Jazz Articles about Samuel Torres

About Samuel Torres

Album Review

"The jazz bandstand is where true democracy lives," the great saxophonist and composer Jimmy Heath told a young Helen Sung. “Everyone must understand their role and come prepared by doing the hard work of study and practice," he said. “Each person will get to say their piece, but it is in the act of integrating as a band that the musicians ultimately create something bigger, richer, and deeper." Oracles launches into a time and place where divisions are deep and ...

Album Review

Aubrey Johnson, Helen Sung, Dave Douglas, David Hajdu: Lives of the Saints: Portraits in Song with Words by David Hajdu

Read "Lives of the Saints: Portraits in Song with Words by David Hajdu" reviewed by Vic Albani

by Vic Albani
January 27, 2026

Chi diavolo è David Hajdu? Ce lo insegna il web: David Hajdu (nato nel 1955 a Phillipsburg, New Jersey con origini ungheresi e italiane) è un editorialista laureato alla New York University, autore e professore statunitense alla Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. È stato critico musicale del New Republic per 12 anni ed è redattore musicale di The Nation. Ha dapprima lavorato come illustratore e poi ha cominciato a scrivere per testate di un certo livello quali il Village ...

Album Review

Sergio Pamies: Time to Say

Read "Time to Say" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 21, 2025

Spanish themes and rhythms reign supreme on Time to Say, Granada-born composer, arranger and pianist Sergio Pamies' fourth album, one that is enhanced on its opening and closing numbers, respectively, by the presence of renowned woodwind artists Dave Liebman and Paquito D'Rivera. Not that Pamies' septet needs much help, as everyone is laser-focused and totally in sync. At the same time, Pamies, trumpeter Alex Norris, trombonist Marshall Gilkes and saxophonist Michael Thomas (on alto or soprano) are ...

Album Review

Gino Amato: Latin Crossroads

Read "Latin Crossroads" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
October 24, 2024

The urge to take advantage of a successful commercial genre never really dies. Back in the 1960s, a studio orchestra nominally assembled by bandleader Glen Gray released a recording, Sounds of the Great Bands in Latin (Capitol, 1964). It took tunes like “Early Autumn" or “A String of Pearls" and added a “Latin" flavor with jazz enhancements. No doubt, this was an early recognition of the success of Cal Tjader. The vinyl may or may not have done well, but ...

Radio & Podcasts

Samuel Torres, Lizz Wright, Nicole Mitchell and more

by Hobart Taylor
June 12, 2024

New music from Samuel Torres, Modney, Lizz Wright and Nicole Mitchell plus a newly released historic recording featuring Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille Playlist Bag of Bones “Some Rain" from No One Gets Saved (577) 0:00 Wadada Leo Smith & Amina Claudine Myers “Conservatory Gardens" from Central Park's Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Pathways and Gardens (Red Hook) 7:17 Host Speaks 16:19 Troy Roberts “ Jive Dumpling" from Green Lights (Toy Robot) 19:12 Lizz Wright ...

Album Review

Reggie Quinerly: The Thousandth Scholar

Read "The Thousandth Scholar" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
January 5, 2024

The Thousandth Scholar is Los Angeles-based drummer and composer Reggie Quinerly's fifth album, each out on his Redefinition label. Quinerly themes his albums. His debut was Music Inspired By Freedmantown (2012), a tribute to the Houston neighborhood where he was born and raised. It was followed by Invictus (2015), a salute to hard bop, Words In Love (2018), which dealt with vocals, and New York Nowhere (2021), a portrait of life in the city (Quinerly studied at the New School ...

Album Review

Jennifer Wharton's Bonegasm: Grit & Grace

Read "Grit & Grace" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 5, 2023

Asked to name the traits women most need to succeed in today's business world, Forbes magazine in a 2019 article underlined two of them as “grit and grace." One woman who took the advice to heart is bass trombonist Jennifer Wharton. She came late to jazz but has since made it her domain of choice, founding the trombone-centric septet Bonegasm and recording three albums under its name, the most recent of which, Grit & Grace, endorses Forbes' position by using ...