Jazz Articles about Phil Sparks

About Phil Sparks

Album Review

Cascadia encompasses an hour of amiable, even-tempered jazz from trumpeter Dmitri Matheny who, like several of his predecessors—Chet Baker, Chuck Mangione, Guido Basso and his mentor, Art Farmer, among them—focuses exclusively on flugelhorn. Matheny uses his gorgeous tone and remarkable lyricism to paint exquisite portraits in sound throughout a program whose ten engaging numbers enfold half a dozen of his original compositions. Matheny shares the front line with saxophonist Charles McNeal whose solos (on soprano or tenor ...

Album Review

Dmitri Matheny: Cascadia

Read "Cascadia" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 7, 2022

Flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny and his quintet play perfectly on Cascadia. There is no surprise there—with a rhythm section of pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Phil Sparks and drummer Mark Ivester backing the front line of Matheny and saxophonist Charles McNeil— perfection is the expectation. Matheny grew up in Georgia and Arizona, spent a formative and near-obligatory stint in New York City, and played for a time in the band of pianist Amina Figarova—another jazz artist who knows something about ...

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Album Review

Matt Jorgensen + 451: Hope

by Dan McClenaghan
March 18, 2004

Do they still give out Grammy Awards for best cover art? If so, here's a nominee: a peaceful retriever in repose, chin on the floor, captured in a sanguine tone on Matt Jorgensen + 451's Hope. A great cover, of course, does not a successful CD make. It's the music. The music on Hope--a sax and rhythm section outing with additional sax on five of the eleven tunes, with the warm tones of a trombone on ...