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Jazz Articles about Steve Cardenas
Hillai Govreen: Every Other Now
by Kyle Simpler
Many musicians are content to write and perform songs, while others continuously explore deeper territory. Clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer Hillai Govreen belongs firmly to the latter camp. At heart, she is a storyteller, and with Every Other Now, her debut solo release, she creates music that invites not only listening but also imagination. Govreen first drew notice with Allusions (Starr Street, 2021), a duo with pianist Nitsan Kolko, where her sensitivity and command of dialogue came to the ...
Continue ReadingAnat Fort: The Dreamworld of Paul Motian
by Dan McClenaghan
Borrowing a sentiment from the title of the 1959 Riverside Records album Everybody Digs Bill Evans, it is safe to say that pianist Anat Fort digs Paul Motian. Her The Dreamworld of Paul Motian says so. We can attribute a big part of Motian's career success to pianist Bill Evans (1929 -1980). Portrait In Jazz (Riverside, 1960) was the first Evans album that included Motian in the drummer's chair. More followed, including the groundbreaking Sunday At the Village ...
Continue ReadingAnat Fort: The Dreamworld of Paul Motian
by Kyle Simpler
Other performers inspire every musician to some extent, but for Anat Fort, the influence of drummer Paul Motian altered her approach to performing and thinking about music. Although Motian passed away in 2011, his presence remains a motivating force in Fort's work. With The Dreamworld of Paul Motian, she pays homage not just to the man but to the mystery, lyricism, and true spirit of his music. Motian elevated the role of drumming in modern jazz. ...
Continue ReadingSteve Million: What I Meant to Say
by Richard J Salvucci
Steve Million, thoughtful, well established, and prolific, has recorded another elegant outing to complement his Jazz Words (Origin, 2021). No vocalist this time, but some old friends from his Kansas City days who combine to produce a wonderfully reflective entry. Million's compositions--and they are all his--are stylish and distinctive. “Open the Book" is an appropriate title for a sonorous and thoughtful entrance, although named for his daughter Peige, at the time of writing, a year old, ...
Continue ReadingBen Allison: Moments Inside
by Angelo Leonardi
Delizioso. Le sempre cantabili composizioni di Ben Allison, i raffinati intrecci dei chitarristi Steve Cardenas e Chico Pinheiro, l'insinuante apporto ritmico del leader e di Allan Mednard, fanno di questo 14° album del bassista un'altra gemma. Per timore di essere equivocati non usiamo il termine cool ma in senso ampio quell'estetica è viva, accanto ad aromi soulful, nostalgici echi di Brasile e bossa nova (c'è tutta la grazia di Gilberto e Jobim), più melodie cristalline che si ...
Continue ReadingSteve Million: What I Meant to Say
by Jack Bowers
A word that springs to mind when listening to pianist Steve Million's quartet is “tasteful." If the music sounds congenial as well, that is probably because “four friends" are performing it. Two of them (guitarist Steve Cardenas, drummer Ron Vincent) were among the Kansas City-based friends who comprised Million's quartet in that city before he moved to New York in 1981; the “new friend" is bassist John Sims who started gigging with the group shortly before What I Meant to ...
Continue ReadingSteve Cardenas: Blue Has A Range
by Angelo Leonardi
Espressi con uno stile del tutto personale, ritroviamo in Steve Cardenas la ricchezza di accenti, le sfumature cromatiche e il patrimonio di sottigliezze melodiche e ritmiche che hanno caratterizzato -da prospettive diverse-chitarristi ben più noti di lui: ad esempio Jimmy Raney, Jim Hall e Pat Metheny. Il chitarrista è tanto significativo quanto riservato e resta per questo poco noto al grande pubblico; eppure ha fatto parte dell'Electric Bebop Band di Paul Motian, del quintetto di Steve Swallow, della ...
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