Jazz Articles about Marty Jaffe

About Marty Jaffe

Album Review

Per il suo debutto discografico Chris Pattishall ha scelto di reinterpretare la fondamentale e misconosciuta Zodiac Suite di Mary Lou Williams. Una prova che il pianista supera brillantemente alla guida del suo quintetto, in collaborazione col produttore Rafiq Bhatia. Nelle storie del jazz Mary Lou Williams viene ricordata soprattutto per le composizioni e orchestrazioni che scriveva per le orchestre di Andy Kirk, Benny Goodman (ricordate il contagioso “Roll ´Em"?) e persino Duke Ellington. Era un'artista geniale e ...

Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: Kites and Strings

Read "Kites and Strings" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
March 25, 2021

Si parte con un episodio che potremmo definire post-bop, “Cedar Place," uno dei sette a firma di Ben Rosenblum, integrati da “Somewhere" di Leonard Bernstein, “Philadelphia" di Neil Young e un tradizionale bulgaro, ma in fondo è una falsa rivelazione, perché a seguire questa che è l'opera prima del giovane pianista e fisarmonicista newyorchese si sdipana su toni decisamente variegati, in cui il grande ceppo jazzistico è certo perfettamente avvertibile, ma i vari episodi sono più compositi, qua e là ...

Album Review

Chris Pattishall: Zodiac

by Jerome Wilson
March 14, 2021

This is pianist Chris Pattishall's take on Mary Lou Williams' “Zodiac Suite," an extended work that has been unjustly overlooked in jazz history. Williams originally recorded this suite in solo and trio format but Pattishall rearranges it for his quintet and adds subtle sound design touches by Rafiq Bhatia that enrich the depth and context of the music without radically changing it. This accounts for things like the rattling percussion in the middle of “Gemini" that breaks up ...

Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: Kites and Strings

Read "Kites and Strings" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
January 17, 2021

Ben Rosenblum uses a lot of different instrumental elements on this release. For starters, he himself plays both piano and accordion, and his sextet also features trumpet, reeds and guitar. In addition, vibraphone and trombone show up on some tracks. That creates a blend of various textures and sounds which bring variety to this program of bright jazz compositions. Rosenblum's accordion flows together nicely with the sounds of Wayne Tucker's trumpet, and Jasper Dutz's bass clarinet on the ...

Album Review

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project: Kites and Strings

Read "Kites and Strings" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 16, 2020

Expectations are necessarily guarded when preparing to appraise a recording by the Nebula Project whose leader plays accordion. Be that as it may, any such uneasiness is quickly erased by Ben Rosenblum and his doughty ensemble whose music is decidedly colorful, melodic and accessible—which is not meant to undervalue diversity, another of its discernible points. Rosenblum, who wrote seven of the album's ten numbers, draws on influences as varied as klezmer jazz, Bulgarian folk music and even Johannes Brahms to ...