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Steve Johns: Mythology
by David A. Orthmann
Over the past twenty years, drummer Steve Johns has appeared dozens of times in various venues and configurations throughout Northern New Jersey and the Hudson Valley, New York area. To name but a few examples, Johns with guitarist Bob DeVos's trio at Trumpets Jazz Club, in sessions led by bassist Mark Hagan at the Old 76 House, and in a series curated by tenor saxophonist John Richmond at The Turning Point Café--all small, intimate venues--enabled listeners to see and hear ...
Continue ReadingSouth Florida Jazz Orchestra: Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza
by Jack Bowers
In 2019, the acclaimed Michigan-bred, Paris-based tenor saxophonist Rick Margitza thought he was being asked to contribute a couple of charts to the University of South Florida Jazz Orchestra's fifth recording in its fifteen-year history as a working ensemble. But when SFJO founder and leader Chuck Bergeron looked at the charts he had an even better idea, and asked Margitza to write and / or arrange everything on the album, which thus became Cheap Thrills: The Music of Rick Margitza. ...
Continue ReadingSouth Florida Jazz Orchestra: Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza
by Pierre Giroux
The concept of a large, tightly-knit big band in a recording studio, on a concert or jazz club stage may just be a plug-in memory in today's environment. Fortunately there is the fifteenth anniversary recording of The South Florida Jazz Orchestra directed by bassist/bandleader Chuck Bergeron, entitled Cheap Thrills: The Music Of Rick Margitza, to remind us what a disciplined inventive big band sounds like. With the exception of George and Ira Gershwin's “Embraceable You," all the other ...
Continue ReadingJohn Hart: Act Three
by Edward Blanco
Guitarist John Hart has long had an affinity for working with groups that feature the organ as a primary instrument. Having worked with Jimmy Smith and logged a 16-year tenure with organist Jack McDuff, the guitarist now presents Act Three, yet another project with another organ master, this time New York-based keyboardist Gary Versace on the Hammond B3 organ. Versace is one of the most in-demand musicians on the jazz scene today. Rounding out Hart's new band ...
Continue ReadingJohn Sneider: The Scrapper
by Jack Bowers
If you expected a trumpeter whose nickname is “Scrapper" to come out swinging on his first album as leader in twenty years, give yourself a gold star and a hearty pat on the back. That is precisely the modus operandi on The Scrapper, wherein New York-based John Sneider leads a first-rate quintet through its paces on what in many respects seems like a homecoming, as everyone save tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm was present and accounted for on Sneider's earlier recording ...
Continue ReadingHart, Scone & Albin: Leading The British Invasion
by Dan McClenaghan
The Hammond organ trio called Hart, Scone & Albin open up Leading the British Invasion by biting into “Rehab," from the songbook of the late British vocalist, Amy Winehouse. The tune--already dripping soul in its original edition--drips some, with the trio's muscular and propulsive approach. The British Invasion the trio addresses throughout the set isn't the one that began in the early 60s, with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and Gerry and the Pacemakers and The Dave ...
Continue ReadingHart, Scone & Albin: Leading The British Invasion
by Dan Bilawsky
The British are coming, the British are coming! No, not the Redcoats with rifles or tide-shifting rock royalty like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and the like. This time, it's the might and music of the English songstress that's landing stateside. With Leading The British Invasion, this smart and stinging organ trio salutes a number of notable ladies from across the pond. Fifty years worth of history is covered here, as everybody from Dusty Springfield to Adele ...
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