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Christopher Zuar Orchestra: Exuberance
by Katchie Cartwright
Exuberance is part of a “long-form tonal conversation" between composer Christopher Zuar and animator Anne Beal. Zuar, a Long Island New Yorker, describes the work as “a journey of personal growth," which began in 2017 when he and Beal met as fellows at the MacDowell Colony in the woods of New Hampshire. He explains that the album is a “collaborative project that charts the last seven years of our lives." “In Winter Blooms," the opening track, grew out ...
Continue ReadingPete McCann: Without Question
by Jack Bowers
Guitarist and composer Pete McCann pulls out all the stops on Without Question, his seventh album as leader, unveiling his singular talents on everything from burners ("Without Question," “Trifecta") to ballads ("I Can Remember," “January," “Lost City"), blues ("Blues for O.M."), burlesque ("Conspiracy Theory"), biting commentary ("Erase the Hate") and borrowed themes ("Lovely Thing"). McCann, a native of Wisconsin who has been a fixture on the New York scene for more than thirty years, is also smart--smart enough, that is, ...
Continue ReadingMichael Ragonese: Stracci
by Pierre Giroux
It would probably be a hyperbole to say that young jazz pianists are “a dime a dozen." Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that there are some stellar younger jazz pianists working today, such as Emmet Cohen, Kenny Banks Jr., and Paul Cornish, and that if you are going to play in this league, you must have a style which sets you apart from the rest. Michael Ragonese possibly falls into that category as evidenced by his latest ...
Continue ReadingMichael Ragonese: Stracci
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Michael Ragonese is called Rags, a nickname given to him in childhood that stuck. His sophomore effort is entitled Stracci which means rags in Italian--a more musical sound than its English equivalent. It is a piano trio outing, a top-notch one. Ragonese's musical backstory is a common one. He began in classical studies and after a time felt constrained. He was introduced to jazz via a Bill Evans album--no better place to start--and he switched his focus. ...
Continue ReadingJonathan Kreisberg: Night Songs
by C. Andrew Hovan
Although technical proficiency and filigreed improvisations often catch the attention of the average jazz fan, those in the know will insist that you can't really evaluate the mettle of a jazz musician until you hear how he interprets a ballad. Memorable efforts from the jazz cannon that fruitfully establish a reflective mood over the length of an album must include John Coltrane's Ballads, Kenny Dorham's Quiet Kenny, and Grant Green's Idle Moments. With six dates already as a ...
Continue ReadingMegumi Yonezawa: Resonance
by Neri Pollastri
La pianista giapponese Megumi Yonezawa, da tempo residente a New York e collaboratrice stabile di Greg Osby, esce per Sunnyside con il secondo album a proprio nome, un piano trio nel quale mescola brani di propria composizione, alcuni standard e un'improvvisazione totale.La cifra del lavoro è quella di un modern jazz estremamente ricco di articolazioni e sofisticato nel fraseggio, che si fa con frequenza dialogo a tre grazie l'impianto paritetico della formazione. Se infatti la tastiera della leader ...
Continue ReadingDavid Borgo: Pathika
by Dan McClenaghan
San Diego's David Borgo, a top-tier jazz saxophonist and an ethnomusicologist with a professorship day job at the University of California at San Diego, says, “Ethnomusicology is like the anthropology of music." He puts this concept into practice with his teaching for the “Semester At Sea." This educational cruise program takes students to various ports worldwide to expose them to perspective-broadening travel and first-hand experience with different cultures. The students benefit; the teachers do, too. Borgo, ...
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