is one of two landmark studio recordings from the Bill Evans trio that, through chordal voicings, a classically-based style and egalitarian instrumental interplay, moved the jazz piano trio toward impressionism and away from a rhythmic approach. It still sounds amazingly contemporary and the task that tenor saxophonist Jed Levy has set for himself in his explorations of a piece of the Evans digest using his tenor trio is a daunting one. Levy succeeds remarkably well through his ...
Continue ReadingJed Levy: Gateway
by Budd Kopman
Some players seem to enjoy the adventure of not knowing with whom they are going to play with next, while others would rather develop the interpersonal communication that can only come with time. Since jazz is, at its core, an improvisational art, playing in the moment is the ideal, with different kinds of music requiring different musical reflexes. Jed Levy, as demonstrated on the most attractive Gateway, lives in the mainstream world, but one that is filled ...
Continue ReadingJed Levy: Gateway
by Terrell Kent Holmes
Listening to Gateway, by tenor man Jed Levy, is like walking along a familiar street and being pleased by previously unnoticed nuances in the architecture of a building. Levy's tunes are small samples of exploration. With a different number of bars, a key change or a different tempo, Levy takes the listener to unexpected places. The title cut defines Levy's approach to playing and composing. Time signatures change, various keys are explored as they rise, fall and ...
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