Jazz Articles about Paul Carlon

About Paul Carlon

Album Review

There are times when even the Best Laid Plans are unable to generate quite enough horsepower to realize their full promise and purpose. New York City-based composer and arranger Jon Schapiro clearly had a plan in mind for the third recording by his large ensemble, Schapiro 17. The plan evidently included broadening the horizons of contemporary big-band jazz by writing adventurous new charts while taking a second look at themes composed by others and giving them a fresh coat of ...

Album Review

Melanie Scholtz: Seven

by Dan Bilawsky
October 1, 2024

Seven years is both an eternity and the blink of an eye. Enough of a stretch for individual circumstances to turn on countless dimes, it's also just a brief moment in the sea of existence and the greater, grander scheme. Seven is life itself...yet it's also one of its component cycles. South African-born vocalist Melanie Scholtz is well aware of these contradictions and truths, and, more importantly, the spiritual charge, gifts toward personal growth, well-placed challenges and overall wonder embedded ...

Radio & Podcasts

Bill Warfield, Elias Haslanger, Paul Carlon, Natalie Jacob and more

by Benjamin Boddie
September 4, 2024

Today's Music--Right Now!... Fantastic music by Bill Warfield, Elias Haslanger, Paul Carlon, Natalie Jacob, Michael Wolfe, Ben Wolfe, Zachary Bartholomew, Antonio Farao, Bria Skonberg, Monika Herzig, Cornelia Nilsson, Monika Herzig, Alexis Cole, Alvin Queen, Brian Ho, Louis Hayes, Zaccai Curtis, Markus Howell, Conrad Herwig, Ken Peplowski and more. Playlist Bill Warfield “Nusia's Poem" from Chesapeake (Planet Arts Network) 00:00 Elias Haslanger “History Book" from Elias Haslanger Meets Mike Sailors (Bandstands Presents) 06:35 Paul Carlon “Isabel The Liberator" from ...

Album Review

The Paul Carlon Quintet: Blues for Vita The Paul Carlon Quintet

Read "Blues for Vita The Paul Carlon Quintet" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
August 3, 2024

Blues for Vita provides listeners with an outstanding eight-selection presentation that is a modernized throwback to the days when tenor-trumpet quintets such as Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Lee Morgan's, and Cannonball Adderley's ensembles were the mainstays of jazz labels such as Riverside, Columbia, and Blue Note. The album offers a well-produced mix of straight-ahead, boogaloo, and Latin-flavors from five terrific Paul Carlon originals, two Broadway musical grabs, and a Larry Willis tune made most famous by Woody Shaw ...

Album Review

Tony Romano: Three Chord Monte

Read "Three Chord Monte" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
June 29, 2024

Three Chord Monte from New York-based guitarist Tony Romano offers thirteen selections with an expansive range of grooves, textures, and intensities. Throughout the session, he and his fine players demonstrate their obvious allegiance to melody, lyricism, and appropriate rhythmic foundation, yielding a fine overall recording. The starter, “Cadillac Green" has a deep-pocketed funk bed and is a biting melodic statement. There is an Intense tenor saxophone solo from Paul Carlon which is a fine take-off. “Rhumba-esque" has ...

Album Review

Schapiro 17: Human Qualities

Read "Human Qualities" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 14, 2021

Following its splendid premiere recording, an exploration of Miles Davis' unrivaled album Kind Of Blue (Capitol Records, 1959), composer/arranger Jon Schapiro's 17-member ensemble broadens its horizons on Human Qualities, pairing seven of the maestro's astute and adventurous charts with the Roberta Flack best-seller, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." This time around, Schapiro proves that he need rely on nothing more than his own considerable experience as a jazz artist to create an album that expresses his point ...

Album Review

Schapiro 17: New Shoes: Kind of Blue at 60

Read "New Shoes: Kind of Blue at 60" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
September 7, 2020

Miles Davis' album Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959) is the best-selling jazz album of all time and has been highly influential for the last 60 years. Most of its five tracks have become jazz standards and have been interpreted time and again. However it is rare to see the entire album reworked to the extent that Jon Schapiro and his big band, Schapiro 17, do here. The tracks undergo extensive retooling, expanding into big band arrangements that carry on the ...