Jazz Articles about Matt King

About Matt King

Album Review

Bill Ware and the Club Bird All Stars: Martian Sunset

Read "Martian Sunset" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
April 28, 2026

In questi anni di rinascimento del vibrafono--con la presenza di notevoli giovani strumentisti di entrambi i sessi--non dimentichiamoci di Bill Ware, solista molto attivo nei territori di frontiera col rock dalla fine degli anni ottanta ad oggi. Ricordiamo la sua lunga collaborazione con The Jazz Passengers, Groove Collective, Steely Dan e le incisioni con protagonisti trasversali: John Zorn, Bobby Previte, Elvis Costello ecc...). In questo nuovo album (il primo dal 2009 in veste di leader), Ware riprende la ...

Album Review

Michael Rabinowitz: Next Chapter

Read "Next Chapter" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 27, 2023

The title “world's best jazz bassoonist" is akin to “world's best tap dancer on hot coals," meaning there simply is not much competition for the honor. Even if there were, however, Michael Rabinowitz would no doubt outdistance any challengers and handily earn the blue ribbon for bassoon excellence. One reason is that, unlike others who have dabbled with the instrument, Rabinowitz is a full-time bassoonist who has spent years honing his craft, and a jazz musician who can improvise with ...

Album Review

Reza Khan: Imaginary Road

Read "Imaginary Road" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 23, 2021

To impartially assess Imaginary Road, Bangladeshi-raised, New York-based guitarist Reza Khan's sixth album, it is best to lay aside as best one can his disposition for or against what could reasonably be labeled “smooth jazz" and start from there. Is the music melodically and rhythmically likeable? Yes, it is. Are the musicians technically able? Yes, they are. Beyond that, what can be said? Well, the ten songs are essentially atmospheric, depicting the sort of aural landscapes that ...

Album Review

Mike Neer: Steelonious

Read "Steelonious" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
December 6, 2016

Early in his musical career, pianist and composer Thelonious Monk was ordained the “Hight Priest of Bebop." This sounds more like a disingenuous pronouncement by an overeager period critic than any credible music reportage. Monk's essential musical approach owed more to stride, blues, and swing than to Charlie Parker's and Dizzy Gillespie's bebop. Monk's technical brilliance, if one could call it that, was not geared toward the “technique" of rapid and complexly rendered chord changes. Monk's brilliance lay somewhere much ...

Album Review

The Mike Kaplan Nonet: How's That?

Read "How's That?" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
July 25, 2003

Saxophonist Mike Kaplan and his New York City-based nonet play contemporary jazz; that is to say, jazz that is emphatically modern but neither purposely bland nor maddeningly incomprehensible.Kaplan’s debut album contains a number of tasty musical surprises, and it's one of only a handful to leave me wishing the leader had soloed more often (Kaplan does so at length only on his entrancing “Melody for My Mom”). Even so, his fingerprints are conspicuous throughout, as Kaplan wrote five ...