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Jazz Articles about Randy Brecker
Ivan Lins: My Heart Speaks
by Katchie Cartwright
My Heart Speaks opens with “Renata Maria," the song of a ravishing woman who emerges from the sea then disappears, leaving her would-be lover to yearn eternally. Ivan Lins composed the piece in 2004 with Chico Buarque in mind (punningly calling it a “Buarquiana brasileira"). Buarque invented the narrative later, presenting his lyric to Lins as a gift, upon the birth of his first grandchild. Kuno Schmid's score sets the scene. Warm orchestral waves wash over Lins' impassioned ...
Continue ReadingAlexander Claffy: Music From Big Orange
by Pierre Giroux
Alexander Claffy has released an impressive album entitled “Music From Big Orange" which showcases his skills as a bassist and composer, and captures the essence of contemporary jazz while paying homage to the rich traditions of the genre. Switching seamlessly from acoustic bass to electric, depending on the sonic flow of any given tune, it is clear that Claffy's bass playing is the foundation upon which the entire album is built. On this orange-coloured vinyl LP, ...
Continue ReadingBill O'Connell: Live In Montauk
by Richard J Salvucci
A rhythm section which includes Santi Debriano and Billy Hart is nothing if not part of a potential dream band. In Craig Handy, one finds a post-bop saxophonist who played with virtually everyone worth hearing over the last third of the twentieth century. For a variety of reasons pianist Bill O'Connell may be a little less well known outside the New York City metropolitan area, but his signal contributions to Latin jazz with Dave Valentin, Jerry Gonzalez and Mongo Santamaria ...
Continue ReadingBill O'Connell: Live In Montauk
by Jack Bowers
After years of gigging in the New York City area, while honing his credentials as a first-call contemporary jazz pianist, Bill O'Connell and his family moved to Montauk, the easternmost point on Long Island, where he expressed his appreciation of the area's many wonders by recording this impressive album at the celebrated Gosman's Dock, during the annual Hamptons Jazz Festival in August 2021. It is essentially a quartet date with trumpeter Randy Brecker sitting in on two numbers, ...
Continue ReadingMarc Jordan: Waiting for the Sun to Rise
by Richard J Salvucci
Occasionally one comes across a singer-songwriter-musician and wonders just how he or she has managed to evade detection. In this case, the sense of living under a rock is only somewhat assuaged by consulting the artist's website (www.marcjordan.com) only to land on a page entitled “Marc Who?" The text describes Marc Jordan as a singer, songwriter, composer and artist whose songs have been on 35 million CDs. Jordan, who is the proverbial “overnight success," has been at it for over ...
Continue ReadingJae Sinnett's Zero to 60 Quartet: Commitment
by Jack Bowers
Commitment, drummer Jae Sinnett's nineteenth album as leader, is a generally admirable session wherein his Zero to 60 Quartet is in fact a Quintet on most numbers thanks to the inclusion of renowned trumpeter Randy Brecker who shares the front line with veteran saxophonist Steve Wilson. The quintet comes out smokin' on Sinnett's “Takin' It There" and pianist Allen Farnham's “Wait for Me," after which Sinnett chooses to slow the tempo and lower the heat, not raising ...
Continue ReadingLes DeMerle: Once in a Lifetime
by Jack Bowers
Drummer Les DeMerle recorded his first album, Once in a Lifetime, when he was a twenty-year-old prodigy in 1967. However, as is sometimes true in the music business, the album was lost in the shuffle at Atlantic Records and sat gathering dust until someone had the good sense to retrieve and release it some fifty-six years later. As the saying goes, better late than never. To share the front line on this dynamic (mostly) studio date, DeMerle ...
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