Jazz Articles about Jeremy Pelt

Jeremy Pelt: Identity

by John Kelman
September 5, 2005

Still on the shy side of thirty, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt has already established quite a name for himself, building an impressive body of work collaborating with artists including Ralph Peterson, the Mingus Big Band, and Wayne Shorter. Winner of the Downbeat Critics Poll for Rising Star on trumpet two years running, as well as the Jazz Journalist Association's award for one of the Best Emerging Stars, he's developed remarkable cachet in record time.

With the exception of Close to My ...

Jeremy Pelt: Identity

by John Dworkin
August 27, 2005

Most of the best composers, like Ellington and Shorter, have also been great players. The two processes are mutually reinforcing. Jeremy Pelt's Identity shows him to be on this two-fold path. It's all original material performed with Frank LoCrasto on keyboards, Vicente Archer on bass, and Eric McPherson on drums--all on a par of excellence with Pelt in their playing. This particular group formed just recently, yet it already has sharp rapport. If it stays together, it'll likely become one ...

Modern Jazz Criticism

by AAJ Staff
August 15, 2005

By Jeremy Pelt Some time ago I was having dinner with a musician friend of mine and we started talking about the state of modern jazz criticism. Ever since I can remember, I never understood the profession of criticism. I always thought that everyone's a critic in some way or another, so why pay any substantial attention to any one person because that's their job?! Am I beginning to sound bitter? Here's a better ...

Jeremy Pelt: Identity

by Jim Santella
August 10, 2005

A prolific composer, Jeremy Pelt wrote all the pieces for Identity, his fourth album as a leader.

His bright trumpet tone and mellow flugelhorn ambience give the session a highly lyrical quality. The quartet drives with a straight-ahead jazz sensibility that emphasizes spirit over technique. That's not to imply Pelt's anything but a superb trumpeter. At 28 going on 29, he's already polished his skills to perfection. He cohesively melds his instrumental voice with those of the other ...

Jeremy Pelt at Dizzy's

by Dan McClenaghan
January 17, 2004

Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt could have been forgiven if he and his crack quartet had turned in a ho-hum performance Monday, January 12, at Dizzy's in downtown San Diego. The band had just wrapped up a successful four day stay at the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles, and were, at show time, eight hours away from hitting the road again: a four a.m. wake-up call for an appointment with Interstate 5, for a drive up to the Long Beach airport to ...

Jeremy Pelt: Close to My Heart

by C. Michael Bailey
October 21, 2003

Jeremy Pelt has the most beautiful trumpet tone exercised today. One needs to listen no further than his cover of Mingus' “Weird Nightmare," where one cannot distinguish his trumpet from his flugelhorn, save for a period in the middle section. On this piece, Mr. Pelt's tone is round and buttery warm in the first and third sections and simmering in the middle. Backed by a string quartet on several pieces, a “with strings" connotation would not have been off base. ...

Jeremy Pelt: Close To My Heart

by Norman Weinstein
September 25, 2003

There's been a noble tradition of young jazz trumpeters recording with strings – think of Clifford Brown and Chet Baker – and 27 year old Jeremy Pelt puts his very individual spin on this tradition with the release of Close to My Heart, his third album. He shares some affinities with Clifford Brown: a bright crip tone, a showstopping virtuosity improvising, and a soft spot in his heart for romantic standards. But Pelt balances his sentimentality with a rigorous sense ...