Jazz Articles about Jonathan Powell

About Jonathan Powell

Album Review

Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra: Golden Lady: CJRO featuring Tatiana LadyMay Mayfield

Read "Golden Lady: CJRO featuring Tatiana LadyMay Mayfield" reviewed by La-Faithia White

by La-Faithia White
November 23, 2025

Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra is one of the premier jazz ensembles in the region featuring top-tier musicians dedicated to honoring and expanding the jazz tradition. Golden Lady is a vibrant fusion of jazz, R&B, and gospel. The project also features original compositions, including LadyMay Mayfield's “Metamorphosis," “Hold Tight" by Bob Reynolds (a member of Snarky Puppy), and Jared Cathey's “Red Cedar Road." The project bursts open with “Hold Tight," an up-tempo, big band celebration radiating with energy. Driven ...

Album Review

Kiki Valera: Vacilón Santiaguero

Read "Vacilón Santiaguero" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
February 15, 2025

In Cuban Spanish (and, for sure, there is no generic Spanish in Latin America), vacilón means, well, one hell of a good time. And that is what you can expect from this punchy collection, a great time a la Santiago de Cuba, the capital of one of Cuba's southeastern provinces. It is the land of Bacardí rum and the origins of the 1959 Revolution. A Cuban patriot will tell you about the naval battle of Santiago de Cuba, which more ...

Radio & Podcasts

Classics from Blue Note and ECM, Brazilian vibes, and brand new releases from around the world

by Andy Crowther
August 30, 2024

Featuring vinyl purchases from the recent We Out Here festival in the UK, along with tracks from artists who performed there, Blue Note classics, '70s ECM tracks, Brazilian vibes and the best new releases... Playlist Tina Brooks “Good Old Soul" from True Blue (Blue Note) 00:00 Gene Ammons “Canadian Sunset" from Boss Tenor (Prestige) 08:07 Tenorio Jr. “Samadhi" from Embalo (RGE) 13.00 Hank Mobley “Lookin' East" from Reach Out (Blue Note) 16.25 Kenny Dorham “Lotus Blossom" from ...

Album Review

Kiki Valera: Vacilón Santiaguero

Read "Vacilón Santiaguero" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
June 30, 2024

Son Cubano, the music and dance from the hill country of eastern Cuba, may be a mystery to some readers of these pages. Though the form is rooted in both Spanish and Bantu traditions, its modern day practitioners, embodied and popularized by the music of Buena Vista Social Club, have broadened the music's view. In the United States, particularly in this case, the Pacific Northwest, there are pockets of enthusiasm for Latin music of all sorts. Yet upon attending a ...

Album Review

Miho Hazama M_Unit: Beyond Orbits

Read "Beyond Orbits" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
October 2, 2023

Uno degli eventi al Monterey Jazz Festival del 2021 è stato il concerto dell'M_Unit di Miho Hazama, la giovane compositrice e bandleader giapponese che s'è imposta tra le figure più innovative della sua generazione. In quell'occasione Hazama ha presentato la suite in tre movimenti “Exoplanet" che--incisa poi in studio--costituisce il fulcro del disco appena pubblicato dalla Edition Records. Chi conosce i suoi lavori di questi anni, sa quanto la scrittura della bandleader risulti coinvolgente per l'abilità di ...

Album Review

Miho Hazama's M_Unit: Beyond Orbits

Read "Beyond Orbits" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 29, 2023

Beyond Orbits is the fêted composer and conductor Miho Hazama's fourth album with M_Unit. She founded the band in 2012, two years after moving from Tokyo to New York and while she was still studying for a masters in jazz composition at the Manhattan School of Music. Hazama released M_Unit's first album in 2013. The band's third, Dancer In Nowhere (Sunnyside, 2019), was nominated for a Grammy. Among her other achievements, Hazama was in 2019 appointed chief ...

Album Review

Spanish Harlem Orchestra: The Latin Jazz Project

Read "The Latin Jazz Project" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
July 31, 2020

When last heard from, the salsa powerhouse Spanish Harlem Orchestra was celebrating fifteen years of playing together with Anniversary (ArtistShare, 2018). There have always been elements of Latin jazz in the group's music, and Artistic Director Oscar Hernández is a noted Latin jazz pianist, so it was only a matter of time until they presented a full program of it. In addition to his arrangements, Hernández contributed several compositions, and is a prominent soloist. The band contains some ...