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Roberto Magris: Shuffling Ivories
by Edward Blanco
Pianist Roberto Magris follows up his critically-acclaimed album Suite! (JMood Records, 2018) with a duet recording with Chicago-based bassist Eric Hochberg, whom he met while recoding Suite! . Returning to the windy city in November 2019 to promote the release of Suite! , Magris and Hochberg decided to make an album of their own while enduring one of the heaviest winter storms in the history of the city. Over his thirty-plus albums, Magris has often drawn inspiration from ...
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by Jack Bowers
In 2018, while he was in Chicago to record his ninth album, Suite!, for JMood Records, pianist Roberto Magris was introduced by tenor saxophonist Mark Colby to bassist Eric Hochberg, an artist with whom Magris formed an almost immediate bond. After performing together at Chicago's Jazz Showcase, Magris and Hochberg decided they should record together, and so they did, setting down Shuffling Ivories, wherein Magris pays tribute to a number of his pianistic heroes, from Eubie Blake to Oscar Peterson, ...
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by Dan McClenaghan
You cannot get a sound that is more dead-center-of-the-U.S.A than pianist Roberto Magris and Eric Hochberg's Shuffling Ivories. This makes sense geographically as the disc comes from Kansas City's JMood Records, the label that seems intent on recording everything that Magris has to offer, including the pianist's 2020 magnum opus, Suite. Born in Trieste, Italy, Magris has embraced American jazz with a passion, from his celebrations of pianist Elmo Hope, One Night with Hope and More, Volume 1 ...
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by Jerome Wilson
Roberto Magris, the Italian pianist who spends a good bit of time in the United States, records prolifically. His latest release is a 2CD set that covers a lot of ground, encompassing sparkling hard bop, spiritual jazz, solo piano work and soulful excursions that feature electric keyboards. For much of the CD Magris plays with a quintet featuring the late Mark Colby on tenor sax, Eric Jacobson on trumpet, Eric Hochberg on bass and Greg Artry on drums. ...
read moreThe MUH Trio: A Step Into Light
by Jack Bowers
The MUH" in the MUH Trio is an acronym depicting the surnames of its members, pianist Roberto Magris, bassist Frantisek Uhlir and drummer Jaromir Helesic. Magris is from Italy, Uhlir and Helesic from the Czech Republic. A Step Into Light isn't their first walk around the block; they've been working together on and off for years, and recorded an earlier album, Prague After Dark, also for JMood Records, in 2016. That experience pays dividends, as the trio's ...
read moreRoberto Magris: Suite!
by Jack Bowers
When appraising a new recording by Roberto Magris, Rule No. 1 is always to expect the unexpected. On eighteen previous albums, the Italian-born pianist has produced tributes to Lee Morgan, Elmo Hope and Cannonball Adderley, welcomed guest artists Herb Geller, Sam Reed and Ira Sullivan, and led groups ranging from trio to septet, all for Kansas City's JMood Records. In that spirit, Magris' newest two-disc set, Suite!, isn't a suite at all; that is to say, it cannot be defined ...
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by Edward Blanco
Veteran jazz pianist Roberto Magris expands his collaboration with the Kansas City-based JMood label, recording almost two hours of uncommon traditional jazz and offering a mixture of re-arranged standards and original compositions covering fifteen tracks, nicely presented in a double CD package. The majority of the session was recorded while in Chicago in November of 2018. A socially-conscious individual, Magris has always viewed music as a way to express sorely-needed social awareness and introspective messages that make life worthwhile.
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