Jazz Articles about Sam Skelton

About Sam Skelton

Album Review

With the release of Merge, Karla Harris' fifth album, the vocalist refines her sophisticated blend of traditional and contemporary jazz. She follows the time-honored jazz tradition of reimagining familiar standards, complemented by three original compositions that showcase her strength as a songwriter. What distinguishes Merge beyond Harris' superb vocal artistry is the creative space afforded to her collaborators to explore, improvise and weave their individual voices into the arrangements. Those arrangements, created by Harris and co-producer/pianist Tyrone Jackson, ...

Album Review

Randy Hoexter: Tomorrowsville

Read "Tomorrowsville" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 20, 2025

Several words spring to mind when listening to the music of Atlanta-based composer, arranger and pianist Randy Hoexter. Colorful is one, wide-ranging is another. Not to mention creative, robust and well-ordered. Each of those traits and more are deftly combined in Hoexter's latest album, Tomorrowsville, on which he leads a high-grade ensemble through its paces on eleven of his intriguing themes and charts. What is clear from the outset is that Hoexter is a talented and earnest ...

Album Review

Professor Aucoin & the Jazz Scientists: Mystified

Read "Mystified" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
February 21, 2021

There is a heap of soul, blues, rock, funk and heart on Professor Tim Aucoin's album, Mystified. On the other hand, the jazz content is in rather short supply. The Jazz Scientists are good at what they do, but what they do is more akin to a nightclub act than a jazz performance, at times reminiscent of Sam Butera and the Witnesses but without the luminous personas of Louis Prima and Keely Smith to raise them above the norm. Aucoin ...