Jazz Articles about Jongkuk Kim

About Jongkuk Kim

Album Review

Dayna Stephens: Closer Than We Think

Read "Closer Than We Think" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 15, 2025

A few brief observations: first, New York-based Dayna Stephens is an excellent saxophonist. Second, the other members of his quartet on Closer Than We Think, Stephens' twelfth album as a leader, are similarly proficient. Third, Stephens clearly had a specific plan in mind before entering GB's Juke Joint to record the album in May 2023, one whose purpose, he writes, was to nurture a spirit of togetherness as an answer to today's divisive and fractured landscape. While ...

Album Review

Simon Moullier: Elements of Light

Read "Elements of Light" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
March 27, 2025

Nel quinto disco da leader, il vibrafonista francese--da tempo residente negli Stati Uniti--torna a proporre molte sue composizioni, come aveva fatto in Spirit Song, il debutto del 2020. Per l'occasione Simon Moullier sostituisce anche l'organico, confermando solo Jongkuk Kim, l'emergente batterista coreano che lo segue dall'album d'esordio. Il nuovo quartetto comprende il talentuoso giovane pianista Lex Korten (allievo di Benny Green e visto di recente con Tyshawn Sorey, Jaleel Shaw, Melissa Aldana) e il bassista Rick Rosato, (già ...

Album Review

Aaron Parks: Little Big III

Read "Little Big III" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
October 11, 2024

Listening to the ever-evolving mind and music of pianist Aaron Parks reveals a sizable rock and roll streak running through it all. His impulsive 2008 solo nod on Blue Note Records, Invisible Cinema, carried indy rock energy. And it is a good bet that if one digs into his work with Terrence Blanchard--four albums from 2003 including 2007's Grammy-winning A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina) (EMI)--Parks, a late-stage teenager at the time, exhibits a bardic, punky tinge ...

Album Review

Aaron Parks: Little Big III

Read "Little Big III" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
October 5, 2024

After debuting with a clutch of albums on Keynote around the start of the millennium, and then spending five years with Terence Blanchard, Aaron Parks emerged as a fully-fledged bandleader with his album Invisible Cinema on Blue Note in 2008. On it, Parks fronted a quartet completed by guitarist Mike Moreno, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland. The group's bag was the capacious one known as post-genre, but the music was indisputably jazz for all that. After spells on ...

Album Review

June Yun: Enlightenment - Solid Waves

Read "Enlightenment - Solid Waves" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 23, 2024

South Korean vocalist June Yun's compositional debut, Enlightenment -Solid Waves, explores the feelings and emotions elicited by the concepts of light and dark. These things are difficult to describe in words but translate, with her music, into compelling, atmospheric soundscapes full of shadows, apparitions, angelic imagery and mystical moods. Vid Jamnic's resonant vibraphone murkiness lays a backdrop for Yun's emotive clarity of expression on the disc's opener, “Little Mighty Soul." The lyrics are cryptic and bring to mind mid-career Joni ...

Album Review

Ellie Lee: Escape

Read "Escape" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
June 24, 2024

The term “promising" is typically used to describe a new arrival on the jazz scene. It may be synonymous with “hard to pigeonhole," or, perhaps, not yet completely realized in some stylistic sense. In the case of Ellie (Seunghyung) Lee, the word is misleading. Lee conjures up echoes of other distinguished players, but she clearly has something original to say. Her compositions, which comprise the bulk of the material here, have a vibe of their own, which comes from a ...

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Album Review

Ellie Lee: Escape

Read "Escape" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 24, 2024

South Korean Ellie Lee's debut highlights her significant skills as a composer and pianist, grabbing listeners' attention from the get-go. It plunges us into a universe where melody and emotion fuse to spin tales sans words. The opening title track ushers in a vibe that is both comforting and invigorating, laying down the red carpet for an album that intertwines through the tapestry of human emotions with elegance and a touch of flair. Lee's piano skills are a ...