Jazz Articles about Mike Longo

About Mike Longo

Album Review

Enrico Granafei: It's Hard to Say Goodbye

Read "It's Hard to Say Goodbye" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
September 18, 2024

With It's Hard to Say Goodbye, multi-talented Italian guitarist and harmonica player, Enrico Granafei and a group of standouts offer eleven Latin-flavored jazz selections. The effort, recorded over an extended period, also features two artists who have unfortunately passed--trumpeter Claudio Roditi and pianist, Mike Longo. Granafei has dedicated the album to them and to the memory of Granafei's mentor, Toots Thielemans. “Claudinho," a Granafei original samba, opens the session. Upbeat in tempo, Granafei and Roditi make the ...

Book Review

The Rhythm of Unity: A Jazz Musician's Lifelong Journey Beyond Black and White

by Richard J Salvucci
June 6, 2023

The Rhythm of Unity Mike and Dorothy Longo 237 Pages ISBN: 978-1956470741 Redwood 2023 Mike Longo was a distinguished pianist in spite of himself. He was a musicians' musician. He had little interest in celebrity. However much he needed to make a living, Mike spurned opportunities, like becoming Tony Bennett's pianist, that would have brought him to the attention of a wider audience. Longo was arguably one of Dizzy Gillespie's most dedicated students ...

Book Excerpts

The Rhythm of Unity: A Jazz Musician’s Lifelong Journey Beyond Black and White

by AAJ Staff
May 2, 2023

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 15 “Angel Of Love," from Mike & Dorothy Longo's The Rhythm of Unity: A Jazz Musician's Lifelong Journey Beyond Black and White (Redwood Publishing, 2023). It was 1966. Word had gotten out, and it felt as though everyone was complimenting me about my gig at the Embers West. Other musicians started to consider me as “one of the cats," and I started working around town with people like Hank Jones, ...

Album Review

Mike Longo: Step On It

Read "Step On It" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 3, 2014

If you want to hear what pianist Mike Longo enjoys, and how he thinks, you listen to his big band--The New York State Of The Art Jazz Ensemble--which is featured on Live From New York! (Consolidate Artists Productions, 2013); if you just want to hear Mike Longo, you listen to this trio. Step On It is the third go-round for this group, following Sting Like A Bee (Consolidated Artists Productions, 2009) and the trio-plus-guests To My Surprise ...

Album Review

Mike Longo and the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble: Live from New York!

Read "Live from New York!" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 7, 2014

The fourth album by pianist Mike Longo's stalwart New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble is the first one recorded in front of an audience, in May 2013 at the New York City Baha'i Center's John Birks Gillespie Auditorium. On the one hand, Live from New York! offers the kind of spontaneity and high spirits a studio date seldom can; on the other, no less than three of its eight tracks are vocals, and their acceptance is a matter ...

Album Review

Mike Longo and the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble: Live From New York!

Read "Live From New York!" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 28, 2013

When trumpet titan Dizzy Gillespie left this earth he left no shortage of disciples behind. His now-legendary peers (i.e. saxophonists Jimmy Heath and Benny Golson), a cadre of killer Cubans (Arturo Sandoval, multi-reedist Paquito D'Rivera, pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, etc.) and a pride of young lions all worked with him, learned from him, and sang his praises, both before and after he departed; so did/does pianist Mike Longo, though too few people seem to recognize him. Part of ...

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Album Review

Mike Longo Trio + 2: To My Surprise

Read "To My Surprise" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
January 1, 2012

Though veteran jazz pianist Mike Longo has a long and distinguished career that includes a 25-year association with the legendary Dizzy Gillespie, To My Surprise documents only the second recording with his existing trio. This follow-up to his very successful Sting Like A Bee (Consolidated Artist Production, 2009), features the same lineup of bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Lewis Nash as the core trio, but a major difference is the inclusion of trumpet luminary Jimmy Owens and tenor saxophonist Lance ...