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Ryan Middagh Jazz Orchestra: Tenor Madness
by Jack Bowers
Nashville-based composer, arranger and saxophonist Ryan Middagh salutes apostles of the mid-range wind instrument on Tenor Madness, his second recording as leader of the Ryan Middagh Jazz Orchestra. Even so, there are no tenor solos after the first three of the album's half-dozen numbers, on which tenors Don Aliquo and Jeff Coffin ("Wiley Roots"), Aliquo again ("Waiter, Make Mine Blues"), Coffin and New York luminary Joel Frahm--who together galvanize the album's robust title song--are featured. While the ...
Continue ReadingAlly Fiola & The Next Quest: Interblaze
by Dan McClenaghan
Nova Scotian alto saxophonist Ally Fiola considers the themes of grief, wonder, fear and passion with her octet The Next Quest, on Interblaze. With a lot of low-end brass--baritone saxophone, trombone, sousaphone--the sound has a New Orleans brass band feel. It is also fun, celebratory music. The title tune and opening number sounds like a prance down Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras--beads flying through the air, people in outlandish dress dancing. An insouciant organ opens “Backtrack"; the horns ...
Continue ReadingBass Extremes: S'Low Down
by Chris Jisi
Thirty years ago, a simple pairing changed the trajectory of bass. Steve Bailey and Victor Wooten, bonded by their mutual fretboard wizardry, sharp wit, and teaching philosophies, formed Bass Extremes, and the instrument and its community were forever transformed. The concept was quite ambitious. Steve was a rapidly ascending anchor for Dizzy Gillespie, Paquito D'Rivera and the Rippingtons, who had found his voice on the 6-string fretless bass and was taking the instrument to uncharted heights, with a soon to ...
Continue ReadingSteve Shapiro: Plan To Be Spontaneous
by Dan Bilawsky
With mallets at the fore, a solid set of originals on the program and a strong cast in the mix, vibraphonist Steve Shapiro's musical voice and vision is clear-- and really something to hear--across this seven-song set. Working under the banner of a perfectly paradoxical title, he makes his mark from a number of angles--those of soloist, harmonist, composer and bandleader--and gives his bandmates their due. Sophisticated jazz-pop sets the scene as Shapiro shares the spotlight with ...
Continue ReadingSteve Patrick And The Music City Orchestra: Reflections
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Back in the 1960s, sound technologies and in-studio recording/engineering advances were developing rapidly. Labels such as Solid State and Command Records produced brilliant, acoustically enhanced recordings, many done by New York studio greats such as trumpeter Doc Severinsen. Those companies leveraged technical advances to enhance the talents of the recording artists. As a result, it was a musically rich time for record buyers. With Reflections, trumpeter Steve Patrick, long an ardent admirer of Severinsen, delivers ten selections ...
Continue ReadingRobben Ford: Pure
by Doug Collette
It's only fitting guitarist Robben Ford assigns a closeup of his chosen instrument to the cover of Pure. His devotion to the axe is at least equal to, if not greater than, the ardor he elicits from fretboard fanatics. But then that's a deserved devotion as the man demonstrates in less than two minutes at the very outset of his first instrumental studio album since Tiger Walk ( Blue Thumb,1997): the one-time member of Tom Scott's L.A. Express and Miles ...
Continue ReadingJeff Coffin / Derek Brown: Symbiosis
by Robin B James
Rhyming dragons and synergetic saxophilia, in seven tracks. Two monsters of the single reed doing the sway. Oh, wait, what about the rhythm section? They brought their own! This duo has the intuitive chemistry that comes only from epochs of experience playing together. Jeff Coffin on tenor saxophone, bass flute, bass clarinet, and clarinet; one finishes the other's groove. Derek Brown on the tenor saxophone, baritone baritone, saxophone percussion (that's the slap-beat thing he is famous for), and of course ...
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