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Jazz Articles about Mike DiRubbo
Mike DiRubbo Quintet: Keep Steppin'
by David A. Orthmann
One of the great pleasures of being a jazz fan is bearing witness as a young musician makes the leap from someone to watch to a powerful, not-to-be-missed performer. Therefore it is deeply satisfying to hear Mike DiRubbo, only two years after his promising debut on Sharp Nine, emerge withKeep Steppin’, a brilliantly realized recording for Gerry Teekens’ Criss Cross label. Loosely basing the music within the parameters of hard bop, DiRubbo takes this part of the jazz tradition and, ...
Continue ReadingMike DiRubbo: From the Inside Out
by Joel Roberts
As the title of his debut album on the Sharp Nine label suggests, alto saxophonist Mike DiRubbo's musical imagination resides in that space between the mainstream and the avant-garde. It's no surprise, then, to learn that he's a former student of the great Jackie McLean, who, perhaps more than anyone, brought a tough, bebop and blues-based sensibility to the “new thing" experiments of the 1960s. Like McLean, DiRubbo pursues a mostly straight-ahead style with a clear respect for the jazz ...
Continue ReadingMike DiRubbo Quintet: From the Inside Out
by Jack Bowers
The proliferation of accomplished young saxophonists continues with New Haven native Mike DiRubbo's debut on Sharp Nine, which continues its admirable policy of promoting undiscovered but no less deserving talent. DiRubbo, now 28 years old, was only 23 when From the Inside Out was recorded in 1994. He'd already graduated from the Hartt School of Music, where he studied under alto master Jackie McLean, and was playing in the Explorer's Quintet with trombonist Steve Davis, his front'line companion here. Besides ...
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