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Dave Stryker: Stryker with Strings Goes to the Movies
by Richard J Salvucci
If this recording were named “Dave Stryker Plays Bernard Hermann" (or Miklós Rózsa or Elmer Bernstein), well that would be just fine. They were all gifted composers who wrote film scores. The consensus would likely be that a musician like Stryker was hardly wasting his time, but Stryker With Strings Goes to the Movies hits the hopelessly middlebrow button. So how seriously anyone decides to take the results is anyone's guess. That would be a pity, ...
Continue ReadingAnthony Stanco: Stanco's Time
by Jack Bowers
Anthony Stanco. Keep the name in mind, as you are likely to hear it mentioned soon enough as the most recent link in a chain of renowned bop trumpeters that started with Dizzy Gillespie and has numbered among its illustrious members Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, Carmell Jones and a host of other luminaries. Now, after a lengthy period during which no one stepped forward to assume the mantle of bop trumpeter extraordinaire, and as ...
Continue ReadingNanami Haruta: The Vibe
by Dan McClenaghan
The news of a trombonist fronting a small jazz ensemble brings the name J.J. Johnson (1924-2001) to mind. He pioneered that form of jazz expression. Before he stepped onto the scene the big brass horn stayed mainly in the background, eclipsed by trumpets and saxophones. Many have followed in Johnson's footsteps: Curtis Fuller, Steve Turre, Michael Dease. The door opened, and a slew of talent stepped across the threshold. This brings us to Nanami Haruta, who ...
Continue ReadingNanami Haruta: The Vibe
by Willard Jenkins
Unlike other members of the family of western instruments, the ranks of the trombone are a bit exclusive--perhaps even more exclusive in the art of the improvisers, the jazz landscape. Which is yet more reason to celebrate the arrival of a new trombone voice in jazz music. Her name is Nanami Haruta and she arrives at this debut recording moment from Sapporo in the Hokkaido prefecture, the northernmost of Japan's main islands. Hokkaido is known for its volcanoes--perhaps explaining Nanami's ...
Continue ReadingDave Stryker: Stryker with Strings Goes to the Movies
by Jack Bowers
Guitarist Dave Stryker, who is at home in any venue, Goes to the Movies on this ambitious album, wherein his working quartet is greeted by a thirty-piece orchestra with strings and four talented guest artists. There are some gems here--Henry Mancini's “Dreamsville," Rodgers and Hammerstein's “Edelweiss," Ennio Morricone's theme from Cinema Paradiso among them--and a few pleasant surprises as well. Songs in the latter group include “You Only Live Twice," from the James Bond film of that ...
Continue ReadingTechnoCats: The Music of Gregg Hill
by Jack Bowers
The TechnoCats are a group of five talented young musicians, each of whom has ties to Michigan State University in East Lansing, as does composer (and co-producer) Gregg Hill, whose music the TechnoCats perform on this delightful album. One of the quintet's more diverting features is that the only horn is Chris Glassman's bass trombone; another is how seamlessly Glassman's axe blends with those of guitarist Nathan Borton and pianist Xavier Davis. That is made clear from the ...
Continue ReadingJoe Chambers: Moving Pictures Orchestra: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola
by John Kelman
It's one thing to have an established `place in the jazz pantheon, another to continue redefining that position, long after others might be content to rest on their laurels. Joe Chambers' work behind the drum kit with artists including Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, and McCoy Tyner has already ensured a prominent place in jazz history. His output as a leader may be small, but he's delivered two outstanding Savant recordings in 2006's The Outlaw ...
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