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Ed Palermo: Prog vs. Fusion: A War of the Ages
by Jack Bowers
Well, if it walks like a big band and talks like a big band...chances are it's a big band, even though, in the case of Ed Palermo's New York-based 18-piece ensemble, it neither walks nor talks much like any other big band on planet earth. On Prog Vs. Fusion, Palermo casts aside many established harmonic principles in favor of fomenting and supervising a colossal struggle between the powerful forces of progressive rock and fusion. In doing so, ...
Continue ReadingThe Ed Palermo Big Band: Prog vs. Fusion: A War of the Ages
by Kyle Simpler
Sometimes musicians with serious chops take their music a little too seriously. Others, however, manage to combine talent and humor in a way that proves infectious. The Ed Palermo Big Band is one of the best examples of the latter. With albums drawing on such diverse influences as Frank Zappa, Paul Butterfield, and King Crimson, Palermo delivers a foundation of solid jazz infused with a spirit of experimentation and an eye for the absurd. With Prog vs. Fusion: A War ...
Continue ReadingTom Nazziola: Reflections On Love
by Neil Duggan
Many albums feature arrangements of standards, so what does it take to stand out from the crowd? Solutions to the problem include choosing the seldom-played lesser-known standards, changing the chords to reharmonize the songs while keeping the melody and changing the instrumentation throughout the album. Tom Nazziola uses all these tools on his album Reflections On Love. Nazziola is a pianist and Grammy-nominated composer of film scores and orchestral music. He has also contributed to Broadway productions and ...
Continue ReadingJohn Bailey: Time Bandits
by Jack Bowers
After working and recording for decades with some of the jazz world's best and brightest talents, trumpeter John Bailey released his first album as leader of his own group in 2018, the second in 2020 and, in 2023, his third, Time Bandits, which shares a name but nothing more with Terry Gilliam's 1981 film fantasy. Bailey leads an all-star quartet on this one, firmly anchored by drummer Victor Lewis (the timekeeper on all of Bailey's albums) and ...
Continue ReadingThe Marauding John Bailey
by David Bixler
After more that 30 years as an omnipresent side man on the NYC scene, trumpeter John Bailey decided it was time to step out as a leader so in 2018 he recorded his first record, In Real Time. This was followed in 2020 with Can You Imagine, and now, in 2023, he has released Time Bandits with George Cables, Scott Colley, and Victor Lewis. In this episode of LINER NOTES John talks about his music and the patient path that ...
Continue ReadingTed Kooshian: Hubub!
by Edward Blanco
New York pianist and keyboardist Ted Kooshian continues his love affair with classic TV, cartoon themes and the pop scene, on Hubub!, offering a selection of striking originals influenced by his “enthusiastic love for pop culture," which includes tributes to actors Steve McQueen and William Shatner of Star Trek fame. The album's sole standard is Leonard Bernstein's classic “Somewhere" from the West Side Story play, distinguishing this version from so many others with an atypically jaunty arrangement from the pianist. ...
Continue ReadingTed Kooshian: Hubub!
by Jack Bowers
There are two ways of looking at Hubub!, pianist Ted Kooshian's fifth album as leader. The first is, “nothing new here"; and the second, “everything is new here." On the one hand, Kooshian's able quintet hews closely to the post-bop canon which has given rise to its fabric; on the other, they do so within the framework of Kooshian's bright and engaging melodies, none of which seems commonplace or shopworn. Kooshian wrote nine of the album's eleven ...
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