Jazz Articles about Rick Roe

About Rick Roe

Album Review

There are albums that reveal themselves immediately, and this is one of those albums. Sarah D'Angelo's You Are There is an intimate collection of jazz performances built around restraint, storytelling, and the kind of vocal delivery that feels more at home on a small stage than in a crowded room. D'Angelo has the instincts of a jazz balladeer, approaching each lyric with the theatricality of a stage storyteller while maintaining the intimacy and nuance of a seasoned jazz ...

Album Review

Rick Roe: Wake Up Call

Read "Wake Up Call" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 6, 2026

Gregg Hill writes music. Other musicians play--and record--Hill's music. Pianist Rick Roe's latest album, Wake Up Call, marks the 19th time that has happened (and the second in 2026 alone). True, Hill and Roe are both Michiganders, but that is not always the case; Hill's nearly 200 compositions have seen the light of day on albums recorded from coast to coast and beyond including several with his name in lights. Even so, it is hard to envision Hill's ...

Album Review

Randy Napoleon: Waking Dream

Read "Waking Dream" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 5, 2025

What greater satisfaction could a teacher have than to see his or her students achieve success--and in their chosen field, no less. On Waking Dream, renowned jazz guitarist and educator Randy Napoleon shares center stage with four fellow guitarists, all of whom are former students in his classes at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing. The guitarists are part of a core group that includes three more MSU faculty members: pianist Rick Roe, bassist Rodney Whitaker ...

Album Review

Randy Napoleon: Waking Dream

Read "Waking Dream" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
September 8, 2025

In Waking Dream, guitarist Randy Napoleon has assembled a musical family whose shared history fosters a strong sense of cohesion, one that goes beyond the leader's skillful guitar work. Longtime collaborators bassist [[ {{m: Rodney Whitaker, pianist Rick Roe and drummer Quincy Davis form the rhythmic and harmonic foundation, while four additional guitarists , Luke Sittard, Chris Minami, Jocelyn Gould and Ben Turner, create a rich sonic tapestry reminiscent of a modern guitar choir. Throughout the tracks, there are also ...

Album Review

Rodney Whitaker: Mosaic: The Music of Gregg Hill

Read "Mosaic: The Music of Gregg Hill" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
February 20, 2025

In their fourth collaboration on Origin Records, bassist and bandleader Rodney Whitaker and Central Michigan composer Gregg Hill strike gold once again, backed by a formidable gathering of musicians. Hill's music has experienced a surge in interest due to his prolific releases on Origin, which have featured musicians in and around the impressive jazz faculty roster at Michigan State University, a program with Whitaker at the helm. Hill's compositions have a notable sound uniquely tied to both urban ...

Liner Notes

Rodney Whitaker: Mosaic: The Music of Gregg Hill

by Michael Dease
February 15, 2025

At just fifty-six years young, Rodney Whitaker has cemented his legendary status as a sought-after bassist extraordinaire and, arguably the pre-eminent jazz educator of his generation. The Detroit, Michigan native, recently elected to the hallowed ranks of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, that includes such innovators as Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., continues to firmly establish himself as a superb interpreter of original music, notably through his fruitful association with composer Gregg Hill. Mosaic is ...

Album Review

Randy Napoleon: The Door is Open: The Music of Gregg Hill

Read "The Door is Open: The Music of Gregg Hill" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
February 5, 2024

In and around the formidable jazz studies program at Michigan State University is a plethora of jazz talent devoted to instrumental and compositional excellence. Most of this talent is young, benefiting from a wide array of world-class instructors that includes program director Rodney Whitaker and veteran guitarist Randy Napoleon, among other notables. Within this labyrinth of jazz wisdom in the Detroit / Lansing metroplex is composer Gregg Hill, a former truck driver and tech entrepreneur whose performing ambitions were superseded ...