Jazz Articles about John Patitucci

About John Patitucci

Album Review

There are a number of bright and interesting moments on New York-based arranger Wayne Alpern's album, Gotham, wherein he makes good use of a well-polished tentet on several generally handsome and engaging charts. Alpern's choice of music is eclectic, ranging from Tchaikovsky to Jobim, Rodgers and Hart to Stephen Sondheim, Hoagy Carmichael to Horace Silver, Alex North to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. All of which should be anticipated from a music-lover whose training and background ranges from classical to ...

Album Review

Mike Holober & the Gotham City Orchestra: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

Read "This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
November 11, 2024

Dopo gli ultimi superlativi album orchestrali (Balancing Act, Palmetto 2015 e Hiding Out, Zoho 2019) la nuova incisione di Mike Holober con la Gotham Jazz Orchestra non dovrebbe stupirci, eppure questo doppio album ci ha nuovamente colpito. L'aggiunta di Chris Potter, John Patitucci, Nir Felder e della cantante brasiliana Jamile Staevie Ayres all'orchestra rende infatti il progetto quanto mai esaltante. Questi nomi completano un organico già nutrito di solisti ragguardevoli come Marvin Stamm e Scott Wendholt alle trombe, ...

Album Review

Mike Holober: This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters

Read "This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 1, 2024

We live on a rock. A few billion years of the workings of the complexities of carbon chemistry put us here. The systems and intricacies of every element that has unfolded to maintain us should be respected and preserved. Mike Holober's This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters, featuring Holober and his Gotham Jazz Orchestra, digs into this theme in a sprawling, two-disc big band jazz outing. Like life itself, and the resulting ecosystems, this multi-movement suite--an effort that is the ...

Album Review

Geoffrey Keezer: Live at Birdland

Read "Live at Birdland" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
September 16, 2024

Pianist Geoffrey Keezer's 2024 release, Live At Birdland, is his first live trio recording in more than 15 years. Accompanied by those rhythmic stalwarts, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Clarence Penn, the group gives a tutorial in the art of the jazz trio filled with unparalleled intimacy and dynamism. In constructing the track list, Keezer wanted to acknowledge the contribution of his heroes, Wayne Shorter and Chick Corea, to his music and his career. Accordingly, three compositions from each are ...

Album Review

Wayne Shorter: Celebration Volume 1

Read "Celebration Volume 1" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
September 7, 2024

Wayne Shorter never rested on his or anyone's laurels. So when at the start of this perilous century he convened his great, late-stage quartet with pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade it wasn't to take the bandstand and placate audience and skeptics with greatest hits or refurbished takes on old standards. It was to create new and now again, just as he had with Art Blakey (1959-19630), Miles Davis (1964-1970), and Weather Report (1971-1986). In Shorter's expansionist ...

Album Review

Wayne Shorter: Celebration Volume 1

Read "Celebration Volume 1" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
August 9, 2024

In 2000, three years short of entering his eighth decade on this planet--a place of origin which at times seemed questionable, though he made less fuss about it than Sun Ra--Wayne Shorter finally did what he had resisted doing throughout his career. He formed his own band, not just for an album project but as an ongoing touring and recording unit. By the time Shorter passed in 2023, the Wayne Shorter Quartet had released four live albums and a studio ...

Album Review

Antonio Faraò: Tributes

by Neil Duggan
June 19, 2024

There is an old saying that you should judge a person by the company that they keep. If that is true of musicians, then Italian pianist Antonio Faraò is highly regarded. For his sixth trio outing, he is joined by bassist John Patitucci, who achieved worldwide acclaim for his work with Chick Corea's Elektric Band and Akoustic Band. He has also appeared on albums with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker. To complete the dream trio, Faraò adds drummer ...