Jazz Articles about Reuben Rogers

About Reuben Rogers

Album Review

Edward Simon: Venezuela - Latin American Songbook Vol 2

Read "Venezuela - Latin American Songbook Vol 2" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
July 28, 2026

Il pianista e compositore venezuelano Edward Simon prosegue la sua ricerca sul patrimonio musicale della sua nazione e del Sudamerica in generale, elaborando una preziosa sintesi con elementi di jazz e classica. Questo secondo capitolo del suo “Latin American Songbook" si differenzia dal precedente per la scelta di privilegiare (con la sola eccezione di un choro brasiliano) il repertorio del suo Paese d'origine. Dal quale, com'è noto, è emigrato giovanissimo negli Stati Uniti per studiare alla Performing Arts School di ...

Album Review

Ron Blake: SCRATCH Band

Read "SCRATCH Band" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
December 24, 2025

Il richiamo alla tradizione folklorica delle Isole Vergini, dove Ron Blake nacque sessant'anni fa, è evidente fin dalle prime battute di “Bassman," una sorta di “St. Thomas" di rollinsiana memoria, trasportata nel nuovo millennio. È musica che nasce dai cantastorie che popolavano l'isola, e che--supportati da una gioiosa base ritmica, scratch bands per l'appunto--dispensavano gioia e divertimento. Blake sostenuto dall'eccellente ritmica di Reuben Rogers e John Hadfield, non lesina in quanto a groove proponendo una musica colloquiale ma ...

Album Review

Ron Blake, feat. Reuben Rogers & John Hadfield: SCRATCH Band

Read "SCRATCH Band" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 16, 2025

There several interesting features that single out saxophonist Ron Blake's new recording with what he refers to as his SCRATCH Band. First, the Puerto Rican-born Blake, best known for his work on tenor saxophone, plays baritone sax on five of the album's nine numbers, tenor sax on only three, tenor and soprano (separately) on one of his four original compositions, “Appointment." Second, the SCRATCH Band is actually a duo with bassist Reuben Rogers on four tracks, a trio with drummer ...

Liner Notes

Ralph Bowen: Keep the Change

by C. Andrew Hovan
September 7, 2024

I can still remember the impression that Ralph Bowen made on a young jazz enthusiast trying to break into radio and be part of the hip jazz crowd. I had decided to get involved with the programming end of a local non-profit arts support organization and on a letter perfect July evening our committee had lined up a double bill that included Kevin Eubanks and the mid '80s collective Out Of The Blue. An hour or so before OTB was ...

Album Review

Ron Blake: Mistaken Identity

Read "Mistaken Identity" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 3, 2023

Once hailed as a promising young lion, Puerto Rico-born saxophonist Ron Blake is more a crafty old fox these days, bringing his wealth of experience and undeniable talent to bear on Mistaken Identity, his first album as leader in fifteen years. To assure a broad comfort zone, Blake invited guitarist Bobby Broom, a longtime friend and music partner, to join him alongside drummer Kobie Watkins and bassists Nat Reeves (five numbers) and Reuben Rogers (four). Among the ...

Album Review

Kendrick Scott: Corridors

by Chris May
April 8, 2023

Some of the press releases coming out of Blue Note's Los Angeles HQ since the pandemic have been ripe for inclusion in British satirical magazine Private Eye's Desperate Marketing column. In this, the Eye prints particularly egregious, or just plain laughable, attempts by publicists to hook-up what they are selling with headline news events, or to make eye-wateringly hyperbolic claims, or to manufacture an intellectual or cultural context for an artefact where none such exists. True, one ...

Liner Notes

Jimmy Greene: Gifts and Givers

by C. Andrew Hovan
March 12, 2023

The two-tenor battle is not a new idea, with iconic pairings from the jazz pantheon running the gamut from Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray to Eddie Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin. In more recent times, Eric Alexander and Grant Stewart have fueled the fire with their own incendiary adventures as heard on the current albums Wailin' (Criss 1258) and Cookin' (Criss 1283). As with any healthy blowing session, the idea is to keep each player on his toes while pushing ...