Jazz Articles about John Hansen

About John Hansen

Album Review

Pony Boy All-Star Big Band: This Is Now

Read "This Is Now" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 12, 2024

This Is Now is a venturous and engaging concert date by the Pony Boy All-Star Big Band, taped in May 2024 at Boxley's jazz club in North Bend, Washington. Pony Boy refers to the band's label, Pony Boy Records, while the term All-Star is, as always, in the eye (and ear) of the beholder. Clearly, there are some stars in this firmament, not least of which is drummer and music director Greg Williamson. Trumpeter Jay Thomas has long been a ...

Album Review

Jim Knapp Orchestra: It's Not Business, It's Personal

Read "It's Not Business, It's Personal" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 12, 2021

The Jim Knapp Orchestra's CD It's Not Business, It's Personal, recorded in February 2009, was set to be released on November 19, 2021—six days after Knapp died at age eighty-two in Kirkland, Washington. Apart from his role as bandleader, Knapp was a trumpeter, composer, arranger and longtime faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Described by Grammy-winning composer/pianist Jim McNeely as “a brilliant musician, great teacher and a humble, sweet [and] generous man," Knapp was widely recognized ...

Album Review

Jared Hall: Seen on the Scene

Read "Seen on the Scene" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 25, 2021

Seen on the Scene, Seattle-based trumpeter Jared Hall's second album as a leader, has a lot going for it: tight-knit group unity and tasteful dynamics; bright, technically polished solos by all hands; and engaging tunes by Hall and the late bop master, Tadd Dameron. As a bonus, the acclaimed alto saxophonist Vincent Herring is “on the scene" to share the front line with Hall, elevating the session whenever he assumes the spotlight. Hall's sound is crisp and ...

Album Review

Jared Hall: Seen on the Scene

Read "Seen on the Scene" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
August 16, 2021

In many ways the title Seen on the Scene encapsulates trumpeter Jared Hall's story leading up to the studio session in 2018 which resulted in this, his sophomore release. The native of Spokane, Washington, arrived in Seattle in 2015 after completing studies with mercurial trumpet ace Brian Lynch and, almost immediately, scored a residency at Tula's, the city's legendary jazz spot. Sporting new compositions and a new recording on Lynch's Hollistic MusicWorks label, Hall went about establishing himself on the ...

Album Review

Jared Hall: Seen on the Scene

Read "Seen on the Scene" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
August 13, 2021

With Seen On the Scene, his Origin Records debut, trumpeter Jared Hall offers up the sort of fresh bebop/post bop sounds found on the Blue Note Records label in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Horace Silver and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers seem to serve as touchstones, as does pianist / composer Tad Dameron, too. Hall's quintet—the familiar trumpet and sax and rhythm section line-up—takes on a pair of Dameron's classics: “Mating Call," and two versions of “If ...

Album Review

Jay Thomas Quartet: Upside

by Paul Rauch
September 11, 2020

Seattle-based musician Jay Thomas may be considered the oddest of ducks in the jazz universe. By that, I am referring to his fierce musicality expressed both on trumpet and saxophone, as well as most members of the brass and woodwind families. Inspired early in his career by the like minded veteran Ira Sullivan, Thomas in a single night will drift from trumpet to tenor, from flugelhorn to alto, and then double back on flute and soprano. He may as well ...