Jazz Articles about Justin Gray

About Justin Gray

Album Review

The Composers Collective Big Band: The Toronto Project

Read "The Toronto Project" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 18, 2023

The term Composers Collective is quite often a thinly veiled phrase that signifies “experimental" or “avant-garde" jazz. Thankfully, that is far from true on the Composers Collective Big Band's irrepressible The Toronto Project, which carries the listener on a buoyant and colorful musical journey through Canada's largest city, capital of the province of Ontario and home to a number of superb jazz musicians. True, there are some moments when the Collective veers from conservative to exploratory, but ...

Album Review

Noam Lemish: Twelve

by Jack Bowers
December 7, 2022

The number Twelve has several explicit meanings on Israeli-born composer/pianist Noam Lemish's eighth album as leader of his own ensemble, which is twelve members strong (well, thirteen on the first two numbers, on which Laura Swankey adds wordless vocals, and twenty-five if one counts the thirteen-member chorus on Track 3). Returning to the basic premise, Lemish composed his first piece of music at age twelve, and it has been twelve years since he relocated from San Francisco to Toronto, Canada. ...

Album Review

Justin Gray: New Horizons

Read "New Horizons" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
January 3, 2018

What's an artist to do if he can't find an established instrument to suit his musical needs. If you are bassist Justin Gray, you design and co-create one. It's called the Bass Veena, a a hybrid that combines the characteristics of the fretless bass and numerous Indian string instruments. New Horizons by Justin Gray and Synthesis introduces the Bass Veena, traveling a Raga route with an ensemble that includes an array of Western strings--violins and cellos, guitar, electric ...