Home » Jazz Articles » Peter Bernstein
Jazz Articles about Peter Bernstein
Melvin Rhyne: Boss Organ
by Chris May
Originally released on CD on the Criss Cross label in 1993, Hammond B3 organist Melvin Rhyne's Boss Organ is issued here for the first time on vinyl. Spanish archive label Elemental, under license from Criss Cross, has repackaged it as a double LP in a gatefold sleeve on 180-gram audiophile vinyl. It is a blinder. Not because Rhyne deals in surging, heavily amped block chords, a la Jimmy Smith, but because his style is utterly unlike that, ...
Continue ReadingThomas Linger: Out In It
by Pierre Giroux
For his first release as a leader, pianist Thomas Linger has surrounded himself with first rate musicians: guitarist Peter Bernstein, bassist Yasushi Nakamura]] and drummer {{Joe Farnsworth, each of whom share Linger's commitment to a reflective approach. All of the numbers are originals by Linger, with covers of “Lush Life" by Billy Strayhorn and “Woofin'and Tweetin" by Art Farmer. The album's strong sound comes in no small part because the recording was completed, in July 2021, at the Van Gelder ...
Continue ReadingThomas Linger: Out In It
by Jack Bowers
Any pianist who can enlist the sort of blue-chip rhythm section which Thomas Linger has for a debut album must be not only talented but unselfish, which is precisely the case on Out In It; Linger is accompanied by a trio of seasoned New York-based jazz luminaries, guitarist Peter Bernstein, bassist Yashushi Nakamura and drummer Joe Farnsworth. Even though Linger is the nominal leader, he makes it clear from the outset that this is a quartet, one in which everyone is ...
Continue ReadingLarry Goldings/Peter Bernstein/Bill Stewart: Perpetual Pendulum
by Doug Collette
Keyboardist Larry Goldings, guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Bill Stewart have some history. It extends back to performing in clubs in the late Eighties and then, via decidedly circuitous routes, recording together as a threesome in the Nineties. It's a confluence of circumstance and talent that would continue through the three's appearances on a pair of the keyboardist's solo albums, Whatever It Takes (Warner Brothers, 1995) and Big Stuff (Warner Brothers, 1996), before Toy Tunes (Pirouette, 2017) overtly continued the ...
Continue ReadingAlternative Guitar Summit: Honoring Pat Martino, Volume 1
by Jack Bowers
Each year the Alternative Guitar Summit, led by Joel Harrison, presents a concert to honor a living jazz composer/guitarist. That wasn't possible in 2021, however, as venues in and around New York City were shuttered tight by the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, it was clear that the chosen honoree, the great Pat Martino, was gravely ill and might not have another year to live. With that in mind, members of the Summit took their guitars straight to a studio to record ...
Continue ReadingHouston Person: Live in Paris
by Jack Bowers
The greatest jazz musicians have one trait in common; they make everything sound so ridiculously easy that listeners are liable to lose sight of the blood, sweat and tears which brought them to that pinnacle. Tenor saxophonist Houston Person, an octogenarian who keeps sidestepping every obstacle including Father Time, is one such master; regardless of groove or tempo, he seems perfectly at home, never letting an audience see him sweat, even on flag-wavers such as “Lester Leaps In," one of ...
Continue ReadingMike LeDonne: It's All Your Fault
by Jack Bowers
Even though listed on only four tracks, organist Mike LeDonne's superlative Groover Quartet performs on every one of the nine selections on LeDonne's admirable new recording, It's All Your Fault--and that's a good thing, as each member of the quartet (LeDonne, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, guitarist Peter Bernstein, drummer Joe Farnsworth) is an accomplished soloist and ardent team player. On the album's remaining tracks, the quartet is assimilated into LeDonne's seventeen- member big band, a taut and high-powered unit that ...
Continue Reading
