Jazz Articles about Tim Ries

About Tim Ries

Album Review

Joe Syrian Motor City Jazz Octet: A Blue Time

Read "A Blue Time" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
June 10, 2026

Drummer Joe Syrian's spit-shined Motor City Jazz Octet keeps driving emphatically forward on its second recording, A Blue Time, using an impressive arsenal to scurry through a generally agreeable lineup of more or less familiar themes that have been given fresh coats of paint by seven astute and talented arrangers. Even with the various harmonic and rhythmic changes, many of which were inspired by Syrian, the music remains lucid and accessible, thanks to the clever charts and spirited ...

Album Review

Joe Syrian: Secret Message

Read "Secret Message" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
April 14, 2025

A title like Secret Message does make a listener wonder what it might be. Is it deeply subversive, like the Zimmerman Telegram, or apocalyptic, like Fatima? Of course, as someone is reputed to have said, 'Sometimes, a cigar is just a smoke.' So it is possible to over-interpret a title, which may, in the final analysis, simply be a title. Joe Syrian is a Detroit-based drummer, a city that can claim Brian Blade, J. C. Heard, ...

Album Review

Joe Syrian Motor City Jazz Octet: Secret Message

Read "Secret Message" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 15, 2024

No fuss, no frills here, simply forty-seven or so minutes of generally bright and engaging straight-ahead jazz, stylishly performed by drummer Joe Syrian's admirable Detroit-based octet. This is music the group plays often, blending standards from the Great American Songbook with more recent themes by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Leon Russell and others. The congenial session opens with a pair of well-traveled standards--"Bye Bye Blackbird," and “Star Eyes"--and closes with two more- -"Night and ...

New York @ Night

Tim Ries With Randy Brecker at Drom

by Peter Jurew
July 1, 2017

Tim Ries with Randy BreckerDromNew York, NYJune 21, 2017 Saxophonist Tim Ries has made a name for himself internationally as a jazz educator and composer, leader and sideman. A master of tenor and soprano saxophones, since 2007, he's also known for playing in the Rolling Stones's horn section on several world tours. Those side gigs led to two well-received albums of Ries- arranged Stones material performed by jazz ensembles that have included Mick Jagger, Keith ...

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Album Review

Mike Holober & The Gotham Jazz Orchestra: Quake

by Elliott Simon
March 15, 2009

Duke Ellington's legacy is alive and well with pianist Mike Holober and The Gotham Jazz Orchestra. Holober makes use of the increased musical scope that 17 pieces give him to weave compositional strength within a sound that sways more than swings. Some of the finest jazzers New York City has to offer join Holober for this session. Their individual talents are certainly showcased but the strength of this release is how Holober fits them all together to ...

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Album Review

Tim Ries: Stones World: Rolling Stones Project II

Read "Stones World: Rolling Stones Project II" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
October 14, 2008

Jazz saxophonist Tim Ries presents a global travelogue of The Rolling Stones' classics. A continuation from 2005's The Rolling Stones Project (Concord Music Group, 2005), the two CD release, Stones World now crosses international borders (Africa, Brazil, India, Japan, New York, Portugal, and other locales) with the cooperation of indigenous musicians who share an appreciation for the iconic British rock group.

These re-Stoned gems are truly eclectic. The Stones's essence is faithfully retained within the varied cultural signature--the ...

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Album Review

Mike Holober: Wish List

Read "Wish List" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone

by Michael P. Gladstone
November 2, 2006

Wish List is pianist/composer/bandleader Mike Holober's third album, in addition to appearances in the piano chair for the Pete McGuiness Jazz Orchestra, the Jason Rigby Quartet, the Pete McCann Quintet and the Anita Brown Jazz Orchestra. Holober is a New York-based pianist who previously had worked with Nick Brignola's group and whose style has been influenced by such modal pianists as Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock.His first album, Canyon (Sons of Sound, 2003), was produced by another modal ...