Jazz Articles about Kenny Washington

Stevie Holland: Restless Willow

by Jim Santella
November 22, 2004

Singing standards with a clear delivery and a happy outlook, Stevie Holland gives her audience an intimate approach and a convincing, heartfelt persuasion.

James Taylor's “Sunny Skies" coasts along gently with a buoyant aura, allowing Holland to interpret its positive lyrics with a graceful piano trio alongside. “Zoot Walks In" brings an equally rosy outlook with jazz piano trio and tenor saxophone, but the drive of her interpretation glows with much more emphasis. It's the high point of ...

Jim Rotondi: Excursions

by C. Andrew Hovan
October 1, 2000

One of the next major talents yet to be discovered by the jazz public at large, trumpeter Jim Rotondi is a dynamo full of the kind of bristling trumpet fire that distinguished such predecessors as Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw. Over the course of his first two Criss Cross dates, Introducing Jim Rotondi and Jim’s Bop Rotondi proved that he was a capable mainstream player with great promise in terms of developing his own voice. Now with Excursions he goes ...

Jim Rotondi: Excursions

by David A. Orthmann
July 1, 2000

During the course of Excursions, his third disc as a leader for the Criss Cross imprint, Jim Rotondi continually finds ways of breathing new life into the straight-ahead, three horns and rhythm format. Rotondi has written and chosen a variety of tunes ranging from up and medium tempo swingers (“Angel Eyes,” “Shortcake,” “Little Karin”) to a bossa nova (“Excursions”), to ballads (“Little B’s Poem,” “What Is There To Say”). Further, he writes and utilizes arrangements by the band members that ...

Melvin Rhyne: Kojo

by C. Andrew Hovan
October 1, 1999

Taking advantage of the cyclical nature of fads and stylistic “ins" and “outs," Melvin Rhyne is lucky to be part of the current renaissance movement involving the classic sound of the Hammond B-3 organ and the type of funky fare that was prosperous and bountiful during the ‘60s. Of course, Rhyne was around during the heydays as a member of Wes Montgomery’s touring trio. Now this Milwaukee resident has caught the other side of the upswing with a renewed interest ...