Jazz Articles about Matt Brewer

About Matt Brewer

Album Review

To say that Mesmerism by the Tyshawn Sorey Trio is a departure from the drummer's regular programming is an understatement. Rather than perform his own compositions, he has assembled this trio to perform some jazz classics and standards. Sorey only held a brief rehearsal before recording this studio session. Typically, he prefers intricate arrangements and repeated run-throughs before documenting his ensembles. Here he relies on pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Matt Brewer's ingrained knowledge of standards and musical instincts. Diehl ...

Album Review

Tigran Hamasyan: Stand Art

Read "Stand Art" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
May 1, 2022

Many jazz pianists start out by playing tunes from the standard pop and jazz repertoires before tackling their own compositions. Tigran Hamasyan has gone in the opposite direction. He has been recording original works and traditional Armenian songs since 2005. Now, on his eleventh album, he finally gets around to playing American standards. Hamasyan leads a trio here with Matt Brewer on bass and Justin Brown on drums, occasionally helped out by tenor saxophonists Mark Turner and Joshua ...

Album Review

Igor Butman: Only Now

by Jack Bowers
January 30, 2022

Tenor saxophonist Igor Butman, born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Russia, is one of a number of jazz musicians from Europe and Asia whose love for the music was nourished by nightly broadcasts from the Voice of America. Since emigrating to America in 1987 (he holds dual citizenship), Butman's virtuosity has been recognized by enthusiasts up to and including former president Bill Clinton who has called Butman “my favorite living saxophonist." Wynton Marsalis--in whose Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra Butman appeared ...

Album Review

Thana Alexa: ONA

by Angelo Leonardi
April 15, 2021

Ci giunge con un po' di ritardo questo secondo disco della talentuosa vocalist e compositrice Thana Alexa, ma va assolutamente considerato. Anche questo, come già il debutto Ode to Heroes, è un tributo: dalle figure musicali che l'hanno influenzata siamo passati a una celebrazione del genere femminile e al ruolo—spesso sottovalutato—che svolgono nel mondo. Nata a New York da famiglia croata, Thana è tornata nell'infanzia in Croazia dov'è rimasta per completare i suoi studi. Successivamente si è ...

Album Review

Remy Le Boeuf: Light as a Word

Read "Light as a Word" reviewed by Jordan Penney

by Jordan Penney
April 10, 2021

Light as a Word is the debut full-length album from saxophonist and composer Remy Le Boeuf as a leader, and it moves fluidly in liminal spaces. Its format and its performers—a sextet that includes piano, guitar, double bass, drums and tenor and alto sax—are firmly in a jazz idiom. But the songs themselves are more through-composed than is typical for a group such as this, and Le Boeuf's approach as a bandleader seems to involve carefully creating space for each ...

Album Review

Mark Small: One Day

Read "One Day" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
February 1, 2021

Saxophonist Mark Small is an active performer and educator teaching at Miami-Dade College and New World School for the Arts. He also serves as an instructor in other programs throughout the Miami community, in addition to his time spent in the New York jazz scene. He brings his considerable knowledge and talents to the fore on his first solo recording of One Day, where he presents eight original compositions penned over many years, fulfilling one of his major musical dreams ...

Album Review

Tineke Postma: Freya

by Ian Patterson
September 20, 2020

Following the co-led outing with Greg Osby that was Sonic Halo (Challenge Records, 2014), Dutch saxophonist Tineke Postma took a step back from her solo career to raise a family. In the intervening years there were two trio albums with Nathalie Loriers, but Freya-- Postma's debut on Edition Records--marks her comeback as a leader. Inspiration comes in various guises on these ten originals, with motherhood, her surrounding landscape and formidable women all firing her creative juices. Pianist Kris Davis, trumpeter ...