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Anthony Bruno: Blue Velvet
by Dan McClenaghan
Chicago-based saxophonist Anthony Bruno wraps up a terrific triptych of album releases with 2025's Blue Velvet. The journey began with the release of his album Anthony Bruno (2023), followed by Cefalu (2024). All of these are on his Anthony Bruno Music label. Bruno counts Sonny Rollins as a major influence. He says as much in the All About Jazz spotlight interview (read it here). That influence shows from the get-go on Blue Velvet, with its high octane energy, the soul, ...
Continue ReadingPaul Dietrich's Elemental Quartet: A Small Patch of Earth
by Richard J Salvucci
Anyone who spends much time watching contemporary instrumentalists on the internet is bound to come away impressed. Modern players, it sometimes seems, can do just about anything. And that is particularly true of some instruments in the brass family, where the advances in technique and range over just a half-century are particularly impressive. There are many trumpet athletes, able to leap impossible intervals in a single bound and circular breathe their way smoothly through half a concerto and generally play ...
Continue ReadingChristian Dillingham: Halcyon
by Hrayr Attarian
On the intriguing Halcyon, his second release as a leader, Chicago bassist Christian Dillingham explores folkish motifs in a haunting ambience. The music here is a mix of his own compositions and covers of diverse backgrounds that showcase, once again, his versatility. The band has quite a unique sound, thanks to its collective virtuosity, with guitarist Matt Gold's incandescent pedal steel giving it a rootsy flavor. For instance, singer-songwriter Gillian Welch's “Lowlands" has a buoyant and a tad ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Vogt: Awakening
by Glenn Astarita
Chicago-based Andrew Vogt's Awakening is a profound exploration of the bass guitar's potential as a melodic and rhythmic force. The album highlights Vogt's exceptional musicianship and compositional skill as he delves into a rich sonic palette. It is a jazz album that feels like a musical journey through a dreamscape, where each track is a different chapter in an unfolding story. The album opens with the melodic title track, “Awakening," which sets a serene yet powerful tone with ...
Continue ReadingZachary Finnegan: Guidance and Gratitude
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Guidance and Gratitude from trumpeter and composer Zachary Finnegan delivers nine highly-textured and involving selections. Each selection presents itself with a story background in its title and each is a multi-layered composition, a micro-symphony. It is intelligent music. “Urban Motion" is an energetic, perhaps frantic, landscape with an ostinato six-note bed and a reflective interlude before Finnegan takes off over Camila Minnitte Pereyra's furious drumming that is negotiating with him. There is also an all hell breaks ...
Continue ReadingMaddie Vogler: While We Have Time
by Jack Bowers
Regardless of one's opinion of the music (from this vantage point, quite favorable), it is always a pleasure to welcome a jazz group led by a woman whose talents reach beyond voice or piano. Maddie Vogler, who presides over an admirable sextet on While We Have Time (and wrote all the music therein), plays alto saxophone, and does so about as well as any of her peers, male or female. When she is not gigging or recording, ...
Continue ReadingMaddie Vogler: While We Have Time
by Dan McClenaghan
In the introduction to alto saxophonist Maddie Vogler's debut recording, While We Have Time, are two striking images. The first is the cover shot, a pair of venerable unmatched hands, depicting those of the artist's immigrant grandmothers, beautifully and simply adorned. The second image is the inside photo of a vibrant young woman, an alto saxophone cradled in her hands. Maddie Vogler. Unusually for a debut, it is a set of all originals, but Vogler is up to ...
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