Jazz Articles about Joel Frahm

About Joel Frahm

Album Review

Discovery is a well-polished and smooth-running vehicle for pianist and composer Ross Margitza's able trio, further enhanced on the opening track by the uncommon talents of its special guest, soprano saxophonist Joel Frahm, and on four by the Soha Quartet's shimmering strings. Truth be told, the album would be impressive even if it were comprised of the trio alone--as is the case on three of the last four numbers--as Margitza is an admirable soloist who oversees a stalwart ...

Live Review

Joel Frahm Trio At Magy's Farm

by Ian Patterson
October 21, 2025

Joel Frahm Trio Magy's Farm Dromara, N. Ireland October 17, 2025 After 30 years in New York and then Nashville, tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm has swapped the year-round blur of club dates and tours for the relative security of the teaching faculty at Texas State University. It is undoubtedly great news for that renowned institution's music students, but a loss for jazz fans around the world who are not going to see Frahm with ...

Album Review

Ryan Middagh Jazz Orchestra: Tenor Madness

Read "Tenor Madness" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 9, 2025

Nashville-based composer, arranger and saxophonist Ryan Middagh salutes apostles of the mid-range wind instrument on Tenor Madness, his second recording as leader of the Ryan Middagh Jazz Orchestra. Even so, there are no tenor solos after the first three of the album's half-dozen numbers, on which tenors Don Aliquo and Jeff Coffin ("Wiley Roots"), Aliquo again ("Waiter, Make Mine Blues"), Coffin and New York luminary Joel Frahm--who together galvanize the album's robust title song--are featured. While the ...

Album Review

Diane Marino: Romance In The Dark

Read "Romance In The Dark" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
November 9, 2024

Romance in the Dark, from highly-versatile vocalist-pianist-arranger Diane Marino and a team of Nashville's top studio players, offers 10 entertaining selections. Comprised of covers of well-known standards and classic soul material (with a handful-plus being remixed and remastered from the vocalist's previously released recordings), it is a thoroughly enjoyable and, yes, romantic effort. “Out of This World" opens the session in a lush exotic atmosphere. Originally recorded by Jo Stafford and nearly a jazz standard, Marino dives ...

Album Review

John Ambrosini: Songs for You

Read "Songs for You" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
October 5, 2024

John Ambrosini is a New York City-based pianist, composer and arranger. He has a number of recordings to his credit and this one, strictly speaking, is a bit of a departure. Ambrosini's band is populated by a number of well-known jazz professionals in and around the city. So the music swings and the solos--including piano--are all worth hearing. It may be that Ambrosini is a stronger player than singer, something not unusual among instrumentalists who sing. ...

Album Review

John Alvey: Loft Glow

by Chris May
August 11, 2024

Such is the proliferation of albums which in the 2020s are taking jazz in new and exciting directions--see AAJ's Best Jazz Albums of 2024: All-Star Break Edition round-up here--that it is easy to pass over albums which have their feet firmly planted in the tradition, and which show no ambition to redefine it, but which are by any standards fresh and first-class jazz. Such an album is Nashville-based drummer John Alvey's debut, Loft Glow. On this love ...

Album Review

Ernesto Cervini: A Canadian Songbook

Read "A Canadian Songbook" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
April 21, 2024

Composer and drummer Ernesto Cervini is a stalwart of the Canadian creative music scene both as an artist and promoter. His ninth release as a leader, the captivating A Canadian Songbook, is a collection of seven intricate pieces, composed by him and other compatriots. Cervini, at the head of his sextet Turboprop, deftly balances collective harmony and individual expressions and delivers all with refreshing spontaneity. The leader starts off his arrangement of pianist James Hill's “Skeletons" with sparse ...