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Jazz Articles about Sam Hoyt
Ines Velasco: A Flash of Cobalt Blue

by Angelo Leonardi
Dopo la laurea con lode al Berklee College in composizione e varie esperienze di orchestrazione nell'ultimo decennio (Snarky Puppy, Metropole Orkest, Gregory Porter, Avenged Sevenfold, NY Philharmonic String Quartet, la National Jazz Orchestra of México), la messicana Ines Velasco debutta con un proprio album in veste di compositrice e bandleader. Il lavoro è stato ispirato ed è strettamente connesso alle poesie di Jorge Esquinca (tratte dal volume Un brillo azul cobalto) che le recita in ogni brano dell'album. ...
Continue ReadingDanny Jonokuchi Big Band: A Decade

by Jack Bowers
For trumpeter, vocalist and bandleader Danny Jonokuchi, the path to success--in music and in life--has never been smooth or trouble-free. Born with a congenital lung disease, Jonokuchi needed life-saving surgery while in high school to treat a collapsed lung, which caused him to put his trumpet playing aside, at least temporarily. Years later, and almost a continent away from his native Los Angeles, Jonokuchi was viciously attacked in south Philadelphia, resulting in traumatic injuries to his mouth and embouchure. This ...
Continue ReadingDanny Jonokuchi: A Decade

by Pierre Giroux
A Decade is arranger-composer, trumpeter and vocalist Danny Jonokuchi's celebration of personal and musical evolution, encapsulating his growth over the last ten years as a musician and leader of his big band. The album draws on jazz's rich traditions while also serving as a reflection of the enduring spirit of the genre. The release features compositions that outline the signature flourish of Jonokuchi's writing, standing as a testament to his ability to overcome personal obstacles. The ...
Continue ReadingFrank Carlberg Large Ensemble: Elegy for Thelonious

by Alberto Bazzurro
Dopo aver circumnavigato la musica di Monk in diversi contesti, prevalentemente come pianista in piccoli organici, Frank Carlberg, finlandese di nascita ma newyorchese a tutti gli effetti, affronta in questo suo ultimo, ambizioso lavoro l'ineffabile Thelonious da una prospettiva diversa: dedicandogli una serie di composizioni proprie ispirate a lui e alla sua arte così fuori da ogni ovvietà (non senza scampoli tematici acchiappati al volo e titolazioni spesso molto gustose ed emblematiche, da Scallop's Scallop" a Wrinkle on Trinkle," in ...
Continue ReadingDan Pugach Big Band: Bianca

by Jack Bowers
Dan Pugach is an Israeli-born, New York-based drummer who doubles (quite well) as composer and arranger on Bianca, his second recording for Outside In Music. Pugach anchors a splendid big band comprised of some of the New York area's finest musicians on an album whose subtitle is Music for Paws and Persistence." The paws" were those of the Pugach family's rescue pit-bull, Bianca, who passed away in 2019 and left a gaping hole in their lives, as ...
Continue ReadingFrank Carlberg Large Ensemble: Elegy for Thelonious

by Jerome Wilson
Pianist Frank Carlberg has been exploring the music of Thelonious Monk for some time, most specifically on his large group album, Monk Dreams, Hallucinations, and Nightmares, (Sunnyside, 2017). This new album has Carlberg returning to the large ensemble format for more Monk investigations, but this time approaching the work in a more splintered and abstract fashion. He does not simply interpret familiar Monk tunes. He writes compositions and arrangements which stitch Monk riffs and ideas into new fabrics, ...
Continue ReadingFrank Carlberg Large Ensemble: Elegy for Thelonious

by Mark Corroto
There was a sardonic saying circulating a few years ago that observed, It's Frank Sinatra's world, we just live in it." While that was a backhanded compliment, tailoring it to the subject of this large ensemble recording, we would call it a commendation. Pianist, composer, and conductor Frank Carlberg is telling us, It's Thelonious Monk's world, and (thank god) we live in it." Carlberg has been a disciple of Monk for decades, recording his music in a piano trio format ...
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