Jazz Articles about Karl Kohut

About Karl Kohut

Album Review

Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra: Tidal Currents: East Meets West

Read "Tidal Currents: East Meets West" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 26, 2024

When it comes to appraising contemporary big bands, Canada's Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra is on equal footing with the best of them. For its seventh album, Tidal Currents, the WJO has engaged two of that country's leading jazz composers, Jill Townsend and Christine Jensen, to present in musical terms impressions of places that have a special meaning to them, in particular the bodies of water that inspired them in their younger years and up to this point in time.

Album Review

Earl MacDonald: Consecrated

Read "Consecrated" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 26, 2021

The searching spirit that drives the work of composer and pianist Earl MacDonald is both a reflection on musical curiosity and, to a deeper extent, a statement of faith. Bringing both of those identity-shaping aspects to the fore like never before, MacDonald uses Consecrated to work toward a higher purpose. Reshaping and resetting a series of traditional hymns in sophisticated yet accessible fashion, he conveys the core values of his Christian beliefs—love, kindness, charity—with class and creative purpose.