Jazz Articles about Rudy Royston

About Rudy Royston

Album Review

JD Allen is an artist who always delivers. He is also an artist who takes risks, willing to explore his limitations, and then break them; to expose his vulnerabilities, and reflect upon their source and meaning. His experimentation is not obvious. It spirals inwards, orbiting the central axis of jazz, while traversing its various trajectories with elegance, depth, and intense regard to produce deeply personal statements that draw in audiences and listeners like moths to flame. His latest ...

Album Review

Rudresh Mahanthappa: Bird Calls

Read "Bird Calls" reviewed by Dave Wayne

by Dave Wayne
February 15, 2015

On Bird Calls, alto saxophonist and composer Rudresh Mahanthappa takes on the music of Charlie Parker in a personal and profound way, accompanied by his whip-smart, uber-hip and youthful backing band. Let's face it, folks; this is the sort of thing a jazz fan's daydreams are made of. The result doesn't disappoint; Bird Calls is a masterpiece, and will certainly grace many a critic's year end “Top 10" list. It's evident that Mahanthappa thought this album through from ...

Album Review

Rudresh Mahanthappa: Bird Calls

Read "Bird Calls" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 17, 2015

Charlie Parker has been deified, his methods have been codified, and his recordings have been analyzed ad infinitum. Six decades have passed since he left this realm, yet he remains the lodestar for a significant portion of the jazz community, from the aspiring to the elite, and his influence hasn't waned one bit. Given all of that, it's astonishing to realize that so few players have taken chances by looking beyond the songs, the music theory, the recordings, and the ...

Extended Analysis

Rudresh Mahanthappa: Bird Calls

by Victor L. Schermer
January 13, 2015

In this innovative album, Rudresh Mahanthappa is to “Yardbird" Charlie Parker what Albert Einstein was to Isaac Newton. He revises Parker's legacy to his own advanced understanding, yet preserves the essential truth of Parker's contribution to jazz. One genius says “hello" to another and then goes his own way. The result is an exciting “leaning in" to Bird's bebop while retaining Mahanhtappa's unique synthesis of the jazz idiom with the music of India and other parts of the world. This ...

Album Review

Mike DiRubbo: Threshold

Read "Threshold" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
March 21, 2014

New York-based alto saxophonist Mike DiRubbo is one of the most recognizable and formidable forces in the jazz world today. A former student of the late great jazz icon Jackie McLean and a fixture in the Big Apple's vibrant jazz scene, DiRubbo is no novice. He has a substantial discography, and experience performing with some of the best players in the world. The adventurous Threshold is the artist's eighth album as leader where--with the exception of Charlie Parker's Bebop classic ...

Album Review

Mike DiRubbo: Threshold

Read "Threshold" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
March 18, 2014

Mike DiRubbo's eight disc as a leader, Threshold finds the ever inventive alto saxophonist in a solidly hard bop environment that is reminiscent of Blue Note records of the 1950s but has a clear modern edge. In addition to leading a superb and sympathetic quintet, DiRubbo penned eight of the nine tracks on this riveting record with a momentum that never slacks from the first note to the last.DiRubbo's acerbic, passionate tone marks his tight and intelligent improvisations ...

Album Review

Rudy Royston: 303

by Dan Bilawsky
January 24, 2014

Drummer Rudy Royston's actions speak louder than his words. Royston oozed modesty, comfort and a touch of humor when he addressed the audience at a pre-release show for 303 during New York's Winter Jazzfest, but he gave off a much different sense of himself when he put sticks to skins during that same set. One minute he was delivering low-key, in-the-pocket grooves that had heads bobbing in the affirmative, and the next he was creating a percussive maelstrom that tore ...