Jazz Articles about Tom Harrell

About Tom Harrell

Album Review

Vince Guaraldi: It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown

Read "It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown" reviewed by Joshua Weiner

by Joshua Weiner
September 11, 2026

The winsome series of pianist Vince Guaraldi's soundtracks for the original Peanuts television specials is a gift from Lee Mendelson Film Productions that keeps on giving. Arriving just in time for “spooky season" is the premiere release of music from 1974's It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown, with three colored vinyl pressings unique to individual retailers (Urban Outfitters, Barnes & Noble, and Think Indie) available on September 11, 2026, followed by the wide release of black vinyl, CD, and digital versions ...

Radio & Podcasts

Tom Harrell, Michael Dease, Eric Jacobson, Caity Gyorgy and more

by Benjamin Boddie
September 11, 2024

Today's Music--Right Now!... Fantastic music by Tom Harrell, Michael Dease, Eric Jacobson, Caity Gyorgy, Shelly Berg, Thom Rotella, Danny Jonokuchi, Bevan Manson, Wayne Escoffery, Jonathan Powell, Emmet Cohen, Hyeseon Hong, Warren Wolf, The Crew, Ben Wolfe, Christopher Parnis, Diego Fugueiredo, Zack Foey, Michael O'Neill, City Of Four and more. Playlist Tom Harrell “Chalcedon" from Alternate Summer (HighNote) 00:00 Michael Dease “Seiko Time" from Grove's Groove (Le Coq) Time 06:15 Eric Jacobson “Pause Time" from Heading Home (Origin Records) ...

Album Review

Vince Guaraldi: You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown

Read "You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown" reviewed by Joshua Weiner

by Joshua Weiner
August 22, 2024

Many a jazz fan was first exposed to the music through pianist Vince Guaraldi's soundtracks for the long series of animated television specials featuring Charles Schulz's evergreen Peanuts characters. That alone would secure Guaraldi's place in the jazz pantheon, but he is also remembered as a composer of the hit song “Cast Your Fate to the Wind" as well as for his forays into Brazilian music, including the popular 1962 album Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus (Fantasy) and a series ...

Album Review

Vince Guaraldi: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Read "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" reviewed by James Aren

by James Aren
November 14, 2023

Just in time for Thanksgiving, the people at Lee Mendelson films are serving up a fresh take on some old favorites. The soundtrack to a A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving has been released for the first time, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the special. Vince Guaraldi's voice is the first sound on the album. “Okay, well, did ya get that last one? This is cue one," as it swings into “Charlie Brown Blues." It is a good introduction ...

Album Review

Wayne Escoffery: Like Minds

by Dave Linn
June 21, 2023

Wayne Escoffery was born in London and raised in New Haven, Connecticut. He began playing the saxophone at the age of 11, later studying at the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. In the late 1990s, Escoffery started gaining recognition on the jazz scene with his tenure in the Eric Reed Septet and later joining the Mingus Big Band. After completing his studies, Escoffery moved to New ...

Liner Notes

Oleg Kireyev and Keith Javors: The Meeting

by Howard Mandel
May 15, 2023

How far must a reeds virtuoso from Bashkiria--a town in the Ural Mountains, southeast of Moscow towards Mongolia--and a pianist-composer-educator from southern Illinois, now living in Philadelphia, have to go to get together? Not very, based on the music Oleg Kireyev and Keith Javors arrive at on The Meeting. Simply to a shared sense of joy in swinging rhythms, warm, rich harmonies and singable songs. In their second co-led album Kireyev and Javors offer more delightful proof that ...

Liner Notes

Tom Harrell: Number Five

by John Kelman
April 24, 2023

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," they say, and since coming to HighNote in 2007, trumpeter Tom Harrell has lived by that old adage, utilizing the same quintet for its auspicious debut, Light On, and three subsequent recordings, culminating in 2011's outstanding Time of the Sun. Number Five continues Harrell's winning streak with the same line-up, but if each successive recording has reflected the ongoing growth of one of today's most compelling small groups--the chemistry deeper and the interaction ...