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Jazz Articles about Tom Keenlyside
Maria Solena: Yesterday and Tomorrow
by Neil Duggan
Yesterday and Tomorrow marks a significant moment in vocalist Maria Solena's artistic journey. Her fourth studio album showcases a bold shift from interpreting the works of others to presenting her own voice as a songwriter. For the first time, her work is predominantly comprised of original compositions, blending elements of soul, swing, Latin and jazz-infused pop. A graduate of the University of British Columbia, Solena has immersed herself in vocal jazz for over 15 years, performing alongside artists ...
Continue ReadingTom Keenlyside: Third Street Wobble
by Jack Bowers
Tom Keenlyside, a saxophonist from Vancouver, British Columbia, who has performed in his native Canada and around the world with a who's who of jazz and pop musicians, leads an impressive quintet on Third Street Wobble, his seventh recording as a leader or member of various groups, on many of which his flute has been in the foreground. Keenlyside stays with the tenor saxophone here, sharing front-line duties with trumpeter Brad Turner in a group whose other able ...
Continue ReadingDaniel Hersog Jazz Orchestra: Open Spaces
by Jerome Wilson
The subtitle of this album is “Folk Songs Reimagined" and Daniel Hersog uses a very liberal meaning for the term “folk song" here. He includes traditional folk songs on this album, in addition to familiar tunes by Bob Dylan and Gordon Lightfoot and his own folk-based compositions. All are given a glistening polish in the sweeping cinematic arrangements which he writes for his orchestra, and are further enhanced by excellent solo work from a number of musicians. Hersog's ...
Continue ReadingDaniel Hersog: Open Spaces
by Jack Bowers
Locked down and socially distanced during the pandemic, composer-arranger Daniel Hersog had an interesting idea: rearrange some well-known and well-loved folk songs, most with Canadian roots, for jazz orchestra and throw in a handful of his own original compositions with a folk-tune ambience. The result is Open Spaces: Folk Songs Reimagined, the sophomore album by Hersog's Vancouver-based ensemble. As on his debut recording, Night Devoid of Stars (Cellar Music, 2020), Hersog welcomes a number of talented guest ...
Continue ReadingTom Keenlyside: A Night at the Espresso
by Jack Bowers
As is true in many professions, jazz musicians must learn their craft before exposing it to audiences. Some, such as Canadian woodwind specialist Tom Keenlyside, remember where and when that happened. His musical education began for the most part at the Espresso Coffee House in Vancouver. Keenlyside has not forgotten that, even after more than fifty years as a guiding light on the British Columbia jazz scene, and pays tribute to his academic roots on A Night at the Espresso, ...
Continue ReadingTom Keenlyside Quartet: Fortune Teller
by Jack Bowers
A jazz flutist who plans to record using only a standard three-member rhythm section as back-up should best be musically astute, technically sound, love what he (or she) is doing and harbor an ample supply of clever and interesting phrases designed to suit every occasion. Even though Tom Keenlyside checks all the boxes on Fortune Teller, there is only so much that any flutist, no matter how purposeful and talented, can do to ensnare a listener's ear for seventy-six minutes. ...
Continue ReadingDaniel Hersog Jazz Orchestra: Night Devoid of Stars
by Jerome Wilson
Daniel Hersog is a Canadian trumpet player and composer, here presenting his first big band album, a set of sweeping and progressive orchestral jazz which reflects the current state of the world with shifting moods of unease and cautious optimism. Hersog has a expansive style of writing that draws as much from classical music as jazz. His compositions here are written to feature two main soloists, tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger and pianist Frank Carlberg, much as Gil Evans ...
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