Jazz Articles about Orrin Evans

About Orrin Evans

Album Review

As a gift for Nat Reeves' 70th birthday in May 2025, Ken Kitchings, owner of the Side Door Jazz Club in Old Lyme, Connecticut, said he would underwrite a recording for the renowned bassist using whatever musicians Reeves chose to recruit. Having played and recorded with a who's who of jazz luminaries during his 50-plus-year career, Reeves knew exactly where to go and who to contact. Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, a longtime colleague, was an obvious choice, as ...

Album Review

Brian Lynch, featuring Charles McPherson: Torch Bearers

Read "Torch Bearers" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 13, 2026

Trumpeter Brian Lynch, who has been at the top of his game for more than three decades, shares the stage with another seasoned maestro, alto saxophonist Charles McPherson, on Torch Bearers, wherein Lynch, McPherson and their able companions not only carry the torch for their generation but offer an upcoming legion of eager young musicians a candid lesson in jazz/bop milieu and design and how best to properly safeguard those standards. They do this without pretense or embellishment, simply by ...

Album Review

Orrin Evans and the Captain Black Big Band: Walk A Mile In My Shoe

Read "Walk A Mile In My Shoe" reviewed by Steve Plever

by Steve Plever
August 4, 2025

A glance through the track list--with covers of Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye and two swing-era vocal standards--could give you the wrong impression. Yes, this is a very accessible and soulful album, but it is serious and heartfelt jazz, with Orrin Evans' personal stamp making it work. Blues, soul and gospel sounds share the stage here with swing, straight-ahead and avant-garde influences--no surprise given Evans' decade of playing with the Mingus Big Band. Evans' piano sets the tone ...

Play This!

Tarbaby: Dee Dee

by Carl Medsker
February 19, 2025

Tarbaby (Orrin Evans, Eric Revis and Nasheet Waits) makes the case in the first measures of “Dee Dee" that You Think This America is a fresh take on the traditional jazz piano trio. The album consists of an eclectic set of pieces performed live by three leaders with deep experience together. First performed by Ornette Coleman on At The Golden Circle Stockholm, Vol. 1 (Blue Note, 1965), the playful, quirky tune is an inspired choice for an opener. Evans is ...

Radio & Podcasts

The Final Batch of My Favorite 2024 Jazz Things - Part 3

by Ludovico Granvassu
January 29, 2025

This is the very final batch of our favorite songs of 2024... Fully charged with all this beauty we are ready to dive into 2025, knowing that no matter how crazy this year will be, it will also bring more great music! Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Joe Tatton Trio “El Gato" Galáctico (Rodina) 0:16 Host talks 4:44 Orrin Evans & The Captain Black Big ...

Album Review

Thomas Marriott: Screen Time

Read "Screen Time" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
January 17, 2025

Seattle-based trumpeter Thomas Marriott has been producing notable jazz recordings for more than a quarter century now with remarkable consistency in terms of both musicianship and composition of original works. After a decade in New York as a young musician, following his winning of the prestigious Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Competition, Marriott settled back in Seattle and produced a litany of albums featuring top Northwest musicians. At one time or another he engaged with all of his upper-left colleagues, ...

Album Review

Orrin Evans and the Captain Black Big Band: Walk A Mile In My Shoe

Read "Walk A Mile In My Shoe" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
October 25, 2024

Il nuovo disco di Orrin Evans e della sua Captain Black Big Band ci ricorda l'importanza delle radici per la comunità musicale afroamericana: il gospel, il blues, le big band, i cantanti e strumentisti storici. Una risorsa che è anche identità collettiva e forza culturale. Come ha sempre fatto in passato, il pianista e bandleader di Philadelphia s'ispira alla tradizione per rinnovarla e arricchirla, con passione e freschezza. Stavolta le orchestrazioni sono funzionali alle interpretazioni di quattro prodigiosi ...