Jazz Articles about Jeff Lederer

About Jeff Lederer

Album Review

Vocalist Mary LaRose has explored the instrumental music of jazz artists in the past, penning lyrics to the music of Thelonious Monk,Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, and Charles Mingus. Also included in her previous releases is the music of Eric Dolphy, who has always been a spirit guide for LaRose. With Out Here, she dedicates an entire album to Dolphy's compositions, plus a couple pieces tied to his legacy. This session reminds you of the great Carmen McRae's Carmen ...

Album Review

Jeff Lederer's Sunwatcher: Eightfold Path

Read "Eightfold Path" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 31, 2021

Knowingly or unknowingly, we are all on the Dharma path. It doesn't matter if you are a Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jain, or Satanist. Okay, maybe not Satanist, but we are all in our own way desiring some form of enlightened awakening and the end of suffering. During the height of the pandemic, saxophonist Jeff Lederer assembled his Sunwatcher quartet to explore this noble Eightfold Path. As students of the path are told, you must walk hand in hand with ...

Album Review

Matt Wilson Quartet: Hug!

by Jerome Wilson
October 13, 2020

A hug is something which is a distant memory for most of us these days. The warm and friendly vibes of this new Matt Wilson album could be thought of as a virtual hug, full of smile-inducing swing and raffish humor. Wilson's partners on this excursion are some of his usual cohorts, saxophonist Jeff Lederer, cornetist Kirk Knuffke and bassist Chris LIghtcap. As usual on Wilson's albums, they go through a mix of original tunes and eclectic covers. ...

Album Review

Jeff Cosgrove / John Medeski / Jeff Lederer: History Gets Ahead of the Story

Read "History Gets Ahead of the Story" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
September 22, 2020

William Parker gets deserved acclaim for his abilities as a bassist and his activism and leadership in the avant jazz community but not as much for his composing. Drummer Jeff Cosgrove tries to correct that with this project that features Parker's music played by an organ trio with no bassist. Cosgrove's partners in this venture are John Medeski on organ and Jeff Lederer on various reeds. Both are adept at covering the wide variety of gut-bucket grooves, spiritual ...

Album Review

Matt Wilson: Hug!

by Jack Bowers
September 8, 2020

While there are a number of red-letter moments on drummer Matt Wilson's latest album, Hug!, and others that are rather less so, the earnestness is high throughout as everyone in Wilson's seasoned quartet does his best to ensure its success. That success, however, rests in part on the music itself, and therein lies the down side. As noted, there are definite highs--Abdullah Ibrahim's lively “Jabulani," Dewey Redman's sunny “Joie de Vivre," Roger Miller's charming “King of the ...

Album Review

Jeff Cosgrove, John Medeski, Jeff Lederer: History Gets Ahead of the Story

Read "History Gets Ahead of the Story" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
September 7, 2020

The striking absence of a bassist on this organ-trio tribute to William Parker speaks volumes about the singular approach that Jeff Cosgrove, John Medeski and Jeff Lederer have taken to the compositions of a modern jazz great. Parker's music is so diverse, his output so vast, that a cohesive overview would be difficult to distil onto a single CD, so perhaps for this reason the trio narrows its focus to Parker's post-2000 small ensembles, and in particular the bassist's quartet ...

Album Review

Matt Wilson Quartet: Hug!

by Dan McClenaghan
August 12, 2020

Drummer Matt Wilson's quartet opens Hug! with Gene Ammons' “The One Before This." Saxophonist Ammons often used the tune as a showcase for tenor battles with fellow sax man Sonny Stitt. Wilson and company--featuring cornetist Kirk Knuffke, sax man Jeff Lederer and bassist Chris Lightcap--lay the sound down like a party. And this quartet parties hard. It feels like a rough-and-tumble affair, going down around midnight, when the alcohol has settled in, and the half hammered dancers are stumbling around ...