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Mike LeDonne's Groover Quartet: Turn It Up!: Live at the Sidedoor
by Pierre Giroux
For over twenty-five years, Mike LeDonne's Groover Quartet has been a shining example of consistency and authenticity in the organ-jazz scene. The latest double-disc release, Turn It Up!: Live at the Sidedoor, captures the group at two different moments in time: 2024 at the Sidedoor Jazz Club in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and 2004 at Vancouver's Cellar Jazz Club. These two recordings offer an intriguing glimpse into a band that has never aimed to reinvent itself, only to refine its sound, ...
Continue ReadingMike LeDonne's Groover Quartet: Turn It Up!
by Jack Bowers
Turn It Up!, the latest recording by organist Mike LeDonne's superb and long-lived Groover Quartet, is actually a two- CD set that reprises concert sessions recorded twenty years apart--the first, You'll See! (Cellar Records, 2004) in Vancouver's now- defunct Cellar Jazz Club, the second,Turn It Up!, in 2024 at Ken Kitchings' The Side Door in Old Lyme, Connecticut. It is hard to say what is most remarkable about the concerts: that the group has preserved its uncommon mastery and rapport ...
Continue ReadingEric Alexander: Chicago To New York
by Jack Bowers
Eric Alexander, widely praised for years as one of the jazz world's foremost tenor saxophonists, greets listeners with an unforeseen yet tantalizing curve ball on his latest album, Chicago to New York, employing his luminous soprano sax to enhance the first two numbers, John Coltrane's “Afro Blue" and “Wise One," before unleashing his trustworthy and perceptive tenor to usher him securely through the last five. While the soprano adds spice to Alexander's musical menu, the tenor remains ...
Continue ReadingEric Alexander: Chicago To New York
by Pierre Giroux
Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander's release, Chicago To New York, is a masterclass in modern hard bop that pays homage to the vibrant musical exchange between two of jazz's most storied cities. This is not just a geographical nod but a conversation across time and space, framed by a quartet whose cohesion and shared sensibilities transcend geographical lines. Alexander, one of the most consistent voices of his generation, joins forces with pianist Mike LeDonne, both standard-bearers of ...
Continue ReadingThe Heavy Hitters: That's What's Up!
by Pierre Giroux
Mike LeDonne and Eric Alexander head up a band called Heavy Hitters, which features a stellar cast of New York's jazz elite, including trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, alto saxophonist Vincent Herring, bassist Alexander Claffy and drummer Kenny Washington. They have released That's What's Up!, a live recording from Frankie's Jazz Club in Vancouver, British Columbia in December 2023 that captures the authenticity, spontaneity, and emotive power of a band firing on all cylinders. The set list is an artful blend of ...
Continue ReadingHeavy Hitters: That's What's Up!
by Jack Bowers
Heavy Hitters is a superb New York-based sextet co-led by pianist Mike LeDonne and tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander. Individually and as a team, the Hitters keep their eyes squarely on the ball, swing for the fences and, more often than not, slam the spheroid solidly out of the park. And on this typically upbeat session they do it in front of an appreciative audience at Frankie's Club in Victoria, British Columbia. A freewheeling groove permeates the concert, ...
Continue ReadingEric Alexander & Mike LeDonne: Together
by Jack Bowers
Eric Alexander and Mike LeDonne have been together many times--on recordings, in clubs, at concerts and elsewhere-- but never quite as intimately so as on this splendid album, even though they are heard Together on only four of the album's nine tracks- -LeDonne maps a solo course on three others, Alexander on two (moving to soprano sax on “Autumn in New York"). Either way, they are delightful to hear and appreciate, and the need for a full ...
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