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Jim Snidero: Live at the Deer Head Inn
by Jack Bowers
Any short list of the finest alto saxophonists playing today must include the name Jim Snidero who has been a force to reckon with on the New York City jazz scene for almost four decades. Snidero earns high marks on his latest album not only for his typically sharp and fluent improvisations but also for his resourcefulness in assembling a quartet to perform Live at the Deer Head Inn in Delaware Gap, PA, during a devastating coronavirus pandemic. The recording ...
Continue ReadingCory Weeds: O Sole Mio! Music From The Motherland
by Jack Bowers
O Sole Mio!, the latest in a series of splendid albums by Canadian-bred saxophonist/entrepreneur Cory Weeds, is subtitled “Music from the Motherland"-- in other words, Italy, which, presumably, is Woods' ancestral home. Whatever the case, Woods' blue-chip quintet focuses for the most part on music born in Italy or written by Italian-Americans including Henry Mancini, Nino Rota, Pat Martino, Chick Corea and Dodo Marmarosa. To allay any doubt that all would go well, Weeds invited the superlative tenor saxophonist Eric ...
Continue ReadingCory Weeds: O Sole Mio! Music From The Motherland
by Pierre Giroux
Even in these trying and uncertain times, there are some professional creative artists who recognize the need to “carry on" and make the best of a bad situation. Saxophonist Cory Weeds is one of those individuals. He is releasing O Sole Mio! Music From The Motherland on his own label, CellarMusic. Weeds has merged his talents as an alto saxophonist with Mike LeDonne's Groover Quartet featuring LeDonne on Hammond B3 organ, Eric Alexander on tenor saxophone, Peter Bernstein on guitar ...
Continue ReadingSonny Rollins & Dave Brubeck
by Joe Dimino
From another legend during the pandemic putting out quality new music, we start the 678th Episode of Neon Jazz with Drummer Joe Farnsworth. He has a great new album out called Time to Swing with a stellar line up and that sets the tone for the hour of music. There have been a host of new albums that are live to counteract the world of jazz that has fallen silent. One such recent release is Sonny Rollins in Holland from ...
Continue ReadingIan Hendrickson-Smith: The Lowdown
by Jack Bowers
American alto saxophonist Ian Hendrickson-Smith and Canadian tenor saxophonist Cory Weeds had been gigging together for almost two decades, mostly in Canada, but hadn't preserved any of their encounters on record until Hendrickson-Smith invited his companion to join him for a studio date in November 2019 at the renowned Rudy Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. The album was planned as a tribute to drummer Lawrence Leathers who died in June of that year, age thirty-seven. Leathers' nickname was ...
Continue ReadingPeter Bernstein: What Comes Next
by Paul Rauch
In a world defined by uncertainty, the global jazz community saw an impressive number of important new recordings released during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Most were recorded before the shutdown, and released thereafter. Guitarist Peter Bernstein hit Sear Studios in New York in June 2020, months after the onset of the pandemic, looking for inspiration. He had a hunch that things could work out. Just before the stay-at-home order hit, Bernstein had played with pianist Sullivan Fortner and drummer ...
Continue ReadingIan Hendrickson-Smith: The Lowdown
by Pierre Giroux
Those who thought that the re-emergence of vinyl records might be a passing fad as a saleable medium in this era of CDs, streaming and MP3 downloads, are proving to be wrong. The latest sales figures produced by RIAA for the first half of this year show vinyl sales at $232 million compared to CD sales at $130 million. This is the the first time in 34 years that this happened.So with the wind in his sales (sic), ...
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