Jazz Articles about Mark Simon

About Mark Simon

Album Review

Even though the contours and boundaries of jazz have been substantially altered and recast through the years, it is good to know that some aspects of America's classical music remain basically unchanged, especially the propensity to design and use melodic, harmonic and rhythmic concepts as a springboard for group interaction and personal improvisation. On Reckless Meter, the Colorado-based co-op sextet Convergence blends the best of those criteria to produce an hour of bright and engaging contemporary jazz. While ...

Album Review

Convergence: Reckless Meter

Read "Reckless Meter" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
January 6, 2026

Colorado has long nurtured a quietly serious jazz scene, and Reckless Meter makes a compelling case that Convergence ranks among its most seasoned examples. This is not a band formed for convenience or novelty; it is an ensemble built through years of shared bandstands, rehearsals, and the kind of musical debates that foster trust. Pianist Eric Gunnison, trumpeter Greg Gisbert, saxophonist John Gunther, trombonist Mark Patterson, bassist Mark Simon, and drummer Paul Romaine perform here with the relaxed authority of ...

Album Review

Dave Hanson: Blues Sky

Read "Blues Sky" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 25, 2025

Pianist Dave Hanson opens his Blue Sky with a joyful barnburner, “Two Masters," a tip of the hat to Bill Evans and Chick Corea, two of the biggest names in piano jazz. Hanson is probably best known for his work as composer-arranger and co-leader of Denver's H2 Big Band, but he pares things down on his Blues Sky album release, thanks in part to a weeklong artist-in-residence gig at Denver's Dazzle Jazz club, which allowed him to shape his sound ...

Album Review

Keith Oxman: This One's for Joey

Read "This One's for Joey" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 13, 2022

The “Joey" saluted on Denver-based tenor saxophonist Keith Oxman's latest album is Joey Pearlman, a jazz bassist who died far too soon, at age twenty-four, in Febuary 2021. Joey's “music and personality," Oxman writes, “brightened every day for us at [Denver's] East High School. His presence brought joy to our music room...as he challenged us with his brilliant compositions and performances. Joey's musical influence on his classmates, as well as his one-of-a-kind sense of humor, had an undeniable and positive ...

Album Review

Jazz Worms: Squirmin'

Read "Squirmin'" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
March 19, 2021

There is something to be said for playing the long game. If a group is willing to wait for over thirty years between the issuance of albums, then clearly there is a bond among the participants that is remarkable. This clearly applies to the Jazz Worms. The group's debut release was Crawling Out (Van Buren) in 1987 and only now do we have the follow-up, Squirmin'.This Denver-based quintet has a unique approach to their music and it is ...

Album Review

Jazz WORMS: Squirmin'

Read "Squirmin'" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 8, 2021

The Denver-based quintet Jazz WORMS recorded its first album, Crawling Out, in 1987. Based on the time it took to record a second, Squirmin', they may as well be called the Jazz SNAILS. To be fair, there are reasons why the next go-round took so long to materialize, the most conspicuous being success. In '87 the members of the quintet were relative newcomers to the jazz scene, merely finding their way; since then they have led busy and successful lives ...