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Jazz Articles about Michael Isvara Montgomery

About Michael Isvara Montgomery

Album Review

Okonski: Entrance Music

Read "Entrance Music" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
March 19, 2025

A signature sound--whether for an individual musician or a band--comes naturally to some but remains elusive to others. It is worth its weight in gold, making the jobs of publicists, club owners, festival organizers and journalists that much easier. Okonski, the trio of pianist Steve Okonski, bassist Michael Montgomery, and drummer Aaron Frazier, occupies a sound world that could be described as meditative jazz. The vibe is laid-back yet sunny, uncluttered yet gently grooving, accessible yet artful. That ...

Album Review

Okonski: Magnolia

by Chris May
February 26, 2023

Every so often an album emerges out of--well, not nowhere exactly, but in this case Loveland, Ohio, which could be considered, in the nicest possible way, to be getting pretty close--that is as delightful as it is unexpected. Magnolia is a pensive, late night, piano-trio musing on melancholy, loss and empty, moonlit city streets. It is Edward Hopper's Nighthawks without the party vibe. Not that it evokes, exactly, isolation or rejection; more a feeling of quiet introspection and reflection. Not ...