Jazz Articles about Ugonna Okegwo

About Ugonna Okegwo

Album Review

Steve Slagle: Ballads: Into the Heart of it

Read "Ballads: Into the Heart of it" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
February 24, 2022

New York-based saxophonist, composer and educator Steve Slagle refused to let the pandemic interfere with his recording activities, and in August of 2021 completed a project covering an assortment of wonderful ballads on Ballads: Into the Heart of it. Having carved out a distinguished musical career spanning over four decades and documented on over 20 albums as leader, presenting the ballads in a slightly different way was a new challenge Slagle mastered elegantly. The album features a mix ...

Album Review

Pete Malinverni: On the Town: Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein

Read "On the Town: Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
January 13, 2022

The presumptive title of this release is On The Town, but in reality it covers more than just the music from that titled 1944 Leonard Bernstein Broadway musical. The ever thoughtful and vivid pianist Pete Malinverni along with his savvy and accomplished companions bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Jeff Hamilton have made this release an oeuvre to New York City as exemplified by the music of Leonard Bernstein which was presented in three well known musicals: On The Town, Wonderful ...

Album Review

Pete Malinverni: On the Town: Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein

Read "On the Town: Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein " reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 10, 2022

Pianist Pete Malinverni's album, On the Town, is subtitled “Plays Leonard Bernstein," and it's an homage he has wanted to put on record for many years—ever since he met Bernstein in person while performing at an opening-night party for a production of the opera Tosca at the Met in NYC. Bernstein, he recalls, spent much of the evening hanging around the piano, not with his more celebrated dinner companions. ("Real musicians want to hang out with the band," Malinverni says). ...

Album Review

Chris McNulty: Eternal

Read "Eternal" reviewed by Blaine Fallis

by Blaine Fallis
July 8, 2015

Losing a child. The pain can't be explained, although a close personal friend of ours lost their first born during childbirth. After the months of preparation, the painting of rooms, the choosing of a name. In response to their loss, they built a gorgeous rose garden, and placed poetic emblems on the back fence. And our friendship was was re-established through many long suppers and after- dinner jazz listening sessions, our families spending time just being with each other.

Album Review

Chris McNulty: Eternal

by Dan Bilawsky
March 4, 2015

Eternal is a work of love and loss, a celebration of life, and a poignant piece of artistic expression. Vocalist Chris McNulty crafted this album as a tribute to her son, Sam, who passed away in 2011. This album took shape in the days following Hurricane Sandy in 2012, as McNulty, with no electricity, heat, or running water, sat with her thoughts and selected songs that reflected the complex emotions that were running through her. In the ...

Album Review

Mike DiRubbo: Threshold

Read "Threshold" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
March 21, 2014

New York-based alto saxophonist Mike DiRubbo is one of the most recognizable and formidable forces in the jazz world today. A former student of the late great jazz icon Jackie McLean and a fixture in the Big Apple's vibrant jazz scene, DiRubbo is no novice. He has a substantial discography, and experience performing with some of the best players in the world. The adventurous Threshold is the artist's eighth album as leader where--with the exception of Charlie Parker's Bebop classic ...

Album Review

Mike DiRubbo: Threshold

Read "Threshold" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian

by Hrayr Attarian
March 18, 2014

Mike DiRubbo's eight disc as a leader, Threshold finds the ever inventive alto saxophonist in a solidly hard bop environment that is reminiscent of Blue Note records of the 1950s but has a clear modern edge. In addition to leading a superb and sympathetic quintet, DiRubbo penned eight of the nine tracks on this riveting record with a momentum that never slacks from the first note to the last.DiRubbo's acerbic, passionate tone marks his tight and intelligent improvisations ...