Home » Jazz Articles » Mark Taylor - Saxophone

Jazz Articles about Mark Taylor - Saxophone

About Mark Taylor - Saxophone

Album Review

Cassio Vianna Jazz Orchestra: Vida

by Jack Bowers
January 2, 2025

As you can't always describe a book by its cover, neither can you invariably pinpoint with accuracy a jazz ensemble's locale by its name alone. The Cassio Vianna Jazz Orchestra, to choose a random example, is not from Italy--nor from anywhere else in Europe. Although born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Cassio Vianna has lived in the United States since 2009 and is, in fact, a music educator and director of Jazz Studies at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, ...

Album Review

Jim Knapp Orchestra: It's Not Business, It's Personal

Read "It's Not Business, It's Personal" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 12, 2021

The Jim Knapp Orchestra's CD It's Not Business, It's Personal, recorded in February 2009, was set to be released on November 19, 2021—six days after Knapp died at age eighty-two in Kirkland, Washington. Apart from his role as bandleader, Knapp was a trumpeter, composer, arranger and longtime faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Described by Grammy-winning composer/pianist Jim McNeely as “a brilliant musician, great teacher and a humble, sweet [and] generous man," Knapp was widely recognized ...

Album Review

Ryan Burns: Postponed Parade

Read "Postponed Parade" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 18, 2020

Keyboardist Ryan Burns' Postponed Parade happened, in large part, because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The vexing virus that hit us in 2020 made getting together difficult and dangerous--for music-making or anything else. So here is what Burns did: During Covid-19 times he recorded and released a single tune each month, from May to October 2020. These sessions took place in his contributing musicians' houses, with the exception of “Shoreline," recorded in a studio, but with everyone in a separate room. ...

Album Review

Jenny Davis: Rearranged

Read "Rearranged" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
April 4, 2020

The first listen is simply heating the snifter to introduce the complex and commanding music made as essence to the listener. The second and subsequent listenings consumes the musical liquor of the talent and vision of vocalist and composer Jenny Davis, who reveals a very sophisticated creative method existing at the triple point of her singing, composing and activism. Davis's previous recordings It Amazes Me (Self Produced, 2006) and Inside You (Self Produced, 2010) were well received, setting Davis up ...

188

Album Review

Ryan Burns: Birds

Read "Birds" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
April 2, 2010

Keyboardist Ryan Burns possesses a distinctive artistry, one that is integral to the success of the sound of the Matt Jorgensen + 451 group on sets such as Hope (Origin Records, 2004) and Another Morning (Origin Records, 2008), and with trumpeter Thomas Marriott on the strange and stellar Crazy:The Music of Willie Nelson (Origin Records, 2008). Burns also works as a leader on the acoustic piano trio set Tree-O (Odd Bird Records, 2007), and now on the plugged-in Birds. A ...

186

Album Review

Mark Taylor: Spectre

by John Barron
April 30, 2009

Saxophonist Mark Taylor was announced Northwest Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2009 Earshot Jazz Awards. Such esteemed recognition may be due to his high profile supporting roles on Origin Records releases by Thomas Marriott and Matt Jorgensen + 451. For Spectre, his first recording as a leader in six years, the Seattle, Washington-based Taylor presents an inventive set of original, progressive jazz. The quartet setting features Taylor on soprano and alto sax, pianist Gary Fukushima, bassist Jeff Johnson, and ...

280

Album Review

Matt Jorgensen + 451: Hope

by Dan McClenaghan
March 18, 2004

Do they still give out Grammy Awards for best cover art? If so, here's a nominee: a peaceful retriever in repose, chin on the floor, captured in a sanguine tone on Matt Jorgensen + 451's Hope. A great cover, of course, does not a successful CD make. It's the music. The music on Hope--a sax and rhythm section outing with additional sax on five of the eleven tunes, with the warm tones of a trombone on ...