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Mike Freeman's ZonaVibe: Circles In A Yellow Room
by Jack Bowers
Circles in a Yellow Room, New York-based vibraphonist Mike Freeman's eighth recording as leader of his own ensembles, has a Latin flavor reminiscent of classic albums by West Coast maestro Cal Tjader. Stylistically, Freeman parallels Tjader and a host of others from Milt Jackson, Terry Gibbs and Gary McFarland to Bobby Hutcherson, Gary Burton, Joe Locke and Steve Nelson. Which is another way of saying that when it comes to the vibraphone, there is not much that separates the best ...
Continue ReadingMetropolitan Jazz Octet: The Bowie Project
by Paul Reynolds
A tribute to a pop artist by jazz musicians--as with the new David Bowie album by Chicago's Metropolitan Jazz Octet--has to tread a careful line. It obviously won't--can't--be a rote reproduction of the originals, a flaw that sinks many pop-to-pop tributes. Yet it needs to translate the songs into jazz--its harmonic sophistication, especially--in a way that retains the essence of the artist being celebrated. The MJO effort deftly rises to that challenge. This 11-song project should intrigue Bowieists ...
Continue ReadingJosie Falbo: You Must Believe in Spring
by Howard Mandel
The first moments of Josie Falbo's You Must Believe in Spring sweep us into a lush soundscape, through a cinematic introduction, up close and intimately to her marvelous voice. Her voice is full, rich and pure top to bottom, fluid and shapely as anything imaginable, imparting true faith into lyrics valuing a lifetime's experience, acceptance, appreciation and hope. Josie Falbo gives voice to a heartening message, that like all 13 selections here issue sincerely from the glorious musical gifts she ...
Continue ReadingMetropolitan Jazz Octet featuring Paul Marinaro: The Bowie Project
by Neil Tesser
In the words of David Bowie: “Changes." The Metropolitan Jazz Octet's two previous albums teem with unadulterated jazz. Paul Marinaro is a hard-swinging, expressive baritone steeped in the Great American Songbook and the jazz tradition. So what in the galaxy are they doing with the music of pop legend--and onetime glam rocker, dancehall king, visual visionary, music man of multiple personae, and cultural icon--David Bowie? Historians might note that Bowie started playing jazz saxophone in his ...
Continue ReadingSteve Million featuring Sarah Marie Young: Jazz Words
by Richard J Salvucci
Evocative. Soulful. Regretful. Plaintive. But in no sense downbeat. Oddly edifying, joyful in places. Steve Million's compositions and Sarah Marie Young's voice were plainly intended to blend. And they do so in an emotionally stirring landscape of the heart which is powerfully affecting. You find yourself conjuring up quiet journeys, emotional and otherwise, from the past. Wintry, yes, but hopeful too. This is music of the heart, by and for the heart. Starting out with “Heavens to ...
Continue ReadingPatricia Barber: Clique
by Tyran Grillo
These time-honored songs, lovingly curated, arranged, and performed by pianist/vocalist Patricia Barber and her band, are at last seeing the light of day when the world needs them more than ever. Pristinely recorded, Clique assembles what began as encores to live performances into an experience all its own. The album comes out of the same sessions that gave us Higher (see review for All About Jazz here), which immersed the fortunate listener in a world shaped by art song and ...
Continue ReadingJim Gailloreto: American Complex
by Hrayr Attarian
Chamber jazz or third stream--or whatever the amalgamation of western classical music and jazz is called--has had a handful of talented proponents sprinkled throughout the history of music. They have ranged from the more structured compositions of Igor Stravinsky to the looser improvisations of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Soprano saxophonist Jim Gailloreto has recently joined the ranks of these musicians. On American Complex, Gailloreto is in the company of a traditional string quartet, a guitarist on one ...
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