Jazz Articles about Mark Weinstein

About Mark Weinstein

Album Review

Flutist Mark Weinstein has made a career of fusing world music elements with jazzy sensibilities with finesse and style. On In Jerusalem he tackles the rich Hasidic heritage of song. He and his band interpret both secular and religious tunes as well as original compositions with delightful spontaneity and ethereal diapason. The Sabbath hymn “Repozaras" opens with Weinstein's flute dancing over bassist Gilad Abro's oud like strums and dual thumping gallop of drummer Haim Peskoff and percussionist Gilad ...

Extended Analysis

Mark Weinstein: Latin Jazz Underground

by Dan Bilawsky
April 14, 2014

Has flautist Mark Weinstein run out of ideas on how to merge various dialects of Latin jazz with other musical tongues? The answer is a resounding “no." Latin Jazz Underground finds Weinstein saluting the loft jazz scene of the '70s by tackling the work of jazz iconoclasts-turned-icons--pianist Andrew Hill and saxophonists Ornette Coleman and Sam Rivers--and like- minded originals. That concept, in and of itself, doesn't distinguish this project, as plenty of people have traveled down those thorny paths, so ...

Album Review

Mark Weinstein: Todo Corazon

Read "Todo Corazon" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 11, 2013

Mark Weinstein's modus operandi is simple: He follows his interests at any given time. He found success as a groundbreaking salsa trombonist early on, but that didn't stop him from leaving his horn behind and entering the realm of academia. He earned a Ph.D in Philosophy, with a specialization in mathematical logic, and started teaching at the college level, but music's magnetic effect pulled him back into performing. He returned to the scene in the late '70s, born anew as ...

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Album Review

Mark Weinstein: El Cumbanchero

Read "El Cumbanchero" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 1, 2011

Exploring music with the intellect of an ethnomusicologist, the imagination of an artist, and the technical savvy and musical know-how to combine the two is no easy feat, but Mark Weinstein is more than capable of pulling it off. For the flautist's latest Latin feast, he turned his attention toward a fusion of jazz and charanga music, a form of Cuban music that features the flute as the lead voice in an ensemble that also contains a string section, percussion, ...

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Album Review

Mark Weinstein: Jazz Brasil

Read "Jazz Brasil" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose

by Raul d'Gama Rose
April 2, 2011

Mark Weinstein has quietly established himself as one of the most wildly inventive flutists in modern memory. He is also one of the finest virtuoso players in the entire spectrum of 20th and 21st century music. His only rivals may well be the late Eric Dolphy, the Canadians, Jane Bunnett and Bill McBirnie, and, of course, the great James Galway. Weinstein is radically different from Dolphy, who imparted a speech-like quality to his flute, inspiring the mighty John Coltrane in ...

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Album Review

Mark Weinstein: Jazz Brasil

Read "Jazz Brasil" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
February 26, 2011

Flautist Mark Weinstein has been a major force in the Latin jazz genre for some time, releasing projects almost yearly. Though the body of his discography falls squarely within the Afro-Cuban form which remains his passion, he has slowly gravitated towards the Brazilian sound, releasing three Brazilian-style projects, for Jazzheads, since 2005. On Jazz Brasil, Weinstein presents a selection of jazz standards, dipped in a Brazilian stew to add that special genre flavor to each track. Of course, what is ...

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Album Review

Mark Weinstein: Jazz Brasil

Read "Jazz Brasil" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 24, 2011

Jazz Brasil continues flautist Mark Weinstein's odyssey through the world of Latin jazz. The former trombonist-turned-philosophy-professor-turned-flute-phenom has delivered a steady stream of Latin jazz releases that highlight material from well-known Latin American composers, deal with original material, and deliver Latin-ized takes on jazz classics. His previous release, Timbasa (Jazzheads Records, 2010), tackled Cuba with percussion-heavy gusto, and Weinstein now turns his sights westward from that locale, visiting the music of Brazil. Weinstein and his more-than-capable quartet cover ...