Jazz Articles about Rufus Reid

About Rufus Reid

Album Review

A sobriquet that could be applied to the pianist Bill Evans is “the poet of the jazz piano," as he more than almost any other pianist combined technical mastery with emotional restraint, creating music that feels introspective rather than demonstrative. Every pianist who has ever fallen under Evans' spell has eventually faced the same dilemma. One choice leads to imitation, while the other leads to finding your own voice, carrying Evans' influence. Randy Ingram has wisely chosen the latter, and ...

Album Review

Randy Ingram: Sound Within

Read "Sound Within" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 23, 2026

Everybody digs Bill Evans. Beginning in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Evans revolutionized the piano trio format, bringing a near equality of input of the three instruments into the mix. However, the piano itself was still the main voice. Bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian were his running mates. Sunday At The Village Vanguard (Riverside Records, 1961) and Waltz For Debby (Riverside Records, 1962) served as the shots across the bow for the change in the trio approach. ...

Album Review

Ryan Truesdell: Synthesis: The String Quartet Sessions

Read "Synthesis: The String Quartet Sessions" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
October 21, 2024

«L'idea di Synthesis--dice Ryan Truesdell presentando il progetto--è nata dalla consapevolezza che molti compositori di jazz traggono ispirazione dalla scrittura per quartetto d'archi di eminenti compositori classici come Bartok, Brahms e Ravel, e dalla necessità di trovare un modo realistico e al tempo stesso stimolante per creare musica insieme». Il giovane orchestratore, divenuto famoso per aver dato vita a inedite partiture di Gil Evans, presenta un progetto di 17 composizioni per quartetto d'archi (alcune in forma di ...

Album Review

Chris Rottmayer: Being

Read "Being" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
October 10, 2024

One thing is for sure. If a listener comes upon a recording based on the music of Mulgrew Miller and Woody Shaw, there are unlimited possibilities for a harmonic education. Both players were revered for their sophistication and the beauty of the melodies they created. So it hardly seems odd that someone, here pianist Chris Rottmayer, would have made an academic study of what they were doing. Ordinarily, even an academic might think “what a frightful idea," but Rottmayer understood ...

Album Review

Nick Finzer: Legacy

by Pierre Giroux
April 13, 2024

In the realm of jazz, the legacy of J.J. Johnson looms large and immutable, casting an indelible shadow over the trombone's narrative. It is with reverence and a touch of audacity that trombonist Nick Finzer undertakes the task of honoring this titan with his album Legacy a centennial celebration of JJ Johnson. Joined by a stellar ensemble featuring Renee Rosnes, who served as the pianist in Johnson's quintet from 1989 to 1997, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Lewis Nash, Finzer ...

Album Review

Chris Rottmayer: Being

by Jack Bowers
March 4, 2024

On Being, his fourth album as leader, Wisconsin-based pianist Chris Rottmayer has chosen to appraise the music of pianist Mulgrew Miller, as written for and performed by the Woody Shaw Quintet. Russ Johnson sits in for Shaw on trumpet and flugelhorn, while the celebrated bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Matt Endres round out the quartet's capable rhythm section. Half of the album's ten numbers arose from Rottmayer's study of Miller's work with Shaw; the other five are ...

Album Review

Chris Rottmayer: Being

by Troy Dostert
February 29, 2024

Pianist Chris Rottmayer has been a valued presence in the Madison, Wisconsin jazz scene for some time, both as a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin and as the leader of a couple of well-conceived albums. His Sunday at Pilars (Pilars, 2019) and So in Love (self-released, 2020) reveal a self-assured musician who can handle classic repertoire with authority. But his latest effort, Being, ups the ante by offering a collection of his own compositions, in this instance animated ...