Jazz Articles about Scott Wendholt

About Scott Wendholt

Album Review

Alan Ferber: Up High, Down Low

Read "Up High, Down Low" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
June 3, 2024

Nel nono disco da bandleader, il trombonista Alan Ferber ritorna col suo abituale nonet, con cui ha già inciso quattro album. L'organico ha subìto qualche cambiamento con le presenze del chitarrista Nir Felder, di Chris Cheek al sax baritono e qualche altro (ma restano i fidi sassofonisti Jon Gordon, Charles Pillow e John Ellis, il trombettista Scott Wendholt) confermando l'estetica di fondo: un modern mainstream caratterizzato da groove ritmico, chiarezza melodica e arrangiamenti leggibili che s'ispirano anche al soul ...

Album Review

Christopher Zuar Orchestra: Exuberance

Read "Exuberance" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright

by Katchie Cartwright
May 13, 2024

Exuberance is part of a “long-form tonal conversation" between composer Christopher Zuar and animator Anne Beal. Zuar, a Long Island New Yorker, describes the work as “a journey of personal growth," which began in 2017 when he and Beal met as fellows at the MacDowell Colony in the woods of New Hampshire. He explains that the album is a “collaborative project that charts the last seven years of our lives." “In Winter Blooms," the opening track, grew out ...

Album Review

Brian Eisenberg Jazz Orchestra: Pain & Beauty

Read "Pain & Beauty" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
July 23, 2023

A religious man at heart, composer/band leader and producer Brian Eisenberg leads an 18-piece big band (The Brian Eisenberg Jazz Orchestra) on a personal musical exploration on the meaning of love through the perspective of what may be beautiful, and what may seem hurtful on the very introspective and challenging Pain & Beauty. The album, as he writes, “is dedicated to that ideal of genuine love...painful yet, beautiful love." Eisenberg sets the musical bar quite high on such lofty and ...

Album Review

Michael Davis - Hip-Bone Big Band: Open City

Read "Open City" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
July 20, 2023

Michael Davis is an accomplished trombonist who has had a long career of live and studio work accompanying a varied roster of big-name jazz and rock talents such as The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bob Mintzer, Buddy Rich, Paul Simon, and Sarah Vaughan. He is also an established solo artist and composer who leads an imposing large ensemble, the Hip-Bone Big Band. The big band's second album is an exuberant affair which reflects the joy of getting back ...

Album Review

Michael Leonhart Orchestra: The Normyn Suites

Read "The Normyn Suites" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
March 28, 2022

Gli eclettici sviluppi orchestrali di Michael Leonhart, tra maestosi affreschi evocativi e trascinanti momenti rock e soul, tornano a entusiasmarci con questo magistrale The Normyn Suites, dove la poetica della leggerezza convive con scelte di vivo impatto ritmico e timbrico. Le due forti propensioni musicale dell'autore sono ben bilanciate: quella impressionista (che ha caratterizzato opere ammalianti come Lovers di Nels Cline e il suo The Painted Lady Suite) e quella legata alla popular music, maturata nelle collaborazioni con Steely Dan, ...

Album Review

Peter DiCarlo: Onward

Read "Onward" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann

by Friedrich Kunzmann
February 5, 2021

On his debut record, New York-based alto saxophonist Peter DiCarlo establishes himself as a serious straight-ahead composer who skillfully combines an elegant alto tone with intricate reed and horn arrangements that are propelled forward by a swinging rhythm section. Dominated by a majority of self-penned hard and post-bop scores, Onward—in accordance with its title—pushes last century's idioms into this one, exploring new and exciting territory that neither defies tradition, nor resists its modern environment. Swing is affirmed in ...

Album Review

Peter DiCarlo: Onward

by Jack Bowers
February 3, 2021

New York City-based alto saxophonist Peter DiCarlo makes a lot of winning moves on his debut album, Onward, and a couple that seem more puzzling than perceptive. More about them later. First, it should be noted that DiCarlo is a virtuosic player with a burnished sound and enough improvisational ammunition in his arsenal to guide him safely through any encounter, no matter how unforeseen or perilous. He is also a splendid writer whose five original compositions here serve to enhance ...