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Los Angeles Jazz Quartet: Live at Jazz nad Odra
by Jim Worsley
In honor of their twenty-fifth anniversary, Los Angeles Jazz Quartet took the stage in Wroclaw, Poland to perform at the Jazz at Odra Festival. This recording is documentation that they know how to celebrate in style. Five originals and two reimagined classics were powerfully and charismatically presented to an attentive and appreciative audience by bassist Darek Oleszkiewicz, drummer Jason Harnell, saxophonist Chuck Manning and guitarist Larry Koonse. Manning came out of the gate pulsating and swinging to the ...
Continue ReadingBrian Scanlon: Brain Scan
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Woodwind artist Brian Scanlon has established himself as one of the most respected of the go-to players working the L.A. studio scene. His offerings in the Grammy®-winning “Big Phat Band" have lent plenty to that unit's success. In the intriguingly named Brain Scan, Scanlon moves out into the leader's spotlight with a superb nine-cut effort featuring some superlative solo and killer small ensemble work. Eight of the diversely-grooved cuts are Scanlon originals, many of which are contemporized ...
Continue ReadingLarry Koonse: New Jazz Standards, Vol. 4
by Dan Bilawsky
This fourth volume in a series of recordings saluting and promoting the music of trumpeter Carl Saunders is every bit as sophisticated and attractive as its predecessors. Guitarist Larry Koonse leads the way through a dozen songs with supreme style and grace, comfortably placing this collection right next to earlier Saunders sets helmed by flutist Sam Most, trombonist Scott Whitfield, and pianist Roger Kellaway. Koonse, fronting a first-rate quartet filled out by pianist Josh Nelson, bassist Tom ...
Continue ReadingRock Swings
by Duncan Heining
A while ago, me and Mrs. O'Groove were at the Diamante Dance Academy, Chelmsford --I kid you not--for our regular lesson, when our teacher, Natasha Fellowes, put on this big band version of Van Halen's “Jump." Turned out it was off Paul Anka's Rock Swings album (2005). No particular reason but I've always had a soft spot for the number but this was a hoot. More than that, the arrangement takes what was a quick jive and turns it into ...
Continue ReadingLarry Koonse & Darek Oleszkiewicz: Storybook
by Michael P. Gladstone
In a new venture and on a new jazz label, Jazz Compass, West Coast guitarist Larry Koonse and bassist Darek “Oles" Oleszkiewicz essentially perform a series of duets, with the subtle assistance of percussionist Munyungo Jackson.
These ten original compositions feature the musicians in a series of intimate duets and trios that feature the melody played by both the bassist as well as the guitarist. The compositions have a feeling of shared lyrical empathy and seem influenced by ...
Continue ReadingKoonse / La Barbera / Warrington / Jenkins / Cunliffe: Snowfall: A Jazz Compass Christmas Celebration
by Jim Santella
The holidays provide a chance for everyone to sit back, relax, and enjoy something different. It's not like the rest of the year, where we're pulled and pushed this way and that. Instead, the year-end holidays give us an opportunity to set things right, and we've earned it. As the song goes, “we're gonna find out who's naughty or nice. For most of us, that means we can enjoy a special treat that lasts from Christmas Eve to New Year's ...
Continue ReadingPaul Anka: Rock Swings
by Chris M. Slawecki
Pop music sure has changed since Paul Anka last helped rule the airways (as composer or performer) with such mainstays as “My Way, “Diana, “She's A Lady, and “Puppy Love.Decades later, Anka's own notes explain the Rock Swings! concept: “We all embraced the idea: to find songs from a diverse group of musicians, from Nirvana and Van Halen, to Lionel Richie and The Pet Shop Boys, and reinvent them in an entirely unique way: Swing! The result, a ...
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