Jazz Articles about Obasi Akoto

About Obasi Akoto

Album Review

A powerful and perceptive reading of Bronislau Kaper's “On Green Dolphin Street" sets the compass on Snap Happy, a splendid recording by pianist Greg Murphy's trio (and sometimes quartet) which is the New York-based artist's eighth album as leader of his own groups. To begin where the rubber meets the road, Murphy is a marvelous pianist, undergirding his superb technique with an abundance of sharp and creative digressions that should gladden almost any listener. Yet even while ...

Album Review

Derrick Gardner & The Jazz Prophets: Pan Africa

Read "Pan Africa" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
January 30, 2023

A big man with a big plan and a boisterous sextet at his back, trumpeter Derrick Gardner and his razor-fine Jazz Prophets unapologetically and unflinchingly blow the walls down with Pan Africa. Hyperbole? Not really. Just let Gardner and company free on Jackie McLean's hopscotching “Appointment In Ghana" (from Jackie's Bag, his first for Blue Note in 1960). And feel the fever, fervor, and drive. Long time Jazz Prophet's alto/tenor saxophonist Robert Dixon, and trombonist brother Vincent Gardner ...