Jazz Articles about Steve Davis

About Steve Davis

Album Review

Harold Mabern: Mabern Plays Mabern

Read "Mabern Plays Mabern" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
March 18, 2020

A tad more subdued than the barn-burning The Iron Man: Live At Smoke (Smoke Sessions Records, 2019), Mabern Plays Mabern still manages to jump full throttle from where that defining recording left us, with a lush, lyrical intensity and a vital, legacy-culling energy which plays as an exquisite coda to the pianist's long, outstanding career. Alive with the same stylist's intuition and unbridled spirit which found him cutting through the ranks with such contemporaries as Charles Lloyd and ...

Reassessing

In The Moment

by David A. Orthmann
February 9, 2020

The trail of splendid hard bop influenced recordings extends well beyond the genre's heyday of the 1950s and '60s. A case in point is trumpeter John Swana's appropriately titled In The Moment. The 1996 release on the Criss Cross Jazz imprint merits the exalted status of its celebrated predecessors. Captured in a one-day studio session, despite the familiar stylistic lineage it sounds fresh, spontaneous and unsullied. A sextet of intrepid, strong-willed individuals fully commit themselves to a program of compelling ...

Album Review

Steve Davis: Correlations

Read "Correlations" reviewed by Peter J. Hoetjes

by Peter J. Hoetjes
March 19, 2019

Exploration and innovation may be the aspiration of modern jazz, but trombonist Steve Davis' Correlations exemplifies the fact that nothing proves more compelling than the timeless art of gathering a group of musicians who work remarkably well together. A veteran of The Jazz Messengers, One For All, and The Jazztet, Davis has a wealth of experience sharing the stage with multiple horns, essential to this album's sextet. His “get out of the way and let it happen" approach to band ...

Album Review

Steve Davis: Think Ahead

Read "Think Ahead" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan

by C. Andrew Hovan
July 8, 2017

Composer and trombonist Steve Davis found a home for his muse starting in the late '90s with Criss Cross Jazz. Over the course of seven dates as a leader and many times more as a sideman, he established his voice as a writer and performer. For the past ten years, his releases elsewhere have been few and far between. It is with much fanfare then that fans should greet his second date for Smoke Sessions, a label that ...

Album Review

Steve Davis: Think Ahead

Read "Think Ahead" reviewed by Geannine Reid

by Geannine Reid
June 2, 2017

Trombonist and composer Steve Davis has released his new album on Smoke Sessions Records, entitled, Think Ahead. The inspiration for the title comes from the art of reacting to the unpredictable, but thinking ahead can aid in preparing for whatever the future may bring. The trombonist is joined by saxophonist Jimmy Greene, pianist Larry Willis, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash, each are well-known in the jazz world, but this is not a session of strangers, Davis has a ...

Album Review

Steve Davis: Say When

Read "Say When" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo

by Maurizio Zerbo
November 24, 2015

Il nume tutelare di questo CD è J.J. Johnson, di cui vengono interpretate sei note composizioni e relativi arrangiamenti. Davis si muove con tanto rispetto nei territori ampiamente esplorati dell'hard bop. Il modello di riferimento viene così riproposto con versatilità sia nei moduli espressivi che nelle sequenze degli assolo. Si impone una front-line al fulmicotone, degna delle migliori blowing sessions degli anni '60. La ritmica è superba nel sostenere gli interventi solistici ben calibrati ed intensi. Se ...

Album Review

Steve Davis: Say When

Read "Say When" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan

by C. Andrew Hovan
August 31, 2015

The winds of change have actively sought to change the jazz vernacular of the 21st century. Fueled in large part by the media, it seems that the darlings of the current set have opted for a broader definition of the music. Key elements such as melody and a prominent swing feel are often looked upon as “old hat" by the so-called hipper crowd. Some of this new music is vital, but much of it is inconsequential, further splintering the jazz ...