Jazz Articles about Josh Nelson

About Josh Nelson

Album Review

Doug MacDonald: Sextet Session

Read "Sextet Session" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 22, 2024

Guitarist Doug MacDonald records albums like someone who is either making up for lost time or does not have much time to spare. According to his discography, Sextet Session is at least the thirty-second album MacDonald has led or co-led, almost half of which have been released in the past couple of years or so. To keep things fresh, MacDonald has performed with almost every size group from big band to duo, but not often with as sharp and experienced ...

Album Review

Judy Whitmore: Come Fly with Me

Read "Come Fly with Me" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 6, 2024

When the multi-talented Judy Whitmore sings “Come Fly with Me," it is an invitation that is almost impossible to resist, especially as the lovely and charming vocalist is also a pilot who is licensed to fly anything from jets to seaplanes to hot air balloons. On her latest album, backed by a big band and twenty-six member string section with arrangements by Hollywood top gun Chris Walden, Whitmore beckons listeners to fly with her to romantic places around the world ...

Album Review

Ann Hampton Callaway: Finding Beauty. Originals. Volume 1

Read "Finding Beauty. Originals. Volume 1" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
January 9, 2024

"This is my most personal record," Callaway says. “Throughout my career, I've loved singing the great jazz classics and selections from the Great American Songbook, but I've always snuck my original songs on various projects. The pandemic made me think, 'I don't know if I'll live through this, but if I do, what's at the top of my bucket list?' And I realized that I wanted to tell my story and share the deepest part of me. What better way ...

Liner Notes

Jun Iida: Evergreen

by Gary Fukushima
January 5, 2024

They are everywhere, dotting the undulating terrain of the great Pacific Northwest, from the winding, twisting shorelines of Puget Sound to the mountains that rise in the distance in every direction: the Olympics to the west, the Cascades to the east, Mt. Baker to the north and the majestic Rainier to the south. The trees are a constant, comforting blanket over this land, ever-present, ever-green. Jun lida has called this place home for the past three years, another ...

Album Review

Jun Iida: Evergreen

Read "Evergreen" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
January 4, 2024

Evergreen from trumpeter/flugelhornist Jun Iida is a textural panorama of multi-cultural jazz flavors, offering original and known fare. Each of the ten tracks is a portrait, and they display fine solo and ensemble playing. To describe Evergreen in one word is to call it “intriguing." “Gooey Butter Cake," one of six originals from Iida, opens things in a jovial, hippity-hop, New Orleans-esque groove which develops into a trumpet-bass solo ride, with solos following from pianist Josh Nelson and ...

Liner Notes

Josh Nelson: LA Stories: Live at Sam First

by Robert Petersen
October 5, 2023

Josh Nelson's LA Stories: Live at Sam First was recorded in February 2022 at Sam First, which has quickly become the heartbeat of L.A.'s jazz community. With this album, Nelson continues a love letter to Los Angeles he began with his 2017 release, The Sky Remains, which was part of his Discovery Project multimedia series. In a city where history is too often forgotten, Nelson puts it center stage. In “Tiburcio," Nelson conjures the life of the 19th ...

Album Review

Angie Wells: Truth Be Told

Read "Truth Be Told" reviewed by Dave Linn

by Dave Linn
July 30, 2023

Angie Wells grew up in Philadelphia, surrounded by music. Her mother sang and played gospel piano, while her father was a devoted jazz and blues fan. The music of Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Jack McDuff and B.B. King, to name a few, could be heard on any day in her childhood home. At the age of five, Count Basie came to her school and played for her kindergarten class. The music seed had been planted. Later, she sang when and ...