Jazz Articles about Steven Bernstein

About Steven Bernstein

Album Review

Blake is an improvising saxophonist who, because of his personal interests and the label he’s on, is often mistakenly relegated to the Worldbeat sections. To be honest, this disc only grabbed me halfway through, but when it did, it grabbed hard, and has sustained repeated listening.

The title cut, “Drift,” is echoed à la old ECM, and has lots of little percussion making the mournful tune very world-weary. Kimbrough, listed as playing only piano, is on an electric model. Scherr’s ...

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Album Review

Michael Blake: Drift

by Glenn Astarita
April 1, 2001

Following up his stunning and hauntingly beautiful 1997 solo release, Kingdom of Champra - saxophonist/composer Michael Blake enlists fellow “Jazz Composers Collective” performers along with modern jazz saxophonist Briggan Krauss and others for this equally impressive production simply titled, Drift. Here, the New York City-based artist once again demonstrates his melodic compositional gifts to coincide with his full-bodied tenor sax tone and witty arrangements.

Blake’s superb thematic invention is supplemented by a large ensemble who sound as though they enjoy ...