Jazz Articles about Tim Armacost

About Tim Armacost

Album Review

Emilio Solla and La Inestable de Brooklyn: Handmade

Read "Handmade" reviewed by Joshua Weiner

by Joshua Weiner
July 15, 2026

As the power of artificial intelligence (AI) grows exponentially, it has begun to permeate even the highest expressions of our humanity. AI-generated art of many kinds--literary, visual, and musical--appears on screens large and small daily. Handmade, a gorgeous double album by New York-based Argentinian pianist and composer Emilio Solla, featuring his nonet Inestable de Brooklyn, seeks to build a bridge across this uncanny valley." Handmade is an apologia of the tactile," says GRAMMY-nominated Solla. “We are moving further away from ...

Album Review

John Yao: Points In Time

Read "Points In Time" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
February 3, 2026

Attivo sulla scena di New York da vent'anni, John Yao s'è distinto come docente (al Berklee College e al Queens College), trombonista di sezione in big band (Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra) e solista in altri organici ( Paquito D'Rivera, Eddie Palmieri, Danilo Perez, </a>Chris Potter) oltre che leader di propri gruppi, con cui ha inciso sei album. Uno di questi (Flip Flop, 2015) ha visto il suo debutto come caporchestra, attività che gli ha procurato i riconoscimenti del ...

Album Review

John Yao and His 17 Piece Instrument: Points In Time

Read "Points In Time" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 4, 2025

The insuperable spirit of swinging big-band jazz is everywhere apparent on Points in Time, the seventh recording by New York-based composer, arranger and trombonist John Yao, and the second with his marvelous 17-Piece Instrument, a decade after its well-received debut, Flip-Flop. (See Tao, 2015). As on that earlier album, the playlist consists of seven of Yao's original compositions (and one outlier) written with the band in mind to exemplify in musical terms experiences and emotions Yao has ...

Album Review

John Yao and his 17 Piece Instrument: Points In Time

Read "Points In Time" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
July 13, 2025

Trombonist and composer John Yao presents a heartfelt and personal retrospective with Points In Time. This ambitious album delves deeply into the emotional and professional journey he has undertaken over the past twenty years in New York City. Leading his precisely coordinated ensemble, aptly called His 17-Piece Instrument, comprised of talented musicians from various points along Yao's timeline. The eight original compositions in this session stem from key moments in Yao's life and artistic development. This work is not just ...

Album Review

Russ Spiegel: Nitty Gritty

Read "Nitty Gritty" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 29, 2025

The phrase Nitty Gritty has a number of meanings, among the most oft-repeated of which are “mundane," “ordinary" and “commonplace." Guitarist Russ Spiegel surely had another definition in mind when naming his seventh album, whose aftermath brings to mind several graphic expressions. But mundane, ordinary and commonplace are not among them. Instead, words like seductive, panoramic and ambitious arise to describe the banquet that Spiegel and his (for the most part) organ trio have set before the ...

Radio & Podcasts

Tim Armacost: There is Something About Believing

by David Bixler
October 16, 2024

On his new recording, Something About Believing, tenor saxophonist Tim Armacost is joined by trumpeter Tom Harrell and baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan as well as the outstanding rhythm section of bassist John Patitucci and drummer Al Foster. Listening to the music one is struck by the comfortability of master improvisers doing what they do best, however, in this episode of LINER NOTES Tim explains that this recording is a snapshot of a journey that he embarked on a number of ...

Album Review

Russ Spiegel: Caribbean Blue

Read "Caribbean Blue" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 19, 2023

Pleasant music with ample color and variety--that's an apt description of Caribbean Blue, the latest albulm from California-bred, Florida-based guitarist Russ Spiegel, who has surrounded himself with world-class musicians and given them rein to canvass ten of his generally engaging compositions and bring them admirably to life. While everything on offer is respectable, it is the album's midsection--tracks 3-8--that rise above the others and lend the session much of its vitality and charm. After harmonica virtuoso Hendrik ...