Jazz Articles about Lewis Nash

About Lewis Nash

Album Review

Jesse Davis Quartet: Reflections

Read "Reflections" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
May 10, 2026

<em>Reflections</em> by alto saxophonist Jesse Davis, joined by pianist Spike Wilner, bassist John Webber, and featured guest drummer Lewis Nash, was recorded at GB’s Juke Joint in Long Island City in March 2025 and is the kind of album that doesn’t announce itself loudly. It just feels lived in. Unhurried, assured, yet steeped in memory and shaped by the long arc of experience. It is delivered with the easy authority of someone who knows who he is.A Davis ...

Album Review

Jesse Davis Quartet: Reflections

Read "Reflections" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 3, 2026

New Orleans-bred Jesse Davis delves into the soulful side of the alto saxophone on Reflections, his tenth album as leader and one that was recorded on New York's Long Island, far from Davis' home base of Verona, Italy, where he has lived for more than 20 years with his wife and daughter. One of the perks of recording in New York is the accessibility of blue-ribbon rhythm sections, and Davis has checked that box by enlisting the services ...

Album Review

Noah Haidu: Standards III

Read "Standards III" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
July 14, 2025

Standards III, the ninth album by New York-based pianist Noah Haidu, is essentially a trio date with a guest appearance on one number ("Slipstream") by alto saxophonist Steve Wilson. As was true on Standards (Sunnyside, 2021) and Standards II (Sunnyside, 2024), the inclusion of several unfamiliar themes (including some by Haidu) stretches the meaning of “standard" well beyond what most listeners would consider acceptable. To be fair, there are a liberal number of standards on all three ...

Album Review

Noah Haidu: Standards III

Read "Standards III" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
June 26, 2025

Noah Haidu's Standards III is a study in jazz fluency--an exploration of melody, form, and interplay that reanimates familiar repertoire with both reverence and daring. Following the strong creative thread laid in the first two installments of the standards theme (Standards, 2023 and Standards II, 2024; both on Sunnyside), Haidu again enlists legendary bassist Buster Williams and veteran drummer Billy Hart, whose intuitive communication with the pianist borders on telepathic. Joining this outing is a younger trio, featuring bassist Gervis ...

Liner Notes

Jordan VanHemert: Survival of the Fittest

by Gary Fukushima
May 20, 2025

For most of his life, Jordan VanHemert has been on a quest of growth and mastery as a saxophonist, composer and musician. But equally important have been his efforts to contextualize some of the difficulties of his life experiences within the deeper themes of his DNA, discovering in the process resilience, optimism and joy. Jordan's music is meant to convey empathy and solidarity to others who have also faced challenges in their lives. This album, Jordan's fifth as a leader, ...

Album Review

Jordan VanHemert: Survival of the Fittest

Read "Survival of the Fittest" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 8, 2025

Although the title of saxophonist Jordan VanHemert's fifth album, Survival of the Fittest, may elicit images of a crash course in self-defense, that is not at all what he had in mind. The music is thematic, he says, and represents the twin lodestars of adversity and resilience. Even that, however, becomes largely irrelevant once VanHemert and his supporting cast launch what is at its heart a narrative of contemporary post-bop jazz. It is a cast that varies in ...

Album Review

Jordan VanHemert: Deep in the Soil

Read "Deep in the Soil" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 1, 2024

Energy and enthusiasm fairly leap from the speakers--or headphones--on Sharel Cassity's daring “Call to Order," the opening number on Korean-born saxophonist Jordan VanHemert's fifth album as leader, Deep in the Soil. Alas, that same ardor doesn't reappear until track seven (of eight), trombonist Michael Dease's boppish “ST in the House." In between, VanHemert and his companions (group sizes vary from sextet to duo) offer some agreeable music but nothing that approaches the ebullience or cogency of the themes already named. ...