Jazz Articles about Steven Crammer

About Steven Crammer

Album Review

Proving he is much more than just a talented guitarist, Max Light's latest effort, Unlearning, carries a great deal of emotional weight in addition to displaying his prodigious technique. Dedicated to his father, distinguished professor Paul Light, the album's concept concerns the elusive nature of memory and the challenges of disorientation when it no longer reliably anchors us. With recurring fragments of melody and subtle rhythmic shifts throughout, Light's compositions powerfully convey a sense of dislocation, yet there is a ...

Album Review

Chris McCarthy: Add a Zero

Read "Add a Zero" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
July 30, 2025

Chris McCarthy is a wonderfully lyrical pianist, and an unexpected joy to hear. “Unexpected" you might ask? Allow an explanation. He is imaginative, highly skilled and has gained a reputation of excellence on the New York scene. His accompaniment and solo strides on his acclaimed duo release, Life's a Gig (Fresh Sounds, 2024), with vocalist Vanisha Gould make her deep dive into old soul magic seem grounded, adorned with subtle and spacious harmony that keeps the music buoyant and free ...

Album Review

Stan Harrison: Some Poor Soul Has a Fire

Read "Some Poor Soul Has a Fire" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
March 17, 2025

As befits someone who has spent years in the pop/rock arena performing with name acts from David Bowie, Radiohead and Stevie Ray Vaughan to Duran Duran, Bruce Springsteen, Laurie Anderson and many others, composer and saxophonist Stan Harrison sees jazz through an extremely wide lens. While there are a few moments of clean straight-ahead blowing on Harrrison's album Some Poor Soul Has a Fire, there are many others that emulate more closely his kinship to and respect for the kind ...

Album Review

Hayoung Lyou: The Myth of Katabasis

Read "The Myth of Katabasis" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
February 18, 2025

Inciso fra gennaio e maggio 2024, questo nuovo lavoro della pianista Hayoung Lyou, coreana di nascita (1992) e newyorchese d'adozione, allieva del Berklee College of Music e del New England Conservatory, studiando fra gli altri con Joanne Brackeen, Jason Moran e Frank Carlberg, è un ottimo esempio di piano trio contemporaneo (ci sono in realtà anche episodi solitari), dove per contemporaneo si intende qualcosa che sintetizza tutta una serie di input ereditati da una storia quanto mai ricca e composita. ...

Album Review

Nortonk: Nortonk

Read "Nortonk" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
March 15, 2022

Nato nel 2017 con tutti i componenti sotto i 25 anni, il quartetto Nortonk prende il nome dal batterista Kevin Norton, insegnante del programma jazz al William Paterson College. È un omaggio di allievi che hanno ben assimilato la sua estetica di musicista creativo e sperimentatore d'avanguardia. L'organico senza strumento armonico già svela l'ambizione dei componenti a operare con più margini di libertà rispetto ai gruppi mainstream. Per musicisti così giovani, appena laureati, può sembrare un passo ...