Jazz Articles about Phil Donkin

About Phil Donkin

Album Review

Julius Gawlik: It's All in Your Head

Read "It's All in Your Head" reviewed by Nenad Georgievski

by Nenad Georgievski
December 30, 2025

When jazz musicians talk about composition, they often mean something closer to architecture--blueprints that guide but do not dictate. Julius Gawlik's debut album takes this idea seriously, treating written material as a starting point rather than a destination. The Berlin-based saxophonist and clarinetist has assembled a quartet that thrives on incompleteness, where sketches become conversations and melodies exist to be challenged. The personnel tells part of the story: drummer Jim Black brings decades of boundary-pushing work, vibraphonist Evi ...

Album Review

Olivier Le Goas: Reciprocity

Read "Reciprocity" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
August 15, 2016

Matt Cibula, writing for All About Jazz, wondered in his review of French drummer Olivier Le Goas' Gravitation (Altrisuoni, 2007): “Who the heck is Olivier Le Goas...?" indicating perhaps a paucity of information about the leader, even in this day of Internet info overload. Nine years later there still isn't much on-line scoop about the man. So we go with the music. Gravitation, an all-star quartet affair featuring guitarist John Abercrombie, trumpeter Ralph Alessi and bassist Drew Gress, ...