Jazz Articles about Ugonna Okegwo

Steve Slagle: Ballads: Into the Heart of it

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 ...

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

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 ...

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

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). ...

Pete Malinverni: Invisible Cities

by David A. Orthmann
May 30, 2008

Pete Malinverni's Invisible Cities:, inspired by the imaginative flights of Italo Calvino's novel of the same name, exists on its own terms and doesn't readily fit into any established jazz style or sensibility. The pianist effectively juxtaposes six of his compositions and four well-known, urban-themed songs. His ballad-oriented tunes, “New Orleans--Cities & Desire," “Salem--Hester Prynne," and “A City Called Heaven," are clothed in lovely, expressive melodies, the kind that beg for equally inspired lyrics. Beautifully interpreted by Tim Hagans's trumpet, ...

Pete Malinverni: Invisible Cities

by Francis Lo Kee
April 6, 2008

A concept record of sorts, pianist Pete Malinverni was initially inspired to put his Invisible Cities project together after reading the Italian novelist Italo Calvino's book of the same name. Though the CD is full of good jazz improvisation (with a truly wonderful rhythm team of bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Tom Melito), it also seems to be in conflict: whether to be as ambitious in concept as the book might suggest or simply to play some good, honest swinging ...

David Bixler: Show Me The Justice

by John Kelman
December 11, 2003

While not exactly breaking new ground, alto saxophonist David Bixler delivers a set of seven clever original compositions on Show Me The Justice. With a front line including guitarist John Hart and trumpeter Scott Wendholt, and a rhythm section including bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Andy Watson, Bixler examines the nooks and crannies of the post-bop tradition with a style that is spare and economical.

There is, in fact, a certain sense of directness about the whole recording. The New ...

Dan Faulk: The Dan Faulk Songbook, Vol. 1

by Michael P. Gladstone
December 4, 2003

Dan Faulk falls into the same sure-footed category as saxophonists like Javon Jackson and Bon Braden who recorded frequently during the '90s alongside other while maintaining their own individual careers. Unlike the other two, Faulk has only recorded three albums under his own name. He has recorded on countless sessions as a member of groups led by J.J. Johnson, Steve Turre, Barry Harris, Tana Reid and Cindy Blackman. He is also the Director of Jazz Studies and a professor at ...