Jazz Articles about Tim Ray

About Tim Ray

Album Review

Christine Fawson: It Could Happen to You

Read "It Could Happen to You" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 5, 2026

A trumpet player who sings or a singer who plays trumpet? Christine Fawson puts those questions to the test (again) on It Could Happen to You, the fifth recording under her leadership, playing trumpet and singing on every one of the album's 11 carefully-mined selections from the Great American Songbook. The obvious answer is that Fawson is both a trumpet player who sings and a singer who plays trumpet, which would be beside the point if she did not do ...

Album Review

The Greg Hopkins Jazz Orchestra: Chronography

Read "Chronography" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 31, 2026

On Chronography, Boston-based trumpeter and composer Greg Hopkins and his 16-member Jazz Orchestra revitalize ten of the leader's never-before-recorded compositions and arrangements, most of them well-known standards from the Great American Songbook, that span more than half a century of astute and perceptive songwriting. The earliest, Willard Robison's “Old Folks," was arranged for the Buddy Rich band in 1972; the most recent, Duke Ellington's “In a Sentimental Mood," for his own orchestra in 2018. Between those dates rest ...

Album Review

Tim Ray Trio: Fire & Rain

Read "Fire & Rain" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 7, 2023

Boston-based pianist Tim Ray and his rhythm mates, bassist John Lockwood and drummer Mark Walker, have been performing together since 2013, and Fire & Rain is their second recording as a trio. Their years working arm-in-arm and side-by-side have spawned a symbiotic relationship, and it shows. Even when the trio tests the free-jazz waters--as it does only once, on a seat-of-the-pants salute to Chick Corea, “Improv #1 (for Chick)"--everyone is on the same page and no one ...

Album Review

Tim Ray Trio: Fire & Rain

Read "Fire & Rain" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
July 22, 2023

Veteran educator and jazz pianist Tim Ray pays homage to some of his musical heroes with a piano trio album simply entitled Fire & Rain. It features various well-known standards from those who have been a major influence in his career, along with three original tunes added to the mix. Joining the pianist on this new adventure are familiar band mates, bassist John Lockwood and drummer Mark Walker, originally together for a Greg Abate concert and then for the Abate ...

Album Review

Giacomo Gates: YOU

Read "YOU" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
March 5, 2022

It is an interesting linguistic and grammatical fact that the word “I," capitalized and without its lower case pal's head-dot, appears only in the English language. It is also the most frequently seen word residing in popular song titles. With You the high priest of hip, Giacomo Gates, turns the tables on that not-so-lonely letter and salutes I's near-runner up, “You" with a “book" of 18 genuinely swinging “Yous." As a jazz singer, Gates has historically been ...

Album Review

Dave Zinno: Fetish

by Rob Rosenblum
November 29, 2021

While it is obvious that bassist Dave Zinno put a lot of thought into the writing and arrangements here, it is the quality of solo performances that gives this album its worthy distinction. Some may be familiar with pianist Tim Ray from his inclusion in the trio backing one of altoist Greg Abate's albums and his own trio outing on Whaling City Sound label. But trumpeter Eric Benny Bloom and most impressively, the tenor mastery of Mike Tucker, were previously ...

Album Review

Dave Zinno Unisphere: Fetish

by Jack Bowers
September 26, 2021

Dave Zinno's New York-based Unisphere is a quintet/sometime sextet that is rhythmically sound, melodically smooth and anchored by his assertive bass lines. The group employs a splendid two-horn front line (tenor saxophonist Mike Tucker, trumpeter Eric Benny Bloom) and adds a third, trombonist/arranger Rafael Rocha, on the freewheeling closer, “Meu Fraco e Cafe Forte" (in English, “My Weakness Is Strong Coffee") but Rocha doesn't solo. The quintet morphs to sextet on five other numbers wherein keyboardist Leo Genovese joins the ...