Jazz Articles about Robert Hurst

About Robert Hurst

Album Review

The Kris Davis Trio: Lost In Geneva

Read "Lost In Geneva" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
September 19, 2026

Lost in Geneva begins in that spatial, metro-rush way a lot of pianist/composer/provocateur Kris Davis' excursions into the city do. But it soon skews into its own glacial swath, like many of Davis' excursions into the city. Ergo, “The Subtext," a fierce workout by any means or description and its successor, “Congestion Pricing," a study in immediate subversiveness. But Lost in Geneva (the first release on the pianist's new imprint, 4166 Records) is not all about immediacy or ...

Album Review

David Janeway: David Janeway Trio/Live At Blue Llama

Read "David Janeway Trio/Live At Blue Llama" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
May 26, 2026

Live at Blue LLama by the David Janeway Trio was recorded in June 2024 at the Blue LLama Jazz Club in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and it is the kind of album that is unforced, deeply conversational, and grounded in a shared musical trust. Pianist Janeway has long valued rhythmic authority and melodic clarity over display and possesses a composer's sense of proportion. He is paired with Billy Hart, a drummer whose influence spans generations, and Robert Hurst, a bassist deeply ...

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

Kasan Belgrave: Dual Citizen

Read "Dual Citizen" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
March 10, 2025

Detroit born and raised multi-reedist Kasan Belgrave offers his first album bearing a name with a tremendous legacy. His father, the late Marcus Belgrave, was a prime mentor to generations of musicians from Detroit, one of the world's great jazz cities. His impact as a jazz trumpeter, as a major contributor to classic Motown Records hits and--especially--as a mentor and creator of musical opportunity for young aspiring Detroit jazz musicians, is unique. While we may then classify the elder Belgrave ...

Album Review

Thomas Marriott: Screen Time

Read "Screen Time" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
January 17, 2025

Seattle-based trumpeter Thomas Marriott has been producing notable jazz recordings for more than a quarter century now with remarkable consistency in terms of both musicianship and composition of original works. After a decade in New York as a young musician, following his winning of the prestigious Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Competition, Marriott settled back in Seattle and produced a litany of albums featuring top Northwest musicians. At one time or another he engaged with all of his upper-left colleagues, ...

Album Review

Kris Davis: Run the Gauntlet

Read "Run the Gauntlet" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
January 8, 2025

While Kris Davis hews close to the hallowed piano trio format on Run The Gauntlet, her first return to the set-up since Waiting For You To Grow (Clean Feed, 2014), she inevitably gives it a few intriguing twists. By recruiting bassist Robert Hurst, alumni of Tony Williams, Steve Coleman and Wynton and Branford Marsalis, and drummer Johnathan Blake, a Blue Note leader also to be heard with Kenny Barron, Ravi Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, she ensures a driving beat which ...

Album Review

Kris Davis Trio: Run the Gauntlet

Read "Run the Gauntlet" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
November 7, 2024

Innanzitutto le dediche: a Geri Allen, Marilyn Crispell, Angelica Sanchez, Carla Bley, Renee Rosnes, Sylvie Courvoisier, sei colleghe di strumento (e non solo), ognuna con la sua brava colonnina esplicativa nel booklet che accompagna il CD, a cui Kris Davis si sente evidentemente vicina. Poi la musica: un piano trio pieno, vitale, contemporaneo ma senza eccessi, come già l'iniziale title--track, tredici minuti di un jazz fluente, privo di particolari barriere, ci dice eloquentemente. Poi, però, ecco subito appresso ...