Jazz Articles about Russ Johnson

About Russ Johnson

Album Review

Jon Irabagon: Someone to Someone

Read "Someone to Someone" reviewed by Stefano Merighi

by Stefano Merighi
April 6, 2026

Il sassofonista e compositore Jon Irabagon è un altro super virtuoso del nostro tempo: ecletttico, onnivoro musicalmente, molto prolifico. Questo recente disco presenta una formazione nuova, PlainsPeak, un quartetto convenzionale, e si offre come un caloroso omaggio alla città di Chicago, a partire dalle note di presentazione, scritte da Jon stesso, bravissimo nel comporre una guida sintetica di tutto ciò che è influente nella Windy City--dai panorami architettonici alla fisionomia culinaria, dalla centralità dell'ambiente lacustre alla intensa vita culturale e ...

Album Review

PlainsPeak: Someone to Someone

Read "Someone to Someone" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 26, 2025

Jon Irabagon's PlainsPeak delivers a soulful homecoming via a love letter to Chicago with its debut, Someone to Someone. Ditching the tech-heavy sprawl of his earlier work like Server Farm (Irabbagast, 2025), the leader returns to Chicago's gritty roots with a lean acoustic quartet that is all heart and sly wit. Irabagon, a Chicago-born saxophonist and winner of the Thelonious Monk Competition, leads with his alto's warm expressive tone. He is joined by trumpeter Russ Johnson, a longtime ...

Album Review

Russ Johnson: To Walk On Eggshells

Read "To Walk On Eggshells" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
August 18, 2025

Russ Johnson, a Chicago-bred trumpeter with a knack for adventurous jazz, joins forces with Swiss bassist Christian Weber and drummer Dieter Ulrich, both stalwarts of the Zurich jazz scene. Johnson's resume boasts collaborations with everyone from Lee Konitz to his own genre-bending Russ Johnson Quartet, while Weber and Ulrich have carved out reputations as nimble improvisers, notably in projects such as Oliver Lake's For A Little Dancin (Intakt, 2010) and Co Streiff's sextet. This nine-track album is a ...

Album Review

Jon Irabagon / PlainsPeak: Someone to Someone

Read "Someone to Someone" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
August 15, 2025

Jon Irabagon is a musician whose complexity is both exhilarating and daunting. His restless energy, deep self-reflection, remarkable achievements and sharp intellect combine to create a figure who constantly provokes questions--about music, originality and the very nature of artistic expression. In 2011, Irabagon undertook a bold experiment: With Mostly Other People Do The Killing, he recorded Blue (Hot Cup, 2014), a note-for-note recreation of Miles Davis's iconic Kind of Blue (Columbia Records, 1959). This endeavor recalls Gus Van ...

Album Review

Russ Johnson, Christian Weber, Dieter Ulrich: To Walk On Effshells

Read "To Walk On Effshells" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
June 26, 2025

Tutti a firma dei tre performers, con prevalenza di Johnson, i nove brani che compongono questo CD, inciso a Zurigo nel lontano dicembre 2009. Lo firma in maniera “democratica" un trio agguerrito sia in diversi degli episodi di cui sopra che proprio negli esiti complessivi, sempre esemplari per lucidità e capacità di condurre la musica lungo i sentieri scelti di volta in volta. C'è parecchia improvvisazione, è chiaro, ma il fatto che ciascun momento del disco rechi una e una ...

Album Review

Matt Ulery: Mother Harp

Read "Mother Harp" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
April 20, 2025

With 15 albums of adventurous composition and daredevil artistry behind him, Chicago-based bassist-composer-bandleader Matt Ulery is, as they say back home, no slouch. And on his 16th, the raucously-inflamed and infectious Mother Harp, he follows his rock 'n' roll heart to the finish line and beyond. Mother Harp is a bevy of crazy-good stuff packed with a punk-rock punch you do not hear authentically or authoritatively anymore anywhere these days. Today it all sounds categorical, as if AI ...

Album Review

Andy Baker: From Here, From There

Read "From Here, From There" reviewed by Scott Lichtman

by Scott Lichtman
October 24, 2024

Andy Baker has crafted an uplifting recording featuring his trombone plus trumpet, upright bass and drums--no chordal instruments. From Here, From There is a fresh take on swing/bop ballads that melds top-notch instrumentalists--Baker, Russ Johnson on trumpet, Clark Sommers on bass and Dana Hall on drums--with beautiful compositions and cover arrangements. Baker luxuriates in “the incredible freedom you get, without explicit chords, to stretch the color of the solo and negotiate anything from there." The sparse 4-piece orchestration ...