Jazz Articles about Orrin Evans

About Orrin Evans

Album Review

The Bad Plus: Activate Infinity

Read "Activate Infinity" reviewed by Emmanuel Di Tommaso

by Emmanuel Di Tommaso
July 15, 2020

Quando alla fine del 2017 Ethan Iverson lasciò i Bad Plus si parlò di fine di un'era per uno dei piano jazz trio più originali e longevi della musica contemporanea. Sempre aperti a nuove sperimentazioni e a sconfinamenti che li hanno portati a contaminare il loro post-bop jazz di partenza già di per sé istrionico con la freschezza e il melodismo della pop music e del rock strumentale, con l'abbandono di Iverson sembrava veramente che qualcosa potesse minare la coesione ...

Album Review

Orrin Evans and the Captain Black Big Band: The Intangible Between

Read "The Intangible Between" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
May 19, 2020

Pianist Orrin Evans has a deep understanding of the unshakeable bond between fellowship, humanity and the creative process. That knowledge has guided him through creating a remarkable catalog of music as both a leader and sideman, along the way, experiencing the fellowship of a collective of musicians he often refers to as “The Village." The Village is indeed real, and most aptly expressed musically through the The Captain Black Big Band, Evans' ensemble of anywhere between nine and ...

Album Review

Thomas Marriott: Trumpet Ship

Read "Trumpet Ship" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
March 28, 2020

In a day and age when social and personal narratives pervade the jazz recording medium, it is a welcoming feeling to experience a recording of superb jazz musicians playing music in the moment the way it's supposed to be played—for the people. For his spring 2020 quartet release Trumpet Ship (Origin, 2020), Seattle-based trumpeter Thomas Marriott has summoned a powerhouse quartet that hits hard from the outset and never lets up. He has convened a band that shares ...

Album Review

Thomas Marriott: Trumpet Ship

Read "Trumpet Ship" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 12, 2020

Spontaneity rules. Seattle-based trumpeter Thomas Marriott had a day off from touring with his quartet, so he decided to go into the studio and record an album: Trumpet Ship. His twelfth outing for Origin Records—all of them reaching for the stars, all of them getting there—this quartet album lines up after his stop-you-in-your-tracks gorgeous Romance Language (Origin Records, 2018). A tough act to follow. Marriott and his band follow it well, with a sound which is freer, but every bit ...

Album Review

JD Walter: Dressed in a Song

Read "Dressed in a Song" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer

by Victor L. Schermer
February 28, 2020

JD Walter is a consummate vocalist who has devoted himself over many years to evolving a unique style that is nevertheless ensconced in the jazz tradition. The public relations sheet for this new CD states that “this is his first release since recovering from a life-threatening heart condition and surgeries on his heart and vocal cords." It states that this is a “comeback" record. That is a misnomer. In this recording, he takes the music to new levels of structure, ...

Live Review

2019 Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival

by C. Andrew Hovan
July 4, 2019

2019 Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Pittsburgh, PA June 20-23, 2019 Now in its ninth year, the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival continues to grow and prosper as one of the country's best jazz festivals. Tied to the efforts of the city's August Wilson African American Cultural Center, the festival continues to prosper under the leadership of center CEO Janis Burley Wilson. While there has been an increase in the number of ticketed events during the festival, these ...

Radio & Podcasts

Roberto "Zizzi" Zanetti, Orrin Evans, and Michael Formanek

by Bob Osborne
November 8, 2018

From Verona, Italy Roberto Zizzi" Zanetti takes us on a trip through the jazz of the Roaring Twenties paying homage to the music innovators who flourished during the social and political problems of the Prohibition Era. Orrin Evans raises the temperature with live recordings from his large ensemble The Captain Black Big Band and Michael Formanek displays true innovation with his new band the Elusion Quartet featuring Tony Malaby, Kris Davis and Ches Smith. In between more jazz, old and ...