Jazz Articles about Sam Gerstmans

About Sam Gerstmans

Album Review

Pedro Melo Alves: Conundrum Vol. 1 - Itself Through Disappearance

Read "Conundrum Vol. 1 - Itself Through Disappearance" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
August 23, 2024

Great rock drummers are often ignored. One never pays attention to them during a performance because they are excellent, like Rolling Stones stalwart {Charlie Watts. If, however, they are not up to scratch, one definitely will notice. The same and more so can be said for jazz and improvising drummers. Talent, imagination and creativity are at a premium in this domain. Pedro Melo Alves is an excellent example of what an inventive and expressive drummer can be. Alves can be ...

Album Review

Michel Herr: Positive: Music For Sextet And String Quartet

Read "Positive: Music For Sextet And String Quartet" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
July 12, 2020

Although perhaps best known as a jazz pianist who has worked with the likes of Archie Shepp, Bill Frisell, Philip Catherine, Joe Lovano, Zbigniew Seifert and Toots Thielemans, Michel Herr has long enjoyed a parallel career as a conductor / musical director, and as an arranger for cinema, television and radio productions. It is in these latter, guiding roles, that Herr steers a sextet of some of Belgium's finest jazz musicians, plus a string quartet, through a programme of his ...