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The Herbie Nichols Project: Strange City

by Mark Corroto
The Herbie Nichols Project releases its third recording of the one-time lost genius, Herbie Nichols. Co-led by bassist Ben Allison and pianist Frank Kimbrough, the HNP was created as part of the Jazz Composers Collective, a non-profit musician-run organization, to present original music. By choosing the work of Nichols, Allison and Kimbrough have re-ignited interest in a true genius of modern music.Herbie Nichols, born in 1919 in New York of immigrant parent from St. Kitt and Trinidad, was ...
Continue ReadingWycliffe Gordon: The Search

by Jack Bowers
Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, who has been honing his chops of late with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, puts them to exceedingly good use on his second impressive album in a row for Germany’s splendid Nagel–Heyer label. Gordon has to be on his toes, as he’s pushed hard on a number of selections by his invited guests, several of whom are (or were) colleagues in the LCJO — saxophonists Victor Goines, Ted Nash and Walter Blanding Jr.; trumpeter Marcus Printup, trombonist ...
Continue ReadingWycliffe Gordon: The Search

by Dave Nathan
Nagel Heyer knows a good thing when it sees or rather, hears it. It has brought trombonist Wycliffe Gordon to the studio or captured him at live performances several times during the year, either, as here, as a leader or as a sideman with other Nagel Heyer jazz artists. Judging from the play list expand Gordon's recorded output. Consequently, the CD's agenda includes not only some classic standards, but modern music by Thelonious Monk, a couple of blues things and ...
Continue ReadingWycliffe Gordon: The Search

by Dave Nathan
Nagel Heyer knows a good thing when it sees or rather, hears it. It has brought trombonist Wycliffe Gordon to the studio or captured him at live performances several times during the year, either, as here, as a leader or as a sideman with other Nagel Heyer jazz artists. Judging from the play list expand Gordon's recorded output. Consequently, the CD's agenda includes not only some classic standards, but modern music by Thelonious Monk, a couple of blues things and ...
Continue ReadingWycliffe Gordon: The Search / Uptown Lowdown

by C. Michael Bailey
Wycliffe Gordon accepts the trombone mantle from Al Grey and turns in his best performances to date.
Just when I was prepared to anoint Uri Caine's Goldberg Variations the best disc to cross my path this year, Nagel-Heyer sends me their much-anticipated release by Wynton Marsalis-Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and additional discs containing performances by that same hornman. A remarkable thing about Marsalis is that he can teach and limit at the same time. While I love his and his band's ...
Continue ReadingWycliffe Gordon: The Gospel Truth

by C. Michael Bailey
Deep River. At this posting, I am still awaiting Wycliffe Gordon's new release on Nagel-Heyer. In the mean time The Gospel Truth revealed itself to me. Imagine my surprise when I found this brand-spankin' new Criss Cross release by none other than the 'bone master his self. Decidedly in a gospel vein, I was at first skeptical. In my limited experience, I have found that these types of theme discs do not work so well. However, the musicianship that made ...
Continue ReadingWycliffe Gordon: Slidin' Home

by Dave Nathan
Another of Wynton Marsalis' discoveries, Wycliffe Gordon has established himself as a leading practitioner of the slide instrument on today's jazz scene helping to move along the renewed interest in an instrument which had fallen a few notches from the heights it once enjoyed. All of the technical wizardry and jazz tradition laid down by the likes Tricky Sam Nanton, Frank Rosolino, J.J. Johnson and Carl Fontana have been absorbed by the Georgia born Mr. Gordon. But technical ability and ...
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