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Sam Dillon: My Ideal
by Jack Bowers
Any impartial assessment of My Ideal, Sam Dillon's second album for Cellar Music (following 2018's Out in the Open), should leave no doubt that the New York-born and based tenor saxophonist has definitely hit his stride, punctuating an already strong and persuasive voice on the horn with ample self-confidence and and a bounteous wellspring of innovative concepts and ingenious phrases. In other words, Dillon is the whole package, swinging in the same league as such heralded contemporaries ...
Continue ReadingWycliffe Gordon: What You Dealin' With?
by C. Andrew Hovan
Privy to the entire history of jazz trombone via the technological age in which we live, Wycliffe Gordon seems to have utilized this information in such a way that his own playing displays elements from various periods and a technical competence that is indeed remarkable. “I was most familiar, at first, with guys who played with Louis Armstrong, namely Trummy Young or Kid Ory and later on Jack Teagarden," says Gordon about the early years in his development. “Later I ...
Continue ReadingDida Pelled: A Missing Shade Of Blue
by Dan Bilawsky
In a way, A Missing Shade Of Blue is a throwback to an earlier era, when Grant Green, “Brother" Jack McDuff, Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith, and numerous others were bringing the guitar and organ together to create beautiful music for the people. Yet this record doesn't necessarily fit with the work of those artists. Why, you ask? Well, for one, we live in a different time. But the era isn't necessarily the crux of the matter. The scope of ...
Continue ReadingAdam Shulman Septet: West Meets East
by C. Andrew Hovan
Quiet as it's kept, too many of today's finest jazz artists are given short shrift by an industry that seems to value product of a fleeting nature over true craft and a reverence for the jazz legacy. This makes it particularly challenging for a talent like Adam Shulman to break through to a wider audience. A fixture on the Bay Area scene since 2002, the pianist has a knack for accompanying singers such as Paula West and often performs as ...
Continue ReadingJihee Heo: Are You Ready?
by Paul Rauch
Since arriving in New York from Incheon, South Korea, via studies in Amsterdam, pianist/composer Jihee Heo has made a name for herself through a broad spectrum on the jazz scene in Gotham. Heo's debut album, Passion (Heonah Music, 2015), featured strong compositions and arrangements for large ensemble, with experimental elements sprinkled in the mix. With her new release, Are You Ready? , she breaks down her artistic voice to the piano trio, employing dynamic drummer Rodney Green, and bassist Marty ...
Continue ReadingAdam Shulman Septet: West Meets East
by Jack Bowers
The “west" here is represented by San Francisco-based pianist and group leader Adam Shulman, the “east" by the other half-dozen members of Shulman's impressive septet. Even though the reasons that led to the alliance are ambiguous, what matters is the payoff, and that is more than admirable from any vantage point. As if to mirror the ensemble's six-and-one makeup, Shulman wrote six of the album's seven engaging numbers; the seventh (the rapid-fire “Whose Blues") was composed by ...
Continue ReadingRodney Green Quartet: Live At Jazzhus Montmartre
by Chris Mosey
At the age of three, at the church in Camden, New Jersey, where his father was pastor, Rodney Green saw a drum kit for the first time. He stared at it, fascinated; it was so big and shiny. He thought to himself, “OK, let's play some drums." He wasn't supposed to play jazz, it was the devil's music. But he just couldn't help himself. Now Green says, “In every memory I have, I play the drums." At the ...
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