Jazz Articles about Jeff Lederer

About Jeff Lederer

Album Review

Silvano Monasterios: The River

Read "The River" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 11, 2025

To enhance his musical excursion along The River, composer, arranger and pianist Silvano Monasterios invited eight talented companions on board to share the ride. He did not make it easy for them. As envisioned by Monasterios, this river is by turns placid or turbulent, sparse or overflowing--but invariably tricky to navigate and tame. The entire work, he writes, is “a suite of what I consider Venezuelan music," and was inspired by the people in his native land ...

Album Review

Jeff Lederer: Guilty!!!

Read "Guilty!!!" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 23, 2024

Note to conservative Republicans: stop reading this review now. Note to self: There cannot be but a handful of folks who are both MAGA and jazz and improvised music listeners. Jeff Lederer's Guilty!!! recalls a time when jazz was at the forefront of the zeitgeist. Max Roach, John Coltrane, and Charles Mingus were creating music about and during the civil rights movement. Elsewhere Neil Young was protesting the four dead at Kent State, while Graham Nash was recruiting ...

Album Review

Matt Wilson: Good Trouble

Read "Good Trouble" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
July 9, 2024

Drummer Matt Wilson continues his tradition of recording humorous and humanistic jazz here with the debut of a new quintet, Good Trouble, which includes both old and new associates. This group has a two-saxophone front line with Wilson's long-time colleague, Jeff Lederer on tenor sax, and Tia Fuller on alto sax. They complement each other well as they blow through the strutting rapture of “Albert's Alley" and the dancing shuffle beat of Ornette Coleman's “Feet Music." The group's ...

Album Review

Andrea Wolper: Wanderlust

Read "Wanderlust" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
June 2, 2024

Andrea Wolper is an active jazz singer, composer, and educator but this album is her first recording since 2011. On it, she reestablishes herself as a creative vocalist and arranger who can excel in many different styles. She also benefits from the support of excellent musicians such as reed player Jeff Lederer and violinist Charles Burnham. Wolper performs several of her own compositions as well as tunes by others such as Abbey Lincoln and Carole King. Among her ...

Album Review

Andrea Wolper: Wanderlust

Read "Wanderlust" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 13, 2024

Itinerant creatives manifest in both literal and figurative terms. Yes, they most clearly present in true formal fashion, traveling from place to place, sharing their art wherever they may roam. But their venturesome virtues extend to the interior, too. In fact, what's often of the greatest importance and interest is the roving surrounding and propelling their work--exploration of narrow paths, walks through obscured alleys and hideaways, and time spent in secret sanctums that offer peace and space to think in ...

Album Review

Jeff Lederer, Mary LaRose: Schoenberg on the Beach

Read "Schoenberg on the Beach" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
May 6, 2024

La copertina, scarna ed evocativa, con quel virato seppia che le dà tutto il fascino delle cose d'antan, dice già molto circa la tipologia e il tono del lavoro, firmato da Jeff Lederer in combutta con sua moglie, la cantante Mary LaRose, la quale attraversa il disco come una sorta di presenza parallela, districandosi--quando chiamata al centro delle operazioni--attraverso testi di autori anche molto illustri (Goethe, Nietzsche e Rilke bastano a rendere l'idea?) e musiche non solo del dedicatario dell'opera, ...

Album Review

Jeff Lederer with Mary LaRose: Schoenberg on the Beach

Read "Schoenberg on the Beach" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
December 30, 2023

Saxophonist Jeff Lederer has used several unexpected inspirations for musical projects over the years, such as Shaker hymns and the writings of Herman Melville. Schoenberg on the Beach may be the most audacious thing he has ever done. It blends the compositions of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern and the sounds of Coney Island together into an intriguing song cycle performed by a team of exceptional jazz musicians. Schoenberg lived in Los Angeles in the latter part of ...